JETAA Hanami Update 04.11.11
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A couple updates from hanami celebrations around the JET alumni community:
- JETAA DC participated in Washington, D.C.’s Cherry Blossom Festival. Click here for NHK written and video coverage, which includes an interview at the end with JETAADC Board Member Sarah Lyons (Kagoshima 2007-2009).
- JETAA Music City President Terry Vo, returned to her home state of Arkansas as a Cherry Blossom Princess for their cherry blossom festival and won Miss Congeniality! More to come on that.
JETwit goes to London!
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I’ll be visiting London this week (with daughter Helen in tow) Wednesday through the following Tuesday, staying with a good friend I originally met studying at Waseda. And while in London I plan to:
- Attend a talk by Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, at The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London on Thursday, April 14, 4pm on “Pop culture from a Multipolar Japan.”
- Meet up with JETAA International Chair and former JETAA NY Vice-President Shree Kurlekar who now lives in London as well as JapaneseLondon.com‘s Vanessa Villalobos (who is also a JETAA UK officer).
- Jointhe Japanese Conversation Group’s Hanami Picnicon Saturday, April 16 (which I believe will include a number of JET alums).
If you’d like to meet in person just come to one of the events, or feel free to get in touch at jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
Toronto Fukushima JET alum fundraising
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Just noticed on Brent Stirling’s (Fukushima) blog ForYourBrentertainment an item about some Toronto JET alums (Jason Ishida and Eric Chan) who worked in Fukushima who have organized a Japan fundraising event for this coming Saturday, April 9 at Orville’s Pub as well as an additional fundraiser on Sunday, April 10 at the Toronto Buddhist Church Social Hall.
Asahi article about JETAA NY Fundraiser
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Thanks to Kyushu-based professional translator Joel Dechant for alerting JEtwit to this article in Japanese on Asahi.com about Tuesday night’s JETAA NY Japan Fundraiser. My Japanese reading ability has weakened over the years, but it looks like I’m quoted at the end of the article. I think the other JET alum quoted is Ayelet Fogel (Sendai City, Miyagi-ken) who is in the photo. (And yes, that’s me in the background of the photo wearing my “JETAANY Nihongo wakaru yo!” t-shirt.)
If anyone would like to translate or summarize in English, please post as a comment or e-mail it to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
English translation below by Lee-Sean Huang, webmaster of JETAANY and JETwit.
〈世界から被災地へ〉第二の故郷「ガンバ！」 元英語教師奔走
2011年4月7日10時25分
日本の高校や中学に派遣された米国の元英語教師が東日本大震災の被災者支援に奔走している。ニューヨークでは５日夜、義援金集めのパーティーがあり、多くの参加者が「第二の故郷」に思いを寄せた。
ニューヨーク州ロングアイランド出身のアイェレット・フォーゲルさん（３１）は「３・１１」の当日、仙台市の自宅にいた。家具が崩れ落ち外に飛び出した。
日本政府が英語指導の助手として招くＪＥＴプログラムで２００３年８月から宮城県に滞在。３年の任期が終わっても宮城に残り、８年間で県内の七つの学校で教えた。現在は仙台育英学園の講師として働く。
最初の２年を過ごした南三陸町や気仙沼市では津波で家を流された友人も少なくない。釣りやサーフィンをし、親友と何度も通った美しい海岸は、がれきの山になった。宮城県石巻市では、ＪＥＴのテイラー・アンダーソンさん（２４）が犠牲になった。
仲間が大変なときに宮城を離れたくはなかったが、家族の懇願もあり先月１８日に帰国。「米国でも出来ることがあるはず」と、義援金集めに走り回る。４月２０日に学校が始まるのに合わせ、仙台に戻る予定だ。
１９８７年に始まったＪＥＴプログラムは、経験者が５万人を超える。
ニューヨークのパーティーには約３００人が駆けつけ、約９０万円が集まった。９０年代に愛知県刈谷市に滞在したスティーブン・ホロウィッツさんによる と、米国各地で同様の動きがある。「私たちはどこにいても心の中では日本人。日本で過ごした日々への恩返しをしたいのです」（ニューヨーク＝田中光）
<International responses to the Tohoku Earthquake>
Former English Teachers support their 2nd hometowns
April 12, 2011, 10:25
Former American English teachers who worked in Japanese junior high and high schools are organizing to support the victims of the recent eastern Japan earthquake. There was a fundraiser party in New York on the evening of April 5, where many participants came out in support of their “second hometowns.”
