Job: Bilingual Helpdesk Engineer at BiOS Inc. (Tokyo)
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Via JET alum Jason Kisling. 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 Positions: Bilingual Helpdesk Engineer at BiOS Inc. (Tokyo)
Job Details:
BiOS is currently looking for a Bilingual Helpdesk Engineer to work at our international IT company in Roppongi and provide IT support remotely to our clients who are mainly international companies. The service will be provided in both English and Japanese.
Qualified candidates will be responsible for handling and organizing questions and claims regarding IT devices and programs. This is a great opportunity to apply your bilingual skill as a Helpdesk Engineer in an international environment.
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2012 JET Memorial Invitation Program (JET MIP) for US High School Students
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Via the Japan Foundation Los Angeles website. This program is for any high school students interested in Japan. The program was created by the Japan Foundation to honor the memories of JETs Taylor Anderson (Miyagi-ken, Ishinomaki-shi) & Monty Dickson (Iwate-ken, Rikuzentakata-shi) who were lost in the tragic events of March 11th 2011.
2012 JET MEMORIAL INVITATION PROGRAM (JET MIP) FOR U.S. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
http://www.jflalc.org/jle-12-jet-mip.html
The 2012 JET-MIP program will provide 32 high school students with the opportunity to go to Japan for two weeks as a group to meet Japanese students, experience Japanese culture, and study the language. It was created in 2011 in memory of the two beloved American teachers of English who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011: Taylor Anderson (Ishinomaki, Miyagi) and Montgomery Dickson (Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate). The program is open to 11thand 12thgraders who are currently learning Japanese, and it seeks to honor the principles which Taylor and Monty valued during their lives.
The trip is an educational visit throughout Japan including Miyagi or Iwate. It lasts 18 nights and 19 days, including pre-visit orientation and post visit wrap up in Los Angeles. A total of 14 nights and 15 days are in Japan. Its purpose is to:
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Encourage American high school students to study Japanese
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Encourage youth exchanges such as the JET program as an option for students
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Create a network of students for the future
To be eligible, participant must:
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Be a U.S. citizen
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Be learning Japanese as a foreign language
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Be an 11th or 12th grade student during the 2011/2012 school year
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Have completed at least two years of Japanese-language courses at a U.S. high school
Note: Students whose high school does not offer Japanese-language course and are currently taking Japanese classes at an accredited educational institution (such as at a community college) may still apply to the program. However they must be endorsed by his/her Japanese teacher.
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Intend to continue Japanese-language education in future
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Be a member of the Japanese National Honor Society (JNHS) or have equivalent academic scores (Japanese GPA: 3.5 or higher; overall GPA: 3.0 or higher)
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Have not visited Japan for more than seven consecutive days in the past three years
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Be able to take part in the entire itinerary, including the pre-visit orientation, the post-visit wrap-up in Los Angeles, the group airplane trips, and the group hotel visits.
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Be in good physical and mental health
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Have taken the National Japanese Exam (information can be found on the NCJLT website, athttp://www.ncjlt.net/).
Note: You must register for the 2012 exam by January 31, 2012.
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Have the consent of a parent or guardian.
Itinerary (tentative):
July 8 through July 26, 2012
Activities: Japanese language lessons, Introductions to Japanese culture and society such as geography, kimono, taiko drums, teen slang, anime, manga, high school visits, field trips to Kyoto, Osaka and Tohoku area (Miyagi or Iwate) and a homestay in Osaka
Costs:
The Japan Foundation will pay for accommodation, airfare, food, and admission fees in Japan and during orientation in Los Angeles.
Participants Requirements:
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Participants will not be allowed to deviate from the arranged events and locations, nor have non-participants accompany them.
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Participants are required to write an essay in Japanese within one month of the program’s conclusion.
Application Procedure:
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Application forms will be available on our website (www.jflalc.org) in February. Tentative application deadline is April 13, 2012 (Friday).
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NJE registration and application materials must be submitted by the applicant’s Japanese-language teacher.
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Each school can only submit ONE Application.
The above information may be changed without prior notice.
I’ll Make It Myself!: “Minoh Brewery and Beer Belly, Osaka”
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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.
After several trips to the brewpub Beer Belly and to the actual Minoh Brewery, it’s about time I got around to reviewing my absolute favorite beer in Japan: Minoh Beer (箕面ビール), which operates from Minoh, Osaka. Readers of my blog know that I love craft beers, and also that finding a really good dark beer in Japan is a huge challenge.
CLICK HERE to read the full post.
JETwit supports the protest against SOPA/PIPA
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On January 18, 2012, sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is.
If the bill passes in the U.S. Senate, it will put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
Also, please take a few minutes to visit americancensorship.org and take action. It only takes a few moments of your time to be an agent of change!
The Rice Cooker Chronicles: “Broccoli Lover Learns to BBQ, Part 2″ by Clara Solomon
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The Rice Cooker Chronicles is a series of essays by JETs and JET alumni on the theme of cooking/eating and being alone in Japan. The brain-child of JETwit founder Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, Kariya-shi, 1992-94) (and inspired by the book Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant), this series is curated by L.M. Zoller (CIR Ishikawa-ken, Anamizu, 2009-11), 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.
