Cracked.com: 5 Things Nobody Tells You About Living in Japan
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I don’t know if the author is a JET alum, but it’s definitely a unique perspective that most JETs will appreciate and could likely write themselves. Thanks to JET alums Carol Elk and Shannon Copp for alerting me to this article via Facebook.
5 Things Nobody Tells You About Living in Japan
By Charlie Jones
Two years ago, I achieved alpha-geek status among my friends by moving to Japan. Since then, all I’ve been hearing from them is how lucky I am and how they would murder any endangered species still clinging tenaciously to existence in exchange for permission to live in my closet. And I totally get it, because come on, it’s Japan — the wackiest, most interesting place on the planet. Who wouldn’t want to live here?
Well … you might not, actually. Because while there are plenty of great reasons to live in Japan, such as the low crime rate and the amazing public transportation system, there are a few things you should know before you decide to pack up your manga and hop on a jet across the Pacific, wearing rabbit ears and flashing peace signs at everyone who makes eye contact with you. For starters …
#5. Everything is frightfully low-tech
CLICK HERE to read the full article on the Cracked.com website.
JapanLocal: Tottori JET Anthony Lieven’s latest Misasa video – November 2012
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Tottori JET Anthony Lieven has been creating new videos each month as part of a project that introduces his JET town of Misasa to the world. With Anthony’s permission, here is his latest video:
Misasa Monthly Video 08 (November 2012) – Mount Mitoku Sanbutsuji’s Fire Festival from Red T-Shirt Guy on Vimeo.
An Emperor’s Visit
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Posted by Benjamin Martin, a 5th year JET in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com and author of the YA fantasy novel Samurai Awakening (Tuttle).
On November 20, 2012 The Emperor of Japan Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Kumejima as part of a four-day visit to Okinawa. Preparations were long in the making, but it was still extraordinary to see the spectacle of a visit lasting less than 5 hours. Luckily, I was asked to help photograph on behalf of Kumejima Town and was able to stand with television and newspaper camera people in designated media areas.
The Emperor and his wife arrived around 10:30 JST on a plane from Okinawa-honto. Since Kume Island has only a small airport, they used a JAL Express plane instead of the usual flying fortress. There they greeted a group of students and dignitaries and then drove to the Deep Sea Water Research Institute to tour its grounds. One of the major reasons for the visit is the proposed OTEC power plant. Along the way Kumejima Townspeople greeted the Emperor by waving Japanese flags (a rarity in Okinawa), shouting “Thank you for coming” and “banzai!” After the tour, the motorcade arrived at the Town Hall just before 13:00 to rest and talk with Mayor Taira. There they discussed Kumejima’s many natural resources such as Kuruma-ebi, Umi-budo, and Deep Sea Water while eating lunch. They talked so much they didn’t have time to finish!
For more on the Emperor’s visit and plenty of pictures visit More Thing Japanese!
Now in Paperback: “For Fukui’s Sake: Two years in Rural Japan” by JET alum Sam Baldwin
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Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa
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Posted by Benjamin Martin, a 5th year JET in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com and author of the YA fantasy novel Samurai Awakening (Tuttle).
Churaumi Aquarium (美ら海 beautiful ocean aquarium) is one of the premiere tourist attractions in Okinawa prefecture. The large aquarium is located within the even larger and interesting Ocean Expo Park on the Motobu Peninsula. Boasting one of the worlds largest indoor tanks, the stars of the complex are three whale sharks housed with many other fish of varying sizes.
Though I’ve lived in Okinawa for over five years, I had my first opportunity to visit Churaumi only this past weekend. The aquarium is very easy to find since there are easy-to-read signs pointing the way on major streets from Naha. For a scenic route, take route 58 north and follow the signs. For a quicker trip try the expressway (its a toll road).
The surprising thing about the Ocean Expo park is the sheer size of it. We went in November which was after the peak season so we had little trouble with traffic or even finding a parking space. Other friends noted that they’ve had problems with that during the summer months. We met the first designated parking lot quite far from the actual aquarium, though there are many attractions along the way, and a tram car you can hire for 200yen/day. If you’re going during non-peak seasons, just drive up to the closest parking lot!
