By JQ Magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his NY Japanese Culture page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
It’s the return of a modern tradition as Japan Day @ Central Park 2010 hits the East Meadow Sunday. With an array of free family-friendly and traditional activities, samplings of popular cuisine and powerful stage performances featuring entertainers from Tokyo and New York, this year’s festivities are expected to top the estimated 45,000 New Yorkers drawn to last year’s Japan Day.
Continuing in the custom of previous years, the day kicks off with the four-mile Japan Run mini-marathon at 8 a.m., followed by the Japanese Day Festival in the East Meadow at 10 a.m. with the unveiling of all activity tents and the main stage show. The year 2010 is especially promising—it marks the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese diplomatic mission to New York—and there will be special activities to celebrate this historic milestone.
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The Big Bubble Battle (Bart II)
Academic, Advertising, Blogs, Career, Graduate School 
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Higher education costs more each year, but if a law school is just a bunch of classrooms, a library, and faculty, why is attending it so much more expensive? Place your bets on who will win the final bout of the Big Bubble Battle before clicking!
Jobs: Two openings at Densho (Seattle)
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Editor, Online Encyclopedia
Densho is seeking a full-time tech-savvy individual with deep content knowledge in Japanese American history to help create the content for a brand new online encyclopedia about the World War II Japanese American experience. This person will coordinate and oversee the work of writers, proofers, photo editors, and scholars of Japanese American history. The ideal candidate will be an excellent writer and editor, have a strong background in Japanese American history, understand web technology, and possess excellent communication and project management skills. Health, dental, and vision benefits are available. Budgeted starting annual salary is $50,000.
Web Developer
Densho is seeking a full-time web developer to help create the next-generation of Densho websites. The initial project of the web developer will be to design and create a brand new online encyclopedia about the World War II Japanese American experience. This person will incorporate the work of content specialists and graphic designers into a scalable, database-driven website that is easy to update and maintain. Other projects for the web developer include updating Densho’s SQL Server database and the web applications running off of this database. The ideal candidate will have strong project management skills and experience programming in C#, ASP.NET, and SQL or equivalent programming languages. Health, dental, and vision benefits are available. Budgeted starting annual salary is $50,000.
WIT Life #98: 鳩山おろし
Anecdote Article, Article/Journalism, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life Comments Off on WIT Life #98: 鳩山おろし
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
This morning’s news was buzzing with the announcement that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will be stepping down from his position. This makes him the fourth PM in four years to quit, a statistic that will likely lead to some self-reflection in Japan. The 2 main reasons cited for his resignation were 1) 普天間問題 (Futenma mondai or the fate of the Futenma Marine Corps Air base on Okinawa) and 2) 政府と金 (seifu to kane or government and money, the investigations being carried out regarding Hatoyama’s political financing).
As for the former, Hatoyama directly apologized to Okinawans for his waffling on the matter and the loss of faith he had caused as a result. When on the street interviews were conducted with Okinawa residents, the response was largely one of disappointment and regret that Hatoyama was cutting and running. In terms of the latter, Hatoyama pledged to “return to a DPJ that separates government and money and to deal with the issue properly.”
The title of this post is 鳩山おろし (Hatoyama oroshi or “Down with Hatoyama”), referring to Read More
Theatre de Moon is casting for “Kutsukake Tokijiro ～a Makaroni Western～”, Benefit Staged Reading Performance.
We are seeking actors who are interested in our newly translated Japanese play.
As we had a success of the studio performance in June, 2009, we are keep on going this production to make a Off-Off-Broadway theatre.
To make it possible, we’ll have a Benefit Staged Reading Performance on July 31st.
The play by both in Japanese and English.
Please bring your monologue for audition.
This is for the Benefit Performance, however, there might be a chance for casting for the Off-Off-Broadway production in near future.
To make your reservation for audition. Please send us email:kurotama@cybercap.com
- Date:Thursday, June 3rd
- Time:6pm-10pm
- Place:CRS- 123 4th Ave., 2nd FL(between 12th&13th St.)
- New York, NY10003
- Play:Kutsukake Tokijiro
- Playwright:Shin Hasegawa
- Director:Jun Kim
- Translator:Keiko Tsuneda
- Music:Ryo Yoshimata
- Choreography:Kayoko Sakoh
- Benefit Staged Reading Performance:July 31st, 6pm-10pm
- Rehearsal Schedule:starts from June, weekends in June and July. Additional rehearsals in mid July.
- Tech & Dress rehearsal:July 30th, 5pm-10pm
- No pay
- www.kurotamakikaku.com
J-DOC: Japanese Proficiency Exam – What’s Changed, and How to Handle It
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J-DOC, C-DOC, and K-DOC are recurring features written by Friend Of JET, Jon Hills, who maintains the blog for Hills Learning (www.hillslearning.com). Hills Learning is a NY-based 
language learning services company offering customized and personal Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language learning options.
Japanese Class listing can be found at: Japanese Classes
Whether you’re a new student for the Japanese Proficiency Exam or have taken it in the past, the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in 2010 has changed. Consequently, how to study and handle the exam has also changed. This article will discuss the history of the exam and why changes were brought about, what’s new about the Japanese Proficiency Test for 2010, and how to best study to pass the JLPT.
The reason why the test was changed in 2010 was test takers and school administrators were complaining…
(Click JLPT 2010 for the rest of the article)
