Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of Zorgamazoo, has reviewed all haiku submissions containing the designated word “prose“ for Haiku Challenge #2 and has selected a winner to receive a free copy of his book. Read on for his decision and rationale.
Following in the footsteps of James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), I feel obliged to assemble a short-list of honourable mentions. I make no claims, however, as to having any insightfulness when it comes to properly appreciating haiku…
Second runner-up, for its tenderness and topicality (’tis the season, after all), we have Justin Tedaldi’s entry:
The gift was thoughtful
The letter’s prose delightful
Happy holidays
—Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)
First runner-up, for it’s gritty natural realism, is Alexei Esikoff’s ode to the grim weather of the Midwest:
The temperature drops
Buried under slushy prose
Minneapolis
—Alexei Esikoff (Fukushima-ken, 2001-02)
Finally, the winner this week is Meredith Hodges-Boos (who had an honourable mention in the previous contest, incidentally). Her haiku appeals to my love of word play — and even manages a nifty metaphor in the meantime. Congrats, Meredith!
Take roses with ‘P’s
Mix in the ordinary
Watch word gardens grow
—Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, 2003-05)
Click “Read More” to see the other haiku submitted.
Japan Info Newsletter – Dec. 2008
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The December 2008 edition of JapanInfo is now available. JapanInfo is published by the Consulate General of Japan in New York/Japan Information Center and is a great source of info for Japan-related things going on in New York and the surrounding area.
JETAA Chapter Beat 12.17.08
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Freelance writer/editor Jonathan Trace (Fukuoka-ken, 2005-08) takes us on a walk around the JET Alumni community…
- Japanese Language Workshops at JASW – Starting Monday, January 12, Japan-America Society’s Japanese Language School Winter Semester begins. Free first year membership for JETAA-DC members.
- Holiday Happy Hour – Friday, December 19th, 7:00 at 5 Seasons Brewing. Join JETAASE for some holiday spirit and spirts.
- Raise funds for Leukemia! – Support Ingrid Garcia-Galinat in her marathon goal to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team on March 29, 2009.
- Yukiko Shimo Exhibition: Today’s Top Woodblock Print Artist in Japan – Dec 2nd – Jan 31, check out woodblock prints at the Roswell Teahouse & Gallery.
- JETAANC Video Volunteers – December 15th – 19th. In preparation for an upcoming Shinenkai video, JETAANC is looking for people to come and talk about their JET experience on camera.
- The Totoro Forest Project (Dec 6 – Jan 18) – Exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum based on Hayao Miyazaki’s most celebrated film Tonari no Totoro.
JETAA Texoma
- Returning JET Reception – Saturday, January 24, join recently returned JET participants at the Consulate for some sushi-rolling and other food oriented activities.
- Chinese Urban Art Show – Dec 12, 2008 – Dec 20, 2009 at the BLVD Gallery in Belltown. Check out some asian art, fascinating and, best of all, free.
- Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association Holiday Party – Sunday, December 21, 4:00 to 8:00 at the Pt Edwards Club House. It’s potluck, so don’t forget the food!
- Christmas Carols – Saturday, December 20th, 5:30 at Cowra Japanese Garden. Celebrate the holiday with song and candlelight.
What happened at your chapter’s event? If you attend(ed) any of these exciting events, JetWit would love to hear about them. Just email Jonathan Trace with any info, stories or comments.
Britney Spears–ALT?
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Watch Britney Spears on Japanese tv in 2008 and on the same tv show back in 1999. I find that celebrity appearances on Japanese tv always help me re-live my own awkward experiences from my days as an ALT, and I think it’s somehow reassuring to know that even celebrities are reduced to the same awkward smiling, laughing and discomfort that most JETs have felt at some point.
JET alum Roland Kelts quoted in The New Yorker
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Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, was quoted or mentioned this week in articles in:
- The New Yorker magazine, in the “Letter from Japan” article by Dan Goodyear on cellphone novelists (subscription required)
- Asahi Shimbun – Roland’s contribution to the Japanese literary journal, MONKEY BUSINESS, is highlighted in this article featuring editor and literary translator Motoyuki Shibata.