The whole complex is cunningly designed for the efficient flow of attendees. From the entry there are wide walkways, pavilions, stairs, fountains, and play areas that allow people to move at their own pace without blocking others’ way. Once you make it past various information booths, restaurants, and flowering sea life you’ll find escalators that will take you down to the entrance of the aquarium itself.
…Read more on Churami Aquarium at MoreThingsJapanese.com
Job: Virtual Concierge (Seattle / Bellevue / Renton)
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Via JETAA Pacific North West. Posted by Kay Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: Virtual Concierge
Posted by: 2 Places At 1 Time, Inc.
Type: Part-time
Location: Seattle / Bellevue / Renton
Salary: $20 per billable hour
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
(Job offer from a fellow JET!)
Join [2 Places At 1 Time, Inc.] as Virtual Concierge for professionals. Job duties include shopping, event planning, pet care, and more. Must have a flexible schedule. This is part-time work, up to 5-10 hours a week. Looking for an individual with thorough knowledge of Seattle and surrounding areas; has reliable transportation and strong customer service experience. This position will require frequent travel in the Seattle – Bellevue – Renton areas. Mileage will be reimbursed. Submit your resume for consideration. All applicants must include a paragraph stating why you are the best candidate for this position.
Once we receive your submission, we’ll send you a quick assessment to make sure this is the right position for you. If everything works out, you’ll receive a call from a recruiting manager within 72 business hours and could become a Virtual Concierge within 2 weeks.
If interested, please contact valeriestewart@2places.com (JET Alum in Atlanta!) and let her know you are a part of PNWJETAA. Yoroshiku!
JQ Magazine: Autumn in Nagasaki
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Hashima, aka “Gunship Harbor,” as seen from a tour boat in Nagasaki.
By Mohan Nadig (Hyogo-ken, 1998-99) for JQ magazine. Mohan currently lives in Tokyo.
A word of advice: If you haven’t been to Nagasaki, go.
Since my time as a JET in Hyogo Prefecture in 1998, I’ve been on something of a mission to visit every prefecture in Japan at least once. Last year, one of the remaining spots high on my list was Nagasaki.
I’d planned to visit on several occasions in the past but never made it–I was finally inspired to book a ticket after reading David Mitchell’s fascinating novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which is set in the region at the turn of the 19th century.
The timing of my visit last October turned out to be very fortuitous. A friend from Nagasaki told me that I would be there during the Okunchi Festival and that a friend of hers would be able to show me around town.
Upon arriving in Nagasaki by train from Fukuoka, the first thing that struck me about the city center was its amazing ugliness, which is of the “what could they possibly be thinking?” variety. I was hard pressed to find a corner not marred by some rusting hulk, dilapidated structure or tacky signage left over from the 1970s. For a city with such a significant history, the lack of beautification and preservation efforts is stunning.
Fortunately, I very quickly found a wealth of redeeming features: hospitable people, nuggets of history waiting to be discovered around every corner, and fantastic views of the sea–and of course, the festive atmosphere of Okunchi.
2012 Kitadaito Festival Day Two
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The 2012 Kitadaito Festival was a two-day event in September marking an important time of community inclusion and tradition. The second day of the Festival was on the 23rd and, as in years past, featured sumo competitions as a traditional Japanese offering to the kami and ancestors of the village. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my post on day one. Below is a video showing excerpts from the day, with more information and photos farther down. Enjoy!
Sumo Competitions
The second day began in the morning on Sunday around 9:00. Villagers gathered again before the Daito-gu shrine. There, a Shinto priest led a ceremony blessing both the sumo ground and the people. New babies were also brought before the shrine by their parents so that the adults could ask for safe and prosperous lives for their children.
After the ceremonies were complete, the villagers settled in to watch Edo and Okinawan Sumo competitions. Although Kitadaito is in Okinawan Prefecture, it was originally settled by people from Hachijo Island, which means the traditions of the island are a unique mix of mainland Japan and Okinawa. At the Daitogusai festival, both types of sumo take place. Pre-school through junior high students take part in edo style sumo.
… Read the rest and see more photos on MoreThingsJapanese.com!.
2012 Kitadaito Festival Day 1
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Posted by Benjamin Martin, a 5th year JET in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com and author of the fantasy novel Samurai Awakening (Tuttle).
