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How to Pass Your Love of Japan onto Your Kids
By Jessica Kennett Cork (CIR, 1997-2000, Hiroshima-ken)
(Note: Click here to join the JET Alumni Parents Facebook group.)
My kids (7, 5, 2 and 4 months) are the only blond-haired kids in their school. My two oldest know the names of all the Pokémon characters in both English and Japanese. My toddler can sing the Totoro and Anpanman theme songs in Japanese.
No, we don’t live in Japan. We live in a suburb of Atlanta. But I knew that even though we live in the United States, I wanted to share my love of Japan with my kids. I don’t want to “force” Japan on them, and it is fine with me if their future careers have nothing to do with Japan. But at the same time, I want for them to appreciate our family’s adopted culture, and to understand that since I met their dad in a Japanese class in college, they wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Japan.
And so I decided to enroll them in Japanese/English bilingual immersion school. We’re lucky to have several here in Atlanta: two daycare centers and one elementary school. Almost all the other kids in the school are full Japanese or half Japanese, so it is not always easy on my blondies. The elementary school is Japanese Ministry of Education approved, which means homework every day, even during summer vacation, and lots of parental involvement expected from the PTA. Not to mention the pressure to come up with a decent o-bento for lunch. My seven year old often wonder why his o-bento doesn’t have cute rabbits made out of apples and carrot flowers. But at the same time, he got to pound rice for New Year’s, grow tomatoes and morning glories as part of his life skills class, has mandatory music and art class, and can use chopsticks better than I can.
But what I love most about the school Read More
JNTO contest offers free trips to Japan
Travel/Tourism 
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Via the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) website:
“Spring 2012 will be a special season as it marks the centennial anniversary of Japan’s Gift of Trees to the U.S. To celebrate this anniversary, we’re giving you and a guest the chance to explore Japan inside and out. Read through all 6 itineraries, pick your favorite, and enterfor your chance to win your dream vacation!”
JET alum anti-robocall activist calls out Newt in Florida
JETs in the News, Notable JET Alums Comments Off on JET alum anti-robocall activist calls out Newt in Florida
JET alum Shaun Dakin, anti-robocall activist
JET alum Shaun Dakin (Shimane-ken, 1989-91), founder of StopPoliticalCalls.org which seeks to stop the use of robocalls in political campaigns, was quoted recently in several articles about the Republican primary battle, including one today on Huffington Post (“Newt Gingrich Robocall: Mitt Romney Forced Holocaust Survivors To Eat Non-Kosher Food“).
The Republican primary and upcoming national election will likely be busy times for Shaun. But whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, or some other category, Shaun seems to have found an issue that most everyone who owns a phone can likely support. And, hey, maybe after the 2012 elections Shaun can head back to Japan and team up with Inuyama City Council Member Anthony Bianchi (Aichi-ken, Inuyama-shi, 1988-89) to fight back against the political campaign trucks with the obnoxious loudspeakers.
Ganbatte Shaun-san!
*Read the Fall 2008 JETAANY Newsletter interview with Shaun by Stacy Smith(CIR Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).
Call for Artists!! Announcing the “Japan Day – Cherry Blossom Art Contest”
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Via the Consulate General of Japan in New York:
http://www.japandaynyc.org/news
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of gift of cherry trees given to the U.S. by Japan, Japan Day 2012 invites visual artists to submit their artwork to the “Japan Day – Cherry Blossom Art Contest”. The chosen artwork will become the official image of Japan Day @ Central Park 2012, and will be used for the Official Poster, Program and Flyer. The winner’s award, and up to four honorable mentions, will be presented the day of the event. Please see below for details.
DEADLINE
Friday, February 24th, 2012
CONTEST RULES Read More
Job: Administrative Assistant / Sales Coordinator (Fort Lee, NJ)
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Via Pasona. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika has recently moved back to London but is interested in hearing about any Japan-related opportunities across the globe.
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***Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JETwit. Thanks.***
Job Position: Administrative Assistant / Sales Coordinator (Fort Lee, NJ)
Job Details:
Japanese Trading company is looking for Administrative Assistant / Sales Coordinator.
Read More
Job: Business Development/Sales at Japanese NPO (NY)
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Via Actus. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika has recently moved back to London but is interested in hearing about any Japan-related opportunities across the globe.
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***Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JETwit. Thanks.***
Job Position: Business Development/Sales at Japanese NPO (NY)
Job Details:
Responsibilities:
Main purpose of this position is to find and assist small-mid size US companies to start business in/with Japan. You will attend conferences and trade shows to find new clients. Identify sales prospects and contact these and other accounts as assigned. Will be in charge of retail services and health care field.
Read More
Job: Resident Care Manager (RCM), Nikkei Concerns (Seattle)
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Via PNWJETAA. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika has recently moved back to London but is interested in hearing about any Japan-related opportunities across the globe.
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***Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JETwit. Thanks.***
Job Position: Resident Care Manager (RCM), Nikkei Concerns (Seattle)
Job Details:
Nikkei Concerns, a non-profit elder-care organization primarily serving the Japanese-American and Asian-American Communities in the Greater Seattle area, is seeking qualified applicants for their Resident Care Manager vacancy.
The position will plan, direct and implement the clinical care program to support each resident in attaining his/her maximum level of physical and psychological well being. The ideal candidate will have a proven ability to lead and manage, possess the ability to relate to residents and staff of diverse backgrounds and a passion for enhancing the lives of our residents and elderly community.
Read More
Job: Women’s College in Tokyo seeks female TA
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Via PNWJETAA. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika has recently moved back to London but is interested in hearing about any Japan-related opportunities across the globe.