- The Christian Science Monitor in
- Japan Cracking U.S. Pop-culture Hegemony – Japan is quietly emerging as a global trendsetter in pop culture, as well as in green technology and environmental practices.
- Mieko Kawakami: From blogger to global novelist – Her latest novel won Japan’s top prize for new fiction writers. Kawakami is one of an emerging group of young Japanese women writers.
From www.fewmets.net
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, has reviewed all haiku submissions containing the designated word “fewmets“ for Haiku Challenge #1 and has selected a winner. Read on for his decision and rationale.
I was blown away by the quality of the fewmets haiku I received. I can state with absolute conviction that these are the best haiku about fewmets that I have ever read!
First, the honorable mentions. Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, Yoshida-cho, 2003-05) wrote an appropriately grim, medieval-epic haiku that ends with a wonderfully forbidding promise of violence:
Fewmets steam on bleak
Frost-covered leaves, hunter stoops
Soon blood will melt ice
Chillingly beautiful! Worthy of Beowulf! I can almost imagine Ms. Hodges-Boos is the kind of woman who makes her own chain mail.
Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08) put a decidedly modern spin on fewmets:
The fewmets of love;
lipstick wine glass, lost overcoat . . .
painful cotton swab nurse!
Every man who has endured a gonorrhea test will find the last line poignantly evocative. Mr. Ambrosio is clearly a gentleman about town, a chap of wide and varied experiences, a man who almost certainly has chlamydia. He came very close to winning, except that the second and third lines each have one more syllable than a fastidious interpretation of the haiku form allows. As sloppy as a tart’s kiss, Mr. Ambrosio!
Finally, we come to the winner, from the talented Ilya Blokh:
A French truffle, on the
Tongue, melts, but how I was wrong
It was a fewmet
True, the first line might has one more syllable than usual, but Mr. Blokh’s brilliance trumps formal quibbles. The imagination is set giddily free. How did the poet come across this spurious truffle? On what pretext is he eating it? From what beast does this fewmet issue? What does the fewmet taste like? Mr. Blokh creates an entire world for me to inhabit.
And thither shall I now flit, to freely and sportively bombinate among the flowers of his soul.
Click “Read More” to see a couple more haiku submissions.
Update: Roland Kelts
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Here’s the latest update on JET alum Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica and professor at Tokyo University:
ADBUSTERS: A feature story, co-written with Leo Lewis of the Times of London, about signs of socialism and unrest among Japanese youth and the Kanikosen phenomenon is now online:
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/81/big_in_japan.html (On a related topic, Stacy Smith comments on recent political unrest following the closing of an auto manufacturing plant in Japan in WITLife #7-Totyota Shock (Part 2).)
DAILY YOMIURI: In his latest Soft Power/Hard Truths column in the Daily Yomiuri, Roland revisits Michael Arias, the only American to have directed a feature anime film in Japan–Tekkonkinkreet—(which, incidentally, premiered in the US at MOMA in 2007). Arias’s forthcoming film is the live action Heaven’s Door (opens 2/7/09 in Japan), which Roland attended at a private screening last week. Link to the column: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20081212TDY13004.htm
Seikai University Talk: Roland’s blog (japanamerica.blogspot.com) has a post about his recent talk at Seikei University in western Tokyo about Japanamerica where he introduced both the ideas examined in the book and the latest happenings in the trans-cultural exchange between Japan and the U.S.
JET alum Rosie de Fremery launches new blog and website
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Former JETAA NY Vice-Prez Rosie de Fremery (Shizuoka-ken, 1998-2001) recently launched a new blog about food (working with a couple friends) and also a new Etsy store website. In Rosie’s own words…
Nosh Pit is a group food blog I’ve started with two friends who are as passionate about food as I am. We launched it on Sunday and have already put up several recipes and restaurant views, with discussions beginning in the comments section. So far I’ve posted a friend’s recipe for maple bourbon sweet potato pie and a review of a French patisserie I discovered this week. Please check it out at http://noshpit.wordpress.com/
The second is Shining Flower Productions, an Etsy store where I am selling hand-painted greeting cards for the upcoming holidays. For now I’m just selling two designs, one of an angel for Christmas and one of a Chanukiah for Chanukah, but I do plan to offer more watercolor card designs and some original Japanese calligraphy in the future. The store can be found at http://shiningflower.etsy.com/
WITLife #5 – Keeping up on the Japanese news
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).