Every year on September 22 and 23 Kitadaito Village celebrates its largest Festival. These dates mark the beginning of autumn. Kitadaito, also known as north Borodino island, is a place of 12sq kilometers 320 kilometers east of the Okinawan mainland. It is unique in that it was settled by residents of Hachijo Island (near Tokyo) but is part of Okinawa Prefecture. Over the past 100 years the island has become a unique chanpuru (mix) of both cultures.
After graduating from the University of Arizona, I spent three years living and teaching on Kitadaito, and returned this year after more than a year on Kumejima. It was great to re-experience old memories and make new ones as the festival has changed since my time there. Watch the accompanying video for a chance to experience a few bits from this truly unique day.
Read more about the Kitadaito Festival on Ben’s blog — MoreThingsJapanese.com
JET Alum Author Beat: Nicholas Klar’s “My Mother is a Tractor” now free on Kindle for a limited time
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JET alum Nicholas Klar’s (Niigata-ken, Omi-machi (now Itoigawa-shi), 1995-97) My Mother is a Tractor: A Life in Rural Japan, originally published in 2006, is now available for free on Kindle for the next couple days. Click here for more details.
Here’s some more info about the book:
Less than six months after chucking in his management job to take up teaching Nicholas Klar finds himself on the JET Program and a plane to Japan – ending up as an ALT teaching English in Omi (now Itoigawa City) in the far reaches of rural Niigata prefecture.
Never one to be taken too seriously he spends two years far beyond the beaten tourist path in often carousing encounters with Elvis impersonators, love hotels, toilets, train schedules, cults, hostess girls, freezing weather, the local garbage-man and postal workers, plus the recording of a bizarre incident where a cow apparently falls out of the sky.
Combining humour, wonder and a good deal of eclectic research the author veritably crams his pages chock-full of tales of culture shock, humorous anecdotes and insights, reflections upon his own life and cultural baggage, strange facts, plus cultural incongruities and marvels. He inevitably falls in with a motley crew of acquaintances along the way and revealed are many of the personalities he encounters – both Japanese and foreigners.
My Mother is a Tractor is rollicking, fact-filled ride through the Land of the Rising Sun that will both amuse and inform.
Hiroshima JET’s “The Wide Island View” is back in action
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From The Wide Island View, the JET Program Webzine of Hiroshima Prefecture:
Greetings!
Hello everyone and welcome to the first Wide Island View email for 2012!
After a long hiatus, WIV is back in action! We have an enthusiastic new team and we are all very excited about bringing you lots of interesting stories over the year. Apologies if today’s email seems a little large – we promise to update you more regularly in the future!
How are the new jobs going? How are you coping with the summer heat? In the interest of helping you feel better in the intensity of Japanese summer, we have had a summer focus on many of our articles this August.
First up, for those of you that struggle to eat in this heat, or are not sure what you can eat in this new country full of kanji, Emily has written you an article on eating, Eating to Keep Cool and Energized During Japanese Summer (or, Centuries of Advice on How Not to Become a Melted Slug). Thanks to Emily’s article I have discovered tasty tofu soumen. I hope you discover something new too!
Should you want to escape the heat, check out Charly’s article on Jinseki-kougen. This is the first in an inaka series that will focus on parts of the prefectures that are off the tourist trail. If escaping to the cool mountains sounds like something you would enjoy, readWelcome to Jinseki-kougen. Or just let the pictures persuade you.
If Jinseki is too far away, or you have checked out Jinseki and can’t wait for some more inaka, try Akiota-cho for size. Before she left, Harriet kindly spilled all the secrets Read More
I’ll Make It Myself!: Café Mojo (Veg* Out in Kanazawa Series)
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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 Travel (formerly The Art of Japan: Kanazawa & Discover Kanazawa), ze also writes I’ll Make It Myself!, a blog about food culture in Japan, and curates The Rice Cooker Chronicles, a series of essays by JETs and JET alumni on the theme of cooking/eating and being alone in Japan.
New Rice Cooker Chronicles submissions always welcome. Just e-mail it to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
One thing I dislike about eating out in Japan is “secret meat.” For whatever reason, the Japanese concept of meat and the English one are quite different: if you chop up meat small enough, it’s no longer considered meat; fish/seafood aren’t meat; there’s fish-based dashi stock in miso soup; some shokupan (white bread) contains lard; and, even if you’re really good at Japanese, clearly labeled menus are a luxury. For example, if I order a pizza margherita, I expect it to be vegetarian, and yet some places will throw bacon on it. If I order a “vegetable soup,” there might be chicken in it that wasn’t listed on the menu.