Ayelet Fogel (31 yrs/old), from New York’s Long Island, was at her home in Sendai City on the day of the “3/11” quake. She ran outside to safety as items in her home came crashing down.
Fogel has lived in Miyagi Prefecture since August 2003 when she was invited by the Japanese government to serve as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) on the JET Programme. After finishing her 3 year term, she remained in Miyagi and taught for 8 years at 7 schools in the prefecture. She is currently employed as an instructor at the Sendai Ikuei Gakuen.
In Minamisanriku Village and Kesennuma City, where Fogel spent her first 2 years in Japan, she has many friends whose houses were washed away by the tsunami. The beautiful coastline where she went fishing and surfing many times in the past with her friends has been turned into a mountain of rubble. JET participant Taylor Anderson, who was based in Miyagi Prefecture’s Ishinomaki City, died in the disaster.
Fogel did not want to leave her friends in Miyagi in a time of distress, but upon the request of her family, she returned to the US on March 18th. “I should be able to do something to help from the US as well,” she thought, and so began to collect donations for the disaster relief effort. She plans to return to Sendai in time for the beginning of the new school year on April 20th.
Founded in 1987, the JET Programme now has over 50,000 alumni.
The fundraiser party in New York attracted about 300 guests and raised over 10,000 dollars (~90,000 yen). According to Steven Horowitz, who lived in Aichi Prefecture’s Kariya City in the 1990s, similar fundraising events are taking place across the United States. “Wherever we are, we are all Japanese in our hearts. We want to do something to give back for the time we spent in Japan,” Horowitz said.
Tanaka Akira, New York
NHK video of JETAA NY Fundraiser
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Thanks to Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99) for sharing the link to this NHK video on Tuesday night’s JETAANY Japan Fundraiser:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/jishin0311/movie/chapter_66.html
Update: Here’s a clip from NHK TV about the JETAANY Fundraiser including some interviews with JET alums.
JETAA NY’s Fundraiser for Japan was held last night at Slate (50 W. 21st St) and drew over 300 people while raising over $10,000 for the JETAA USA Fund. The event also drew significant Japanese media coverage and included a table run by NY-based Japanese volunteer organization NY de Volunteer to give people an opportunity to write messages of support back to Japan.
Photos to come.
Did your JETAA chapter hold a fundraiser or engage in earthquake/tsunami relief activities? Email jetwit [at] jetwit.com with details and photos.
Hanami: JETAA Northern California
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Event: JET alum author Roland Kelts to speak in London April 14
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Attention JETAA UK! Join Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, at The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London on Thursday, April 14 for a talk on “Pop culture from a Multipolar Japan.” Talk is 4-5 pm followed by drinks reception to 6pm.
Note: If you plan on attending, please register for the event at http://www.dajf.org.uk/events/booking-form
Has your JETAA chapter had its hanami gathering yet? If so, please send a couple photos (or link to photos) to Gail Meadows at gail [at] jetwit.com so we can start sharing some of them with the alumni community on JETwit.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
NHK article and video of DC JETs at fundraiser
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Thanks to JETAA DC President Mac Maloney for sharing this link to an NHK article and video (in Japanese) about Facebook and a recent DC-area fundraising event attended by a number of DC JET alums including Mack.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20110321/k10014805571000.html
JETAA Chapter Beat: Disaster Relief Efforts
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After the devastation in Japan last week, JETAA chapters around the world have stepped up with a variety of efforts to aid those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Check out what your chapter is doing and lend your support to a place you once called home.
- JETAA USA Relief Fund – The “JETAA USA Japan Earthquake Relief Fund” is the official relief fund of the all-volunteer Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program Alumni Association of America (JETAA USA). JET alumni have experience living and working in communities across Japan, so the disaster has struck very close to home. All 19 JET alumni chapters across the U.S. are currently working together to raise funds to aid in the disaster relief and recovery efforts. JETAANY, the New York chapter of JETAA USA, is hosting the fund. JETAANY is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, and PayPal has graciously offered to waive all transaction fees from March 11 to April 10. The proceeds will go to supporting earthquake relief and recovery efforts in Japan and fees related to administering the fund.