Starting with this post I thought I’d introduce a more behind the scenes aspect of WIT life, that being the preparation and work that takes place when I am not traveling or working on an assignment.
In order to keep my Japanese skills sharp, besides conversing with native speakers (don’t be afraid to ask to be corrected!) I enjoy the daily programming of Fujisankei. In particular, the news airing at 7 a.m. (rebroadcast at 10) every weekday morning is especially insightful for keeping up to date on what’s going on in Japan and beyond, and how certain concepts would be expressed in Japanese.
An essential part of being a translator/interpreter is knowing the correct vocabulary for recent phenomenon, as these are words that change with the times and require constant updating of your brain. For example, in Japan the collapse of our economic institutions is referred to as Read More
Reuters video article on NY de Volunteer’s recent Spa Day
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Speaking of volunteering, Reuters Japan has a good video article (in Japanese) about NY de Volunteer’s recent Spa Day, where the volunteers go to a nursing home and treat the residents to a day of various beauty spa treatments. (FYI, the segment starts at about 2:55 into the video.)
(For those of you with stronger Japanese skills, please feel free to post summary comments in English so other JetWit readers can get a sense of what’s being said.)
There are few more quintessentially American experiences than volunteering on Thanksgiving. Here’s a nice photo of Fumitake “Fumi” Saijo and Koki Kimoto from the Japan Local Government Center (a/k/a
CLAIR New York) working in the kitchen with Kia Cheleen (CIR, Aichi-ken 1996-98, ALT 1998-1999) (not pictured) to prepare Thanksgiving meals through a project run by the Grand Central Neighborhood Social Services Network.
JETAA Chapter Beat 12.10.08
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Freelance writer/editor Jonathan Trace (Fukuoka-ken, 2005-08) takes us on a walk around the JET Alumni community…
- Japan Outreach Initiative (JOI) – Got any Japanese friends who want to volunteer to spread Japan awareness? JOI is seeking outgoing, energetic Japanese nationals interested in joining this program to volunteer.
- South Bay Nomikai/Dinner – Friday, December 12th, 7:00 or 7:30 at Gochi. Last event of the year, so be sure to join in.
- 9th Japanese Discussion Group – Saturday, December 13th join in the discussion about “What is Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan” moderated by Nobuko Oshima.
- The Obama Administration and US-Japan Relations – Wednesday, December 10th at 6:00. Lecture by Dr. T.J. Pempel of the University of California, Berkeley and Mr. Ben Self of Stanford’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.
- The Totoro Forest Project (Dec. 6 – Jan. 18)
– Exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum based on Hayao Miyazaki’s most celebrated film Tonari no Totoro.
- Monthly Pub Night at FLUID – Wednesday, December 10. Pushed back a bit, but not forgotten is Fluid night. Nothing like a pint to celebrate the comin’ ‘olidays!
- Vocalist Jazz Audition at Jazz Alley – Monday, March 23 audition with the Seattle Kobe Sister City Association (SKSCA) to be selected to perform in Kobe, Japan at the kobe Jazz Queen Vocalist Contest in May. Start practicing now and be ready for March.
- Fun and Gaming – Looking to fight some holiday loneliness? Join JETAAPNW for some games, puzzles, movies, etc over in Kirkland. A chance to meet some new people and make some international friends.
- Bounenkai! – Tuesday, December 16th 6:30 at Issian. Join in to forget the year and have a hand at some trivia and prizes.
- Bounenkai! – Friday, December 12th at 7:30.
- Movember – Don’t forget to check out this great charity for moustaches and the fight against depression and prostate cancer.
