WIT Life #277: Garden of Unearthly Delights
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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 along with her own observations.
As a member of Japan Society, last night I had the chance to preview the new gallery exhibition Garden of Unearthly Delights. It featured works from two artists and the collaboration teamLab that were largely fantastical with a strong dose of social commentary. As a result, it felt like a very dense exhibit that seemed to occupy more space than the gallery’s actual square footage. 
Garden begins with works from Manabu Ikeda, an artist originally from Saga Prefecture who now resides in Madison, Wisconsin after previously living in Vancouver. The focus of his paintings in this show are on disaster art and 311, an event he witnessed from outside the country. You can see many manga and anime-like aspects in them as well. I particularly liked his work Foretoken, which is often compared to Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, displayed nearby in the gallery. Upon close inspection you can see the intricate detail of his infinite brushstrokes, but when you look at it from a distance you get a whole other perspective. Underneath the huge wave that is cresting you can find things like Read More
WIT Life #276: San Diego’s San-Kei-En garden
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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 along with her own observations.
My interpreting gig continues westward, and I am currently with my interpreting clients in San Diego. It was my first time here in a while, and I was looking forward to seeing what Japanese connections awaited. As a result, I was happy to have some time in between appointments to visit the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park with my group. It’s official name is 三景園 (“San-Kei-En”), which means Water, Pastoral and Mountain. San Diego’s sister city in Japan is Yokohama, and the garden was designed to be an expression of the ties between the people of the two cities. Its gate is dedicated to Charles C. Dail, the former Mayor who began this sister city program in 1957.
Classes offered at San-Kei-En include ikebana, origami, bonsai and tea ceremony. The original Japanese tea house in Balboa Park had an interesting story. It was built for the Panama-California Exposition in 1915, and when the city couldn’t operate it post-exposition a Japanese couple managed it until 1941. Read More
WIT Life #275: DC’s Daikaya
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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 along with her own observations.
Thanks to a State Department interpreting assignment starting this past week, I was able to spend some quality time in DC. At the top of the list of restaurants I wanted to try was Daikaya, a ramen shop/izakaya located in Chinatown. It opened last year but I never had a chance to visit, so a friend and I decided to make that our Friday night dinner destination. We had reservations at the osshare second floor izakaya so didn’t get to try the ramen on the first floor, but people were lined up out the door waiting to try the Hokkaido-style salt broth creations.
The offerings on Daikaya’s second floor go beyond classic izakaya fare and are truly inventive. Some Read More
WIT Life #274: Air K in U.S. Open Semis!
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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 along with her own observations.
The U.S. Open, one of tennis’s four Grand Slams held right here in Queens, is one of my favorite annual events. This year’s tournament is even more special due to the advancement of 24-year old Japanese player Kei Nishikori to the semifinals! In doing this he became the first Japanese man to reach the U.S. Open semis in almost a century. Tomorrow afternoon he will face Novak Djokovic in this match, and a win would give him a potential meeting with Roger Federer in the finals (the other semi features Federer vs. Marin Cilic). In less than two days apart, Nishikori played two grueling 5-set matches in both the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals. The former concluded at 2:26 a.m., tying the record for the latest finishing match at the Open!
One would expect Nishikori’s huge total match time to have taken a toll on his fitness, but his energy level still seems to be high, as is his confidence. When recently interviewed by the Japanese press, his comment was along the lines of him saying he’s unbeatable at this point, and I hope his words prove to be true. I wrote here about his showing in previous U.S. Opens, but his chances look the best this year. Ganbare Air K!
WIT Life #273: Cleveland’s Japanese culture
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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 along with her own observations.
I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I’ve last written here and that we are already welcoming the new school year. I spent a large portion of my summer interpreting for clients on a project in Cleveland, Ohio. I didn’t have high hopes for Japanese connections in this small city, but was determined to find them where they existed. Due to being busy with my job and returning home on weekends, I wasn’t able to explore much outside of the downtown area, but that was enough to find some Japanese influences.