- Town Hall Meeting and Fundraising Event – Wednesday, March 23rd, 6-8 at L’Enfant Cafe and Bar. This event will serve not only as a fundraiser to generate income for the JETAAUSA Earthquake Fund, but also as a platform to gather the JET community and to discuss ideas about how we can develop consistent, high-quality events throughout the year to maintain awareness about the situation in Japan.
- Japan Relief Donation Night – Monday, March 21st, 6-9, at PiQ Italian Bakery and Cafe. PiQ is collaborating with the Red Cross @ CAL, represented also will be Red Cross USA, and the JETAANC, representing JETAA USA. All individual donations and all sales for the night will be pooled together into the PiQ Japan Relief Donation Fund. Half of that will go to the Res Cross who will distribute it to the Japan Red Cross. The other half will go to the JETAA USA Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.
- Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund – Sponsored by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, this relief fund goes directly towards citizen relief efforts in most affected areas.
- Chibi Chan Preschool Auction – Chibi Chan Preschool, a program of the non-profit organization Japanese Community Youth Council (JCYC) in SF Japantown, is holding their annual auction fundraiser. This year they will donate 10% of the proceeds to the Japan earthquake relief efforts.
- Earthquake Relief Fundraiser – Wednesday, March 23rd, 6-8 at O! Izakaya. JETAANC will be hosting a community fundraising event in the upstairs mezzanine of O! Izakaya, located in the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco’s Japantown. Donations will go to the JETAA USA Japan Earthquake Relief Fund and 100% of of the proceeds will be used to support earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan.
- Give a Day for Japan – JETAA UK is asking all former JET Programme participants to support relief efforts in Japan by giving a day’s pay to the Japan Society Fund. The Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund link will channel all donations received to the ongoing work of voluntary and community organizations(NPOs) working in the most affected prefectures. Donations can be made via the Japan society website or by phone.
- Seattle Japan Relief – SeattleJapanRelief is a collaboration of Japanese American and Japan related cultural, educational, and civic organizations standing together to promote relief and recovery following the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. We are committed to mobilizing funds quickly in support of immediate relief efforts. We are also steadfast in our resolve to remain involved with long-term recovery efforts.
- Xaverian High School Concert for Japan (alma mater of Inuyama City Councilman and JET alum Anthony Bianchi (Aichi)) – Thursday, March 31st, 7:00 at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn. In an effort to help friends in need, Mr. Joseph Loposky, Director of Music at Xaverian, has announced a benefit concert that will take place at the school. Admission will be $10 per person. In addition, a clothing drive has been organized in cooperation with Catholic Relief Services. If you’d like to participate, you can drop off any garments you’ll be donating at the performance. Coinciding with our event, will be another in Japan, organized by Anthony Bianchi ’76, Inuyama City Council Member.
- Run for Japan – Sunday, March 20th, 8:30, 10, and 11:30 at Central Park at the 72nd and 5th Ave Entrance. Dosokai, a group of NY runners from Hokkaido, will run for victims of the unprecedented disaster that happened last week in Northeast Japan. It won’t be a competition, but will be a peaceful group run.
JETAA Minnesota
- Fundraiser Event – Tentatively scheduled for April 15th or 16th, Minnesota JET will be putting together a benefit event for disaster relief in Japan. Funds will go to the USA national JET Alumni Association to be donated to a TBD cause in Japan. More details to be announced.
- Tsunami Fundraising Brainstorming Event – Saturday, March 19th, 4-7 at Yotsuba Restaurant.
JETAA New Orleans
- NOLA Japan Quake Fund – Having survived Hurricane Katrina, the people of our community share a special bond with the people in Japan whose lives will be forever changed by this disaster. The NOLA Japan Quake Fund Coalition’s hope is that we can assist the Japanese in their time of need, just as they did for us following Katrina.
JETAA Music City website launch and Bluegrass Subchapter Fundraising event
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Via JET alum Terry Vo who works at the Consulate in Nashville:
JETAA Music City (MC) is proud to announce the launching of their website www.jetaamc.org.