Luckily for me, I’ve found a lot of great restaurants in Kanazawa that specialize in or offer vegetarian/vegan fare. In Kyoto and Tokyo, there are vegan and vegetarian guidebooks being published, but Kanazawa and Ishikawa don’t have their own yet. I can’t be the only one out there who hates secret meat, so I want to highlight my favorite veg* restaurants in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, and Japan here in addition to my other restaurant reviews. I’m including a quick overview to the restaurant (location, type, veg* type) before the longer review so you’ll know at a glance if this place is for you. If you have suggestions about the reviews or for more restaurants, please leave a comment!
I’d like to kick off this series with one of my favorite cafes in Kanazawa, Café Mojo.
Café Mojo (カフェモジョ)
Location: Kanazawa City, Ishikawa pref.
Type: Café, Lunch
Veg Status: Primarily vegetarian and vegan fare; meat options (bacon)
Languages: Japanese, English
Roy Moneyhun (Mie-ken, 1996-98), founder of Tohoku Forward
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JET Alum Cycling for Tohoku
For more information, contact Roy Moneyhun at roy@tohokuforward.org. The web address is www.tohokuforward.org. The Facebook page is Tohoku Forward.
We all know what happened in northeast Japan on March 11, 2011. The devastation remained front page news for weeks following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Now—more than a year later—news of Tohoku must be actively sought out by anyone wanting to know what is going on up there. Tohoku has been relegated to the back burner of the international news cycle.
As the drama in Tohoku unfolded during the spring months of 2011, the world’s media understandably focused on the devastation, the death toll, and the threat of nuclear radiation escaping the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. A less generally reported catastrophe during the early weeks and months following the disaster was the creation of a new wave of orphans in Tohoku. If this crisis was overlooked during the initial period of the tsunami, it has now become close to invisible. Agencies such as Smile Kids Japan and Living Dreams toil in near-obscurity to address the crisis with little attention and limited funds.
Enter Tohoku Forward, the one-man project of JET alumnus Roy Moneyhun (Mie-ken, 1996-98) of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA. With Tohoku Forward, Moneyhun hopes to reach thousands of potential donors around the world, most of whom can be found in the JET alumni community.
Many orphans of the Tohoku disaster are babies, meaning that they will need support for at least another fifteen to eighteen years. Read More
I’ll Make It Myself!: “Tanabata Beer Festa Toyama 2012”
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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 Travel (formerly The Art of Japan: Kanazawa & Discover Kanazawa), ze also writes I’ll Make It Myself!, a blog about food culture in Japan, and curates The Rice Cooker Chronicles, a series of essays by JETs and JET alumni on the theme of cooking/eating and being alone in Japan.
New Rice Cooker Chronicles submissions always welcome. Just e-mail it to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
The Tanabata Beer Festa Toyama, held the first full weekend of July each year in Toyama City, Toyama, is one of Hokuriku’s only beer festivals. I hopped the train south with a couple of our friends for an afternoon of craft beer. I hadn’t been to a beer festival since I left Michigan three years ago, so I was beyond thrilled.
What does one drink when confronted with 20 breweries’ worth of Japan’s finest craft beer? Make a game plan. When I attended the Michigan Brewers’ Guild Summer Beer Festival, I decided to only drink cherry beers, as those are much harder to get on draft than stouts. This time, after three years of living deprived of regular access to stouts, I circled 5 stouts I’d like to try, got a pizza for lunch, and set to work drinking.
Recently posted to the JETwit LinkedIn group by current JET Eliot Honda (Ehime-ken, Uwajima-shi):
“I created a playlist of all four ALT Introduction videos. It’s finally finished. Hope this helps folks coming to Uwajima, and maybe helps new folks coming on JET.” Great job, Eliot! O-tsukare sama deshita!
JETwit note: It might also make for a good submission to Chris Allison’s (Oita-ken) TheInaka.com project. Bullfighting in Japan? Who knew? Uwajima JETs, apparently.
Any other videos by JETs about their areas? JETwit wants to know about it. E-mail: jetwit [at] jetwit.com