- Christmas Carols – Saturday, December 20th, 5:30 at Cowra Japanese Garden. Celebrate the holiday with song and candlelight.
- Bounenkai! – Sunday, December 14th, 6:00 at Tono Sushi.
- “Managing Relations with Korea and Asia: An Agenda for the Obama Administration” Lecture – Wednesday, December 10 at 11:00 a.m. Presentation and Luncheon brought to you by The Korea Society.
- Happy Hour – Thursday, December 11th, 6:00 at 18th Amendment. Don’t miss the last Happy Hour of the year with the DC Alums.
- Bounenkai! – Saturday, December 13th, 6:00 at Koume Japanese Restaurant. Come celebrate the end of the year with JETAA Florida.
- Loss of a JET Alum – Some tragic news comes to us from JET Southeast chapter that Jody Brooks, Chiba-ken 2003-05, passed away on October 11. Donations are being collected by Friends of Washington Park(FoWP) in lieu of flowers, and the goal is raise fund to hold an annual community even in Jody’s honor. The event will be held in the park and will do what Jody did best – bring people together.
- Raise funds for Leukemia!
– Ingrid Garcia-Galinat is training to participate in her first half-marathon-13.1 miles for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team on March 29, 2009 to raise money for blood cancer awareness. Donate and help the cause today! - Yukiko Shimo Exhibition: Today’s Top Woodblock Print Artist in Japan – December 2nd through January 31. Check out these fascinating and inspired woodblock prints at the Roswell Teahouse & Gallery.
- Triangle Taiko Performance – Saturday, December 13th, 5:00 at Pullen Park. Come listen to the performance and see the park as it is decorated into a winter wonderland from Dec. 10 through Dec 14th.
What happened at your chapter’s event? If you attend(ed) any of these exciting events, JetWit would love to hear about them. Just email Jonathan Trace with any info, stories or comments.
WIT Life #4 – Airport security and death row
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WITLife is a series by Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).
My most recent assignment with the State Department had me doing simultaneous interpreting for a group of six officials from Japan’s central government.
They all came from different ministries ranging from Justice to Finance to Health (one of whose former officials was just murdered along with his wife in a recent high profile case). It was neat to talk to the participant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (aka MEXT), who met his wife in the workplace (when she was a tantousha for the JET Programme) and to hear stories from her experience traveling to promote it.
The trip was a success but was book-ended by two harrowing experiences. When the group arrived the day Read More
Traveling Tastebuds: The Ambassador of Japanese Food – by Devon Brown
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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.Is there anyone out there that doesn’t love Japanese curry rice?
Ok, it lacks the sophistication of sashimi and the artisanship of kaiseki, but of all the school lunches that were put in front of me those first few weeks living in Japan, curry rice was the only thing that made me feel like I might not wither away in a world of seaweed wrapped rice balls and soups brimming with tiny dried fish with tiny black eyes.
Even lukewarm (as almost every Japanese school lunch is served lukewarm) it still tasted good. As a matter Read More
Tadaima #4 – Put it all on Black!
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My name is Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08). And whether readjusting to post-JET life is something you’re facing now, will deal with in the future or if you just enjoy reconnecting with that awkwardly uncertain feeling you had when you got back from Japan, come along with me as I look for a new job, a new apartment, and yes, mow the lawn of my parent’s house. Tadaima!
“WHEEL…. OF…… FORTUNE!!!!” I yelled in a haze of alcohol and bright flashing lights. A small crowd gathered around my cousin and I as we played “The Wheel of Fortune” slot machine.
We were in Atlantic City for my cousin’s girlfriend’s birthday, and since mine was a couple days away, sure, mine too. I know I know, here I am, unemployed, in a place people go to burn money, when I could be sending out more resumes and following more leads, but instead I’m down 60 bucks, four drinks in the hole, and hitting on my cousin’s girlfriend’s sister. I suppose I really should be… WHEEL….. OF….. FORTUNE!!!! Okay, down 48 bucks now.
It’s sort of funny when I try to draw parallels between gambling in America and the Pachinko parlors of Read More