New submissions always welcome. Just e-mail it to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
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Broccoli Lover Learns to BBQ
Part 2
by Clara Solomon (CIR, Nichinan-cho, Tottori-ken; 1999-2001), the Director of Counseling & Career Development at the Office of Career Services at New York University School of Law. She previously worked for the Japan External Trade Organization, specializing in trade relations between Japan and Latin America. She lives in Queens with her husband and twin daughters.
Living in a small farming community has a lot of advantages, I soon learned. For example, I was at the town festival in August shortly after arriving, and casually mentioned to one of my farmer neighbors that I liked sweet corn. I woke up the next day to find about 15 ears of freshly-picked sweet corn on my doorstep. Even when I didn’t particularly like something, I would often find that a kind neighbor, perhaps worried about my over-consumption of broccoli, had left bushels of it at my front door. I guess they’d heard that Americans eat a lot, because they would leave bags stuffed with enough eggplant, cabbage, and carrots to feed a small army. (Why, I often wondered, had I not moved to rural Tuscany, where I could have gotten donations of sun-ripened tomatoes, basil, and fresh bufala mozzarella?).
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Job: Japan Information Center in Chicago has an opening for a part-time position
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Via JETAA Chicago. 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 Details:
The Japan Information Center in Chicago has an opening for a part-time position that will run from the beginning of February through March. The primary responsibility of this position is to assist with JET Interviews (tentatively, February 20-25), but other responsibilities pertaining to the JET Program and JIC activities will also be assigned.
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Job: Interpreter for Origami Presentation
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Via Florida JETAA. 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: Interpreter for Origami Presentation
Job Details:
The Consulate General of Japan in Miami is bringing in an origami specialist who will be doing presentations at local schools. They need an interpreter available to help on the following days in the following locations:
Interpreter must be fluent in both English and Japanese (at least roughly level JLPT N2).
How to apply:
Please send email to info@cgjmia.org if interested with your hourly rate.
Job: Assistant Director at the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University
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Via JET alum Kat Barnas (who works for Columbia Business School’s Chazen Institute). 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: Assistant Director at the Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University
Job Details:
Working closely with the Associate Director of the Business School’s Entrepreneurship Program, the incumbent is responsible for annually developing and overseeing the efficient execution of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurial Initiative Fund and Columbia Business School’s programming for students, alumni and community partners including all associated special events, competitions, mentor panels and student information sessions. The Assistant Director will also administratively support the Center’s Faculty Director in a one-third time capacity. jobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=128177
Job: Senior Program Assistant – Abe Fellowship Program, Japan Program (Tokyo Office)
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Via Fernando Rojas. 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: Senior Program Assistant – Abe Fellowship Program, Japan Program (Tokyo Office)
Job Details:
Summary
The SSRC seeks a Senior Program Assistant for its Tokyo office. This hire would be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Abe Fellowship Program under the supervision of the Program Manager in the Tokyo Office. The Abe Fellowship Program encourages international multidisciplinary research on topics of pressing global concern. The program fosters the development of a new generation of researchers interested in policy-relevant topics and willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network. In partnership with the SSRC, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) established the Abe Fellowship Program as its flagship program in 1991.
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#188: Happy New Year and Meeting Yoko K. in DC!
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WIT Life 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.
ちょっと遅くなりましたが、明けましておめでとうございます！ I hope that your 2012 has gotten off to a good start, and that the year of the dragon is a fortuitous one for everyone.
I’m down in DC with a new group of International Visitors invited by the State Department to study U.S. energy policy. In light of the Fukushima accident nuclear is obviously a big focus, but we are also looking at renewable energy options like solar and wind (as well as geothermal which will take us to a plant on the Big Island of Hawaii!). As part of our cultural activities outside of the professional program, the other night we attended Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center where a Japanese artist was featured.
Her name is Yoko K. and she hails from Nagano, and she is an electronic musician, producer, engineer and vocalist. I was not very familiar with that genre of music, but her performance kept me entertained throughout. She incorporates various tools in her sound creation, and you can see Read More
Justin’s Japan: Roland Kelts Joins Famed Musicians, Writers for The Global Salon
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Author Roland Kelts and musician Keiko Matsui join Akiko Yano and Ian Buruma for The Global Salon: Cities in Japan at The Greene Space on Jan. 19. (Kaz, Bobby Quillard)
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
JET alum and half Japanese American writer, editor and lecturer Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99) will appear with acclaimed musicians and writers connected to Japan for an intimate talk and performance called The Global Salon: Cities in Japan at The Greene Space in New York on Jan. 19.
Kelts, who lives half of each year in Tokyo and New York, is the author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the U.S. and writes about contemporary Japan for several publications in the U.S. and Japan. He is a frequent commentator on Japan for National Public Radio and the BBC.
Hosted by WNYC News host Eddie Robinson and presented in cooperation with the Consulate General of Japan, The Global Salon: Cities in Japan presents compelling stories of courage and resiliency, while the country continues to face unprecedented hardships of increased suicidal rates and unemployment, before and after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Robinson will engage the audience and esteemed guests through captivating dialogue and enchanting musical themes about the country’s economic future, advances in technology, and the preservation of its remarkable culture.