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***Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JETwit. Thanks.***
Job Position: Women’s College in Tokyo seeks female TA
Job Details:
Women’s college in Tokyo seeks female TA to work from September 2012 – August 2013. Emphasis on English conversation tutoring. Must be friendly, outgoing, talkative & enthusiastic about working in Japan!
Applications by mid-February 2012.
Interviews for successful applicants in late-March (LA & Seattle)
How to Apply:
If you are serious about applying and feel that you have the right personality & skills contact Lynn ASAP at transitions[at]pnwjetaa[dot]org
Via Noriko Hino of NY de Volunteer. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika has recently moved back to London but is interested in hearing about any Japan-related opportunities across the globe.
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***Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JETwit. Thanks.***
Job Position: Development Associate/ Grant Writer
Job Details:
Are you interested in Japan, Japanese culture, and meeting Japanese people? Would you like to hone your development skills, the area most desired by non-profit organizations? If so, this may be your perfect internship!
Read More
Tsurugajo Castle in Aizuwakamatsu City.
By Kris Gravender (Fukushima-ken, 2002-06) for JQ magazine. Kris was one of eight American JET alums selected for the Tohoku Invitational Program sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan Tourism Agency. This article was originally printed in the Oct. 21, 2011 issue of Chicago’s bilingual newspaper Chicago Shimpo.
What could I do? What could I really do? I was fighting the urge to return to Aizu simply because I knew the possibility for contracting some kind of cancer, but I felt I just had to do something. When the earthquake hit we knew it was bad, but the tsunami made everything worse. Then, to top it all off, Fukushima was becoming a “nuclear wasteland,” according to the news reports we were getting, and there was nothing we could do for the place we love.
My wife, being from Aizu, was distraught for weeks. She called her family, friends she hadn’t talked to in years, and even the local International Association, to get as much news as possible. Her aunt and uncle live in Sendai, and there was no communication from them, not to mention that her brother is a police officer and was being sent into the radiation zone to assist with evacuations. Eventually we were told everyone was safe and healthy, and yet this didn’t do much to make us feel better. We donated money, clothes, and food to the Red Cross, but it just didn’t seem to be enough to make us feel like we were helping.
Then I heard from a friend about a program the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sponsoring for JET alums to return to their hometowns and tour, as long as they communicated with the outside world about what they saw, felt, and experienced. It was almost as if God was trying to tell me, “Here’s your chance.” My wife and I talked about it for days: If I go, what kinds of problems would I face; what would I do while I was there; could I go into the zone for just a couple of hours to see for myself what was happening; and a whole list of questions and ideas. No matter what the answers became, I knew I had to go.
Thanks to Rocky Mountain JETAA for hosting a wonderful and extremely productive Regional Tech Conference.
Honto ni otsukare sama deshita.
1. Suggest lines for a “Shit JETs Say” video by posting them in the comments section of this post or e-mailing them to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
2. Once we have enough here, someone in the JET/JET alum world can make the “Shit JETs Say” video using the below suggestions as source material.
Let’s see if this works. Gambarimashou!
Greetings from the JETAA Regional Tech Conference in Colorado
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Just a quick post to say hi from the JETAA Regional Tech Conference being hosted by Rocky Mountain JETAA in Estes Park, Colorado.
-Steven
I’ll Make It Myself!: “Hîragi, Shirakawa-go”
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L.M. Zoller (CIR Ishikawa-ken, Anamizu, 2009-11) is the editor of The Ishikawa JET Kitchen: Cooking in Japan Without a Fight. A writer and web administrator for The Art of Japan: Kanazawa and Discover Kanazawa, ze also writes I’ll Make It Myself!, a blog about food culture in Japan.
When I visited Shirakawa-go over the long weekend in January, I found Hîragi, a cute restaurant along the snow-covered the vehicle-access road to the lookout point in Ogimachi, Shirakawa-go. I was intrigued, of course, because one of my favorite kanji is 柊 (hîragi), holly, because the radicals mean tree-winter. What sealed the deal was the menu: I wanted to introduce my friends to hôba miso yaki（朴葉味噌焼き), and they wanted to try Hida beef (飛騨牛).
CLICK HERE to read the full post.
Jen Wang (Miyagi, 2008-09) is a lab tech in Dallas and a staff writer for the Japanese music website Purple SKY. Her love of cosplay and her junior high school students inspired the name for her own Japanese pop culture blog, Hibari-sensei’s Classroom.
For their 28th annual KidFilm Festival, USA Film Festival paid tribute to Studio Ghibli by screening 10 of its films, plus Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind which was made before the studio’s founding. Since The Secret World of Arrietty was sold out, I decided to catch Pom Poko with some friends. I had heard some odd things about the film and wasn’t sure what to expect.
Pom Poko , directed by Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies), revolves around a group of tanuki, or Japanese raccoon dogs (incorrectly called “racoons” in the dub), who have banded together to face the transformation of their forest in Tama Hills into a suburban neighborhood. They cook up various ideas to reclaim their homes, ranging from sabotaging construction sites to tracking down legendary tanuki for assistance. Eventually the fun-loving tanuki have to come to terms with the harsh reality and learn to adapt to the changes around them.
The tanuki in the film appear in various forms: animal, mythical creature, and cartoon. In the presence of humans, they look much like their real-life counterparts. Amongst one another, they assume anthropomorphic forms with personality traits based on the lazy shape-shifting tricksters of Japanese folklore. When they get carried away with their emotions and behave ridiculously, they become even less realistic with their appearance based on characters of manga artist Shigeru Sugiura. The audience gets to see the tanuki in all its forms: animal, myth, and cartoon.
Click here to read the rest of the review.