First was the restaurant Noodlecat, said to be “inspired by Tokyo noodle worship and New York City noodle houses.” There is a restaurant downtown as well an outpost at the West Side Market in Ohio City, but I opted for the former to get the full experienc
e. I got the Smoked Tomato Coconut Curry Udon with poached tofu, kohlrabi, potato, scallion and coconut curry kombu broth, as it sounded like a really unique combination of ingredients. Unfortunately, both the udon and its companions were disappointing. The noodles had a strange chewiness and even the texture of the tofu was off. Sure enough, when I told my clients that I was surprised the quality of the food had been so poor, they all agreed and said they had Read More
WIT Life #272: Japan Cuts
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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 along with her own observations.
This weekend wrapped up Japan Society’s annual film festival Japan Cuts, and all of the films that I caught out of the 28 presented this year were wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the opening film on the first Friday of the festival, The Snow White Murder Case (白ゆき姫殺人事件). This movie made its U.S. premiere, and told the story of the murder of a beautiful young office worker. The prime suspect is her plain co-worker who has disappeared following the murder, and in the online world the case is made for her guilt before the official investigation takes place. As interviews are carried out with others at the company and the truth is gradually revealed, viewers come to realize how culpable we are in automatically convicting suspects based on hearsay and popular opinion. This film skillfully highlights just how pernicious social media can be in stringing people up before they have the opportunity to defend themselves. Although this sounds like a dark story, it also has comic moments that serve to lighten the mood.
Two kid-centered films that I liked more than I expected were Maruyama, the Middle Schooler (中学生円山) and Hello! Junichi (ハロー！純一), both of which use dance and humor to great effect. The former focuses on a 14-year old in the height of puberty who uses his active imagination to Read More
WIT Life #271: New York Japan Cinefest at Asia Society
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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 along with her own observations.
Last week I went to the 3rd annual New York Japan CineFest held at Asia Society. It featured six short films ranging in length from 4-30 minutes, many of which had already received awards at other film festivals. I attended with fellow JET alums, so it was fun to dissect the films together and relate them to our respective Japan adventures. The event opened with The Misadventures of Incredible Dr. Wonderfoot, and directors Grier Dill and Brett Glass were on hand to offer an introduction.
In addition, two of the movie’s stars, Tsukasa Kondo and Tadashi Mitsui, also shared their experiences of making the film. The former is actually one of the creators and stars of the web series Second Avenue, which follows two 20-something Japanese roommates in Brooklyn, an aspiring actress and a Japanese gay law student (played by Kondo). The first season of six episodes (mostly in Japanese with subtitles) are really entertaining, especially for viewers who understand Kansai-ben
.
It was fun to watch the quirky podiatrist Dr. Wonderfoot, but my personal favorite out of all the flicks (and audience award recipient) was one of the concluding films, Little Kyota Neon Hood (I also liked the final film Lil Tokyo Reporter that was based on the true story of L.A. Japanese-American community leader Sei Fujii). This film takes place in Tohoku and features 10-year old Kyota who is suffering from Read More
WIT Life #270: Godzilla!
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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 along with her own observations.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first Godzilla movie, and last week the newest version was released. The cast features familiar names like (a wooly-haired and wild-eyed) Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche and Ken Watanabe. It has our favorite kaiju (monster) taking on a pair of MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms), the new kaiju on the block. They are ancient parasites that come from the same era and ecosystem as Godzilla, and feed off of radiation like him. In addition to destroying American cities, the male and female MUTO terrorizing the U.S. are looking to mate.
Cranston and Binoche play an engineer couple who lived in Japan with their young son in 1999, working together at the Janjira nuclear plant where something went wrong. She perished during this accident, and the movie is set in the present day when he is determined to find out what exactly happened, as he doesn’t believe that it was a natural disaster as is being claimed. Watanabe’s character is the moral compass of the movie, a scientist who knows all about Godzilla and his kind. He adds Read More
JETs Carry on Taylor’s Legacy in Miyagi
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Originally posted on the JETAA USA website:
Donated Books from Ambassador Kennedy Translated into Japanese
Following Ambassador Kennedy’s donation last November of 110 books to the Taylor Anderson Reading Corner at Mangokuura Elementary School in Ishinomaki, the volunteer group that reads to the students there, Soyokaze no Ohanashi (The Gentle Breeze Talks), joined together with the Miyagi International Association (MIA) and current JETs in the prefecture to translate nine of these books into Japanese. The books chosen cover various topics such as the lives of children in the US and other countries around the world, science, and wildlife, and are simple enough to be accessible to younger students.