For the complete story, click here.
Rikuzentakata, Iwate: 9 months after the tsunami by Alison Brown
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Thanks to Vancouver-based JET alum Alison Dacia Brown (Iwate-ken, Rikuzentakata-shi, 2005-08) for sharing this article she wrote with JETwit, which also appears (with photos) on page 8 of the latest issue of the JETAA British Columbia Newsletter. It is a follow-up to a previous article she wrote titled “Rikuzentakata.”
Rikuzentakata, Iwate: 9 months after the tsunami
The last article I wrote for JETAABC was just a few weeks after the tragedy happened. I lived in Rikuzentakata, a small city in Iwate prefecture on the coast, whose location and landscape could not have been worse on March 11th. Over nine months has passed, and even though Rikuzentakata, or Takata for short, is far from being fully healed, it’s unbelievable what has been accomplished to make the city liveable again in such a short period of time.
Temporary housing has been built. Grass has begun to grow again. Debris has been cleared. The Tanabata festival has been celebrated. A Lawson has been opened. Possessions have been returned to their owners. Possessions thought to have been lost forever. As an example of this, could you imagine losing your home and possessions and barely escaping with your child and a few clothes? Could you imagine the happiness you would feel when a volunteer is able to give you a memory card with pictures on it you thought were lost forever? There was one volunteer department responsible for this ‘Photo Recovery Project’. In an online video, I smiled when I saw those blue laundry hangers with the clips holding photos that had been recovered and carefully cleaned.
I was devastated when I saw the images of the destruction in the days that followed the tragedy. What was worse was seeing a video taken of the city from a helicopter. It wasn’t just destruction; it looked apocalyptic. I recognized about three buildings which were some of the biggest: The Capital Hotel, City Hall and the building that housed Daiso and the town supermarket, Maiya. Even though they were spared from the waves which swept mostly everything away, they seemed to stand there like ruins, completely gutted from the inside. In the days that followed, a closer look at these buildings showed trapped trees, cars, and probably people which were swept into their paths. Boats on top of buildings seemed commonplace.
I keep in regular contact with my friends in Rikuzentakata and Ofunato, the city next door. In addition, I do some volunteer editing on the Save Takata website. I feel like doing all these things is keeping my spirits up. What also keeps my spirits up is hearing all the stories about my town from volunteers and friends. The day-to-day activities that show that life really does go on are amazing. One of humankind’s best qualities is the ability to adapt, and the residents of Rikuzentakata have certainly adapted and carried on. Enzo Caffarelli, a good friend and former ALT from Takata, has since returned with the volunteer group All Hands. I remember messaging him back and forth on Facebook after he arrived and he told me was doing some work at a rice harvest cooperative, and being managed by a dirty old Japanese man who loved women and sexual innuendos. Awesome. Read More
JETAA British Columbia Newsletter – January issue
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Thanks to JETAA BC Newsletter Editor Thomas Law for sharing the latest issue of the JETAA BC Newsletter. If you haven’t seen their newsletter, they do a really nice one so take a look.
- PDF: http://www.jetaabc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/NewsletterV16N3.pdf
- Online viewer version on Issuu.com at http://issuu.com/jetaabc/docs/newsletterv16n3
The MEF and JET Programs in US-Japan Relations by Michael Green
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Here’s an article titled “The MEF and JET Programs in US-Japan Relations” (PDF) recently published in the CLAIR Newsletter (in both English and Japanese) and written by Michael Green, former Director of Asian Affairs for the National Security Council during the Bush Administration and currently a Japan policy expert in D.C. Michael was a Monbusho English Fellow (MEF), the forerunner to the JET Programme.
Article link: http://www.clair.or.jp/j/forum/forum/pdf_267/10_jet02.pdf
Here’s an excerpt:
“I was authorized to chair a special committee of the top Japan experts from the State, Defense, Treasury, the CIA, Commerce and USTR. Each agency would designate its own representative. When we first gathered in the Old Executive Office Building and introduced ourselves, we came to an intriguing realization. Every official around the room but one had either been an MEF, a JET or a Mansfield Fellow. We had lived in small towns and cities all across Japan. We could have conducted the entire meeting in Japanese.”
New Facebook group: Queens JET Alums
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JETAANY Secretary Pam Kavalam just set up an informal “Queens JET Alums” Facebook group for anyone living in the Borough of Queens, with a connection to Queens or perhaps even just aspiring to live there. With a gazillion cultures and ethnic groups in Queens (along with gazillion types of great food), it’s fair to say that Queens is indeed the new Brooklyn. (FYI, here’s the informal Brooklyn JET Alums Facebook group.) And with a large population of young Japanese ex-pats and more and more JET alums, there are even parts of Queens (e.g., Astoria) that are starting to look like Harajuku!
Ok, JETAANYers, whose going to get the Bronx and Staten Island JET alum Facebook groups going? Oh, and Manhattan. (Does anyone still live there anymore?)
