Rose Symotiuk was a JET in Akan, Hokkaido from 2003-2005. She works in publishing in New York City. You can follow her blog at http://roseinnewyork.wordpress.com/.
Repeat After Me is the first fiction book by Rachel DeWoskin. DeWoskin went to Beijing in 1994 to work as a public-relations consultant and was quickly recruited to star in a Chinese nighttime soap opera, titled Foreign Babes in Beijing, which was watched by approximately 600 million viewers. At the time, she was one of the few foreign actresses working in mainland China and was considered a sex symbol. You can pick up her popular book about her experiences, titled Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China, here.
Repeat After Me follows the lead character, Aysha, a young New Yorker, after a mental breakdown causes her to drop out of Columbia and start teaching at an English school. There she meets Da Ge, a young Chinese man with his own problems. The story starts somewhere in the middle and unfolds in wonderous ways: from Aysha’s parents’ divorce, to her life in Beijing years later with a stunning surprise, always returning to her tragic, vivid romance with Da Ge.
Splashed across this story in bright color is China, in mouth watering Read More
NPR’s Studio360 Features Bankruptcy Haiku by Steven Horowitz
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Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall. To see more strips as well as original bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
Listen to one of Bankruptcy Bill’s haiku read on the “Haiku-ing It To The Man” feature on NPR’s Studio360. (Starts with about 1:31 left in the feature.)
Here’s the story lead from the Studio360 website:
Haiku-ing It to the Man
A few weeks ago we asked listeners to submit original haiku inspired by the state of the economy. Dozens poured in: our own unscientific proof that the financial crisis is a boon for creativity. Here are some of our favorites. (http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/02/13)
JetWit BlogBeat: Winter Tomatoes and Blasts from the Past
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) shares her thoughts on making do without quality tomatoes during the winter season (although the jarringly springlike weather this past week would seem to indicate that summer might not be as far off as we think).
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, shares his charmingly illustrated experience of visiting an old friend while meeting some new fans.
WIT Life #27: Reinventing Valentine’s Day
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
In the midst of the economic slump and the fact that Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, Japan’s chocolate companies are really stretching the meaning of the holiday. Because it will not be celebrated on a weekday, they will be losing the lucrative income from “Giri Choco” (obligation chocolate) which is customarily given by females to the males in their office. In order to make up for this, several innovations have taken place.
Chocolate companies are anticipating that many families will be spending V- Day together with “sugomori” or nesting, much like was seen over New Years. In preparation for this, new flavors such as strawberry and marshmallow were designed and Read More
JetWit Blog Beat: Crazy cats, spectral sounds, and Belgian conceptual art
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
JET alum Lars Martinson ,author of the graphic novel Tonoharu, shares his latest conbini discoveries:
Meanwhile, NY webmaster and NYU ITP grad student Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) shares his spectral music piece from his visual music class.
And if you find yourself in Montreal between now and Valentine’s Day, check out the tongue-in-cheek art from Belgian artist Wim Delvoye that Rob P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of the rhyming novel Zorgamazoo, shares on his blog.
Sean Sakamoto is a JET alum currently embedded in Gifu Prefecture. The following is a post from his blog “I’d Rather Be…In Japan“.
Godzilla never looked so good. One of the joys of living in a foreign country is that I don’t take things for granted that everyone around me sees as normal. In this case, I’m talking about plastic food. Everywhere in Japan, restaurants put replicas of their dishes in the windows of their restaurants.
The first time I saw this, I thought it was hilarious. Then I was glad, because I could not actually read the menu. For me the fake food samples are really helpful. But what about Japanese people? Do the samples help you choose your dinner?
As it happens, I now live in the birthplace of the fake food replica. Gujo Hachiman is where the phony baloney, ramen, and even
Click here to read the rest of the post “Faking it in Hachiman”
Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) is a freelance writer with a focus on food. You can read more of her writing at TravelingTastebuds.blogspot.com.
For about a year I was holed up in my apartment writing articles I would never allow people to read. I only shared my work in large anonymous or protected forums like writing contests or classes. My work needed to be out there, but I wasn’t ready to stand behind it.