Ms. Kyoko Sasaki, from Soyokaze, reportedly first reached out to Mr. Andre Perez to ask for his support for the project. Andre, who is currently a Coordinator for International Relations with Miyagi Prefecture and MIA, took on the planning of the event, coordinating details between MIA and Ms. Sasaki. Once these were settled, he reached out to Miyagi JETs through his position as a Prefecture Advisor and tapped into the Miyagi AJET(MAJET) network through Ms. Tanya Zolotareva, another CIR and a MAJET officer. The various groups collaborated, with each taking responsibility for different steps of the process of selecting books, translating them, and affixing the translations. The whole undertaking reportedly went quite smoothly, thanks to MIA’s previous experience with translating books, the eight JETs and roughly 10 other people who volunteered their time and talent, and Mr. Perez’s connections to both MAJET and MIA.
The project was also profiled on Miyagi Prefecture’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/visitmiyagi) and in the Asahi Shimbun and Kahoku Shimbun.
The books will now be available to students at Mangokuura E.S. to look at any time and they will be able to work on their understanding of the English texts by referring to the new Japanese translations. Having prepared translations at hand will also make it easier for the volunteers who read to the children.
As Ms. Sasaki, who is also a friend of the Andersons, having known Taylor, said in talking with one of the local newspapers that reported on the story, “This is a way to express our thanks to Taylor’s family. We want to show them that we are continuing Taylor’s legacy by carrying on her work.”
All the volunteer teams working to translate books for the Taylor Anderson Reading Corner.
WIT Life #269: Japan Day @ Central Park
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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 along with her own observations.
Japan Day @ Central Park celebrated its 8th year this past Sunday, and 50,000 attendees came out on this warm, beautiful day. As it coincided with Mother’s Day, many families enjoyed the events together. In addition to the free food and culture booths, an assortment of performances were featured on the main stage. There was some stellar taiko drumming and an interesting Matrix-like duo, but many in the crowd were waiting excitedly for the crooner Jero, who I wrote about and got to interview when he came to Japan Society two years ago.
This Pittsburgh native began his career singing enka (Japanese traditional ballads) as a youngster with his Japanese grandmother, and his official career started in Japan six years ago. Jero treated the audience to his debut single 海雪 (Umiyuki or Ocean Snow) as well as Read More
WIT Life #268: New Japanese movies worth seeing
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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 along with her own observations.
The cherry blossoms have come and gone since the last time I posted, truly fleeting! I was lucky enough to enjoy them twice this year, both during a trip to Japan last month and at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Sakura Matsuri earlier this month. To get through the long flight over the Pacific I like catching up on movies I missed, and I spent my outward voyage enjoying Oscar nominees and the return trip watching some new Japanese movies. During my inward flight two of the movies I picked, Judge! and The Little House, both featured one of my favorite Japanese actors, Satoshi Tsumabuki.
The former film features Tsumabuki as a young advertising agent who is forced by his boss to go in his place as an international judge for a worldwide TV Advertising Festival taking place in Santa Monica. By great coincidence, his boss’s name is Ichiro Otaki and Tsumabuki’s character’s name is Kiichiro Ota, giving them the same name if written Japanese-style with last name first. Ota points out that when abroad, names are written with first name before last name, but his boss ignores his concerns and sends him off. Another name coincidence is that Ota’s female co-worker Hikari has the same last name (in comparison to Kiichiro, she is amusingly referred to as the “talented Ota” by Otaki).
Kiichiro doesn’t have confidence in his English speaking ability, so he enlists Hikari to Read More
WIT Life #267: Japan’s underutilized female resources
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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 along with her own observations.
Early this month I attended a Japan Society event regarding empowering women in the U.S. and Japan. The featured speakers were former Diet member, Minister of the Environment and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoriko Kawaguchi, and Morgan Stanley Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat. The conversation was moderated by Columbia Professor of History Carol Gluck, a Japanologist who has written several books on Japanese history. Some of the topics to be addressed were gender disparity issues, using quota systems to increase numbers of women executives and work-life balance, so it was guaranteed to be an interesting discussion.