JETAA-MC is the newest chapter in the US that supports former JET participants in Kentucky and Tennessee. We are so thankful that we can launch in time to add another means of communication to assist Japan through this difficult time.
Our sub-chapter, Bluegrass will be having a Japan Relief Event TONIGHT (Friday, March 18) at 9pm. Please come out and support them if you can.
We hope that you will take a few moments and visit our website to see what we’re doing to educate our community about Japan and provide a place where our members can find useful information. We really appreciate all the other JETAA chapters who assisted us and have great websites that we could view while building ours.
Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to hearing from you all soon. All feedback is welcome!
Justin’s Japan: Earthquake and Tsunami Update ~ JET Alumni Aid and What You Can Do
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People take shelter as a ceiling collapses in a bookstore during an earthquake in Sendai, northeastern Japan March 11, 2011. (Reuters/Kyodo)
By JQ magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
Friday’s Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami has devastated Japan, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan calling it the most difficult crisis for the nation since World War II. At this time, the death toll is expected to exceed 10,000, and the country’s workers are racing to prevent a nuclear crisis in the wake of aftershocks.
Helping those affected are participants of Japan’s international education exchange initiative the JET Program, along with its alumni association here in New York (of which this reporter is a member). Another member, Brooklyn resident Steven Horowitz, serves on JETAA New York’s board of directors and is the founder of JetWit.com, a global JET alumni resource site now featuring a significant stream of relief and support efforts updates via its 55,000 members worldwide.
“My goal is to make information available to people that might not be able to find it elsewhere, or in English,” said Horowitz, who worked on JET as English teacher in Aichi Prefecture in the 1990s. “JETs are ideal conduits for information, because so many JETs and JET alums are great at absorbing Japanese information and putting it out there in English through social media and other ways.”
While no integrated system has been set up at this time to accept donations in Japan, Horowitz has been sharing ways people can help, whether they’ve lived in Japan before or just have a desire to help.
“Since JetWit is a central communication platform for the JET alumni community, I’m trying to gather and disseminate as much information as possible,” Horowitz explained. “I’m doing my best to support the efforts of the Japanese government and disseminate the information to people who might need it.”
Click here for a listing of donation resources.
New JETAA New York Officers elected
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The 2011-2012 Executive Officers are:
President – Monica Yuki (Saitama-ken, 2002-04)
Vice President – Kendall Murano (Saitama-ken, 2004-06)
Treasurer – Kelly Nixon (with Matt Leichter as understudy)
Secretary – Pamela Kavalam (Shiga-ken, 2007-09) (with Douglas Laventure providing additional support in the area of PR)
JETAA UK Mailshot: 03.09.11
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Hello from JETAA UK!
JETAA Members from each of the UK’s chapters recently met for our Annual General Meeting, and we are pleased to announce the JETAA UK committee for 2011-2012:
• Chair: Josephine Audigier: chairman@jetaa.org.uk
• Treasurer: Wes Jones: treasurer@jetaa.org.uk
• Webmaster: Martin Cloud: webmaster@jetaa.org.uk
• Web Editor: Fiona Steele: webeditor@jetaa.org.uk
• Marketing Liaison: Fiona Steele: london@jetaa.org.uk
• CID Coordinators: Hugh Thomas, Ed Horner and Fiona Steele: cid@jetaa.org.uk
As many of you will be aware 2010 was a busy year for JETAA. It was our twentieth anniversary and we held several large scale events such as the JETAA International meeting in Edinburgh. Below is some news about upcoming events. Further information will be posted on our website so keep checking back for the latest news!
This message is posted by Josephine Audigier on behalf of JETAA UK
JET Programme – Life After JET Survey
We have been asked to forward the following request to all JET Programme alumni members from the UK;
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Tokyo and the Embassy of Japan in the UK are currently gathering information from former JET Programme participants regarding their current places of employment. This data will be used purely for research purposes. Please click on this link and let us know what industry you currently work for. If possible, please also provide your contact details and information about your JET placement.
Information we gather will be treated as confidential between MOFA and the Embassy of Japan in the UK. We look forward to hearing from you. Read More