But now it’s time for me to take a step out into public as a writer and I feel like I’m stepping in front of a batting machine. On the first anniversary of my writing career, I am jello soft and unprepared for the inevitable criticism that lies ahead. People are actually reading my blog and I write two regular columns accessible to anyone with internet access. On the web, everything is open for comment and I fear the next snide remark or disagreement with my opinions will break me.
I need some quick advice about building backbone from some of you veterans out there because the balls are flying and I can only bob and weave for so long. To all seasoned writers, bloggers, authors and artists did this happen to you and how did you deal with it?
Help out Devon and other JET alum writers by posting your comments below. Yoroshiku!
Black Tokyo: Japan’s Part-timers in Full-time Trouble
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The blog Black Tokyo picked up on an interesting story from the L.A. times about the state of the job market in Japan.
If you do any work that has any connection to Japan, it’s very much worth keeping track of these trends and trying to think about how they may eventually effect all of us. Things are shifting and that means problems in the future (or present), but it also means opportunities.
Audio: Robert P. Weston Reads from Zorgamazoo
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Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) has just posted an audio file of his reading from Chapter 1 of his rhyming novel Zorgamazoo on his blog wayofthewest.wordpress.com.
Have a listen! It’s fun, and you’ll feel younger too.
When you’ve finished hearing ’bout Zorgamazoo!
(Sorry, Rob. I couldn’t resist. :-)
Bankruptcy Bill #10 – Natural Order
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Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall. To see more strips as well as original bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
Video: Roland Kelts on Studio360 with Kurt Anderson
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A sampling of what’s to air on NPR’s Studio 360 Goes to Japan on Saturday at 10 am, featuring Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99):
Roland Kelts special on NPR’s Studio360 to air Saturday morning
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JetWit just received the official press release from WNYC’s Studio 360 regarding their exclusive Studio 360 Goes to Japan program, featuring a segment written and hosted by Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), which will air this Saturday on NPR stations nationwide. Content, including video, will go live on the Studio 360 web site (http://www.studio360.org/) starting at 6 p.m. today (See the full press release below.)
The segment Roland wrote and hosted is focused on Japan’s Youth Culture and its various pathologies, especially the struggles of haken, or temporary workers, amid the imploding global economy.
Additionally, JetWit has learned that Roland is booked for an interview tomorrow afternoon with Nippon Television for their nightly news and entertainment program, News Zero. He will be interviewed by pop idol and actor Sho Sakurai of the band Arashi, and director Takashi Miike, both of whom are in town to promote the latter’s forthcoming live action film version of the 70s anime series, Yatterman. The interview will be about the Japanese pop culture juggernaut. Read More
JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
In his latest post on his blog (wayofthewest.wordpress.com), Rob Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of the rhyming novel Zorgamazoo, recommends M.T. Anderson’s Feed, an intriguing look into a not so unimaginable future where hybrid Internet-television content, and the ads that go along with them, are fed directly into our brains from birth.
Weston calls it a book “with deep resonance for the digital age.” Read the rest of his review here.
Roland Kelts in Boston for “Grave of Fireflies” Event Feb. 11
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Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, will be at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on Wednesday, February 11 for a screening + discussion of the animated film Grave of the Fireflies. More details here. (Side note: Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) wrote an excellent and succinct review of Grave of the Fireflies for the Spring 2008 JETAAA NY Newsletter.)
BONUS: Roland’s story on Japanese Youth Pathologies for WNYC’s Studio 360 will air on NPR nationwide as part of this coming weekend’s special Japan edition of the show. (See the recent JetWit post on last week’s Studio360 Japan feature.)
Correction: This post previously listed the date of the MFA event as February 9, but it has now been corrected to February 11. Apologies for any confusion.
James Kennedy Interviewed by Teens at the Evanston Library
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James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, was recently interviewed at the Evanston Library by some wonderful teenagers. Watch a video of the interview below.
From James’ blog: “This Saturday (2/7) I’m going to be appearing at the Fantasy Festival at the Evanston Public Library! There will also be manga drawing, fantasy video gaming, and a screening of the almighty Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. (See the events sidebar, right, for details.)
In preparation, I sat down with Sam, Zoe, Heather and Luke of the Evanston library’s Teen Advisory Board to