Kawaguchi pointed out that a mentality change on the part of both employers and women themselves is needed. M![kate_hesson_juggles_work_and_family__1610129638[1]](http://jetwit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/kate_hesson_juggles_work_and_family__16101296381.jpg)
any Japanese women strive for nothing more than having a happy, healthy family, not even conceiving that they could reach the levels of upper management. Of course, this creates a chicken and egg scenario as there are few female role models in these positions so they don’t have many predecessors in whose footsteps they can follow. Porat remaked that when she started out there were few female managers she could look up to, but credited her advancement partially to male superiors who recognized her skills and took a chance on her. Kawaguchi stressed that there is a Read More
WIT Life #266: Kajitsu Spring Tasting Reception
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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 along with her own observations.
Over the weekend I had the chance to take part in the delectable Spring Tasting Reception held at Kajitsu/Kokage. For those of you who don’t know this spot, it’s about as close as you can get to Japan here in NYC. Last year I celebrated my birthday with a delicious meal at Kajitsu, the restaurant on the upper floor featuring 精進料理 (shojin ryouri), vegan cuisine devised centuries ago by Buddhist monks which was the predecessor to kaiseki .
In the first four years of its existence Kajitsu was located in the East Village, but it moved to its midtown location a year ago. Aside from Kajitsu occupying the second floor, Kokage on the first floor serves non-vegetarian Japanese food and Ippodo near the entrance sells Japanese tea. There is literally something for everyone, and both restaurants are open for both lunch and dinner.
This event was celebrating the promotion of the Executive Sous Chef Hiroki Odo to Executive Chef, as current Executive Chef Ryota Ueshima is returning to Japan. The amazing spread featured Read More
WIT Life #265: NY Peace Film Festival
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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 along with her own observations.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the NY Peace Film Festival co-hosted by my lovely friend Yumi Tanaka. This year highlighted 11 films over the course of the weekend, many with Q&As with their directors following the screenings. I was lucky enough to be able to interpret for two of the Japanese filmmakers who were Skyped in from Japan for their Q&As (a first for me!). Saturday night featured the documentaries The Targeted Village by Chie Mikami and X Years Later by Hideki Itoh.
The first film focuses on a small village in Okinawa called Takae, which happens to be situated between two American military bases. Residents are fighting against the construction of new helipads in Takae, being installed in preparation for the deployment of Osprey. Their story embodies U.S. military strategy dating back to the Vietnam War, the blocking of the gates to the Futenma base, and their town’s rage against their state.
Depicted here is one of the main characters profiled in the film, a local farmer and father of 4 who just wants to ensure that his children can continue to live their quiet lives. In one scene his young son asks how they will be able to study at school with all the noise from the Osprey flying overhead. The farmer takes part in protests again the helipad construction, and unbelievably the Japanese government brings a case of “traffic obstruction” against not only him and several other peaceful protesters but his 7-year old daughter who was Read More
WIT Life #264: Campaign
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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 along with her own observations.
Yesterday I went to see director Kazuhiro Soda’s documentary Campaign (選挙) at Japan Society, being shown as part of Richie’s Electric Eight: The Bold and the Daring (part 2 of the film series honoring Ritchie that I talked about in a recent post). It came out in 2007 and was screened at the Berlin Film Festival that year, and was loved by Ritchie who introduced it at a preview at Tokyo’s Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. This fascinating, self-funded film follows Soda’s Tokyo University (東大) classmate Kazuhiko Yamauchi in becoming the LDP candidate in a by-election for a seat on the Kawasaki City Council, after relocating there from Tokyo for that purpose. Campaign tells the story of how Yamauchi is groomed as a promising newcomer for this well-established conservative party. The LDP is killing it with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his reform platform on the national level, but engaged in a close battle with the DPJ on the local level.
Yamauchi’s education extends to his wife Sayuri, a particularly interesting character in the film. He is instructed to refer to her as his “housewife” (「家内」 or kanai) as opposed to “wife” (「妻」 or tsuma), a term they both take umbrage against but become resigned to using. In addition, Yamauchi’s supporters within the LDP’s well oiled local political machine later encourages her to quit her job to focus on her husband’s political career, an idea that outraged her. Yamauchi urges her to Read More
