Local Japan: Ehime JET alums to publish illustrated book of their 88 temple pilgrimage
Art, Books, Cultural Outreach, Japan Local, JET Alum Author Beat, Return on JET-vestment, Travel/Tourism, Writers 
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Maryland-based Ehime-ken JET alums Elayna Snider and Chelsea Reidy have put together an illustrated book of their “88 temple pilgrimage” by bicycle in Shikoku. They now have a Kickstarter page to help them raise funds to publish it and a wonderful video that explains what this is all about. Definitely worth a look. It’s hard to do justice in my own words, so click the link and watch and read for yourself:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1042996508/temple-by-temple
Excerpts from the Kickstarter site:
There are 88 temples on Japan’s 88 temple pilgrimage. With two bicycles, a tent, notebooks and pens, plus a Rolleiflex, we will go to all of them. While we travel the 900-mile route, we’ll be collecting the materials needed to make 88 hand-bound versions of our illustrated book, Temple by Temple.
Elayna does the art, Chelsea does the words. A children’s book? It can be. A coffee table book? Sure. A book you have around and pick up from time to time? Yes! The idea and project did not come from any prescribed place of “Let’s make a kids book.” We are two people with varying ideas and skills and we combined them to make a book that describes the route, the temples, and this 1,200 year old pilgrimage which draws people of all different faiths and from all over the world.
JETAA USA Quarterly Report – Q1 for 2013-14
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What’s going on with JETAA chapters in the US? Below is the latest Quarterly Report from the JETAA USA Country Representatives:
Dear JETAA USA Chapter Officers,
Our Q1 CR quarterly report for 2013-2014 is now available here (and also posted below). Please note this report may seem a bit dated as it covers April-June of this year. The Q1 report includes updates on the CR elections, the JETAA USA Institutional Capacity Project, the 2013 National Conference, the 2014 Regional Conference, and tech updates. You can read previous CR reports here on jetaausa.com.
Thanks!
Christina
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Job: Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products – Japanese Interp/Translator (Bowling Green, KY)
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Via Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products. Posted by Kim ‘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: Japanese Interpreter/Translator
Posted by: Kobe Aluminum Automotive Products
Type: Full-time contract employee
Location: Bowling Green, KY
Salary: DOE
Start Date: Position will be closed when filled
Overview:
International auto parts manufacturer needs a Japanese speaker to facilitate communication. Prior translation/interpreting experience would be helpful but is not required. This position is in a group with a wide range of responsibilities, so other experience in engineering, programming, marketing, business, or manufacturing, or fluency in other foreign languages would be a plus. However, we are primarily looking for initiative, flexibility, and professionalism. Preference will be given to applicants with native-level English.
Work schedule: M-F, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Please apply by sending a resume to humanresources@kobeal.com
Reference: http://www.kobeal.com/
http://www.kobelco.co.jp/english/releases/2013/1188340_13522.html
James Hardy covers Asian defense issues
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James Hardy (IHS photo)
“The Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) unveiled its largest-ever vessel on 6 August at the Japan Marine United shipyard in Isogo, Yokohama.
“Displacing 24,000 tonnes (full), helicopter carrier Izumo (pennant DDH 183) is the largest Japanese military ship to be built since the Second World War.”
Those are the opening lines of a report by James Hardy (Fukushima Prefecture, 2001-2003) on some major naval news out of Japan earlier this month. After finishing the JET Program, James worked as a journalist at The Daily Yomiuri (since renamed The Japan News) in Tokyo for several years before returning to Britain, where he is now the Asia-Pacific editor for IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly. According to his official profile, he focuses on “military and geo-political developments in South Asia (India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) and Northeast Asia (China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula). “ He also occasionally writes about those areas for The Diplomat, an online magazine of current affairs.
You can read a bit more of his report on the Izumo launch for Jane’s HERE. (Part of the story is behind a paywall.)
You can also read the entirety of his recent overview of the Japan-Britain defense relationship in The Diplomat HERE.
Photo of the Izumo shortly after launch by Dragoner JP via Wikimedia Commons
JET alum set to publish new book “Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail”
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JET alum Kelly Luce (Kawasaki/Tokushima, 2002-04) will publish her debut collection of fiction this fall titled Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail. The book is a collection of ten stories set in Japan, and many of her stories are characterized by magical realism. According to A Strange Object, the book’s indie publisher, “Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. These stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love.” The cover was designed and illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.
Luce’s work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, and other magazines. Her short story “Yamada-san’s Toaster” was included in the Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction anthology, (reviewed on JETwit last year.) She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and Austin, Texas, where she is a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers.
A little bit about Kelly: After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in cognitive science, Luce spent three years in Japan. During her time there, she became the first non-Japanese to join a professional Awa Odori dance team (ren), starred in an English conversation video series for children, and spent a week in a women’s prison in Yokohama.
Around Japan in 47 Curries: Horse Meat
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Tom Baker (Chiba, 1989-91) is writing a 47-part series of posts on his Tokyo Tom Baker blog, in which he samples and comments on a curry from a different prefecture almost every week. Here’s an excerpt from his 11th installment, about Kumamoto Prefecture.
I’ve eaten basashi at izakayas a few times over the years, dipping slices of raw horse meat in soy sauce with grated ginger. Perhaps I haven’t gone to the right places, but I’ve found the meat to be overly chewy and not memorably flavorful. It’s not at all unpleasant, but it struck me as being in the category of things one eats just to say one has eaten them.
However, the horse meat curry I tried a few days ago was much nicer than that. It included chunks of what I would consider good stew meat – soft and just slightly stringy, easy to break up with the edge of a spoon. Some of the meat had little bits of tendon attached, with the collagen softened by long cooking. (I was content with the quantitiy of meat I got, but it was nothing like the generous mountain shown in the photo on the box.)
Thanks to Xander Peterson (Miyazaki-ken, 2009-12), the JET Coordinator at the SF Consulate, for sharing this opening. He also asked that we point out that the deadline is really tight–Mon, Aug 19.
Here’s the link: http://www.sf.us.emb-japan.go.jp/archives/PR_e/2013/pr_13_0812.htm
Coordinator for Public Relations at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco
The Coordinator for Public Relations works closely with consulate officers and other local staff to promote greater interest in and understanding of Japan and Japanese culture in Northern California and Nevada. S/he also works with the Japan Information Center (JIC) Director to handle Japan-related press and public affairs issues that arise within areas served by this office. In addition, as a staff member of the Consulate, applicants must be willing to work as a part of a team, sharing responsibilities and occasionally working overtime for evening/weekend programs as needed.
POSITION DUTIES: Read More
JQ Magazine: Film Review – ‘Cutie and the Boxer’ Pairs Sparring Partners in Life, Art
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“Director Zachary Heinzerling spent five years with the Shinoharas in the making of his movie, and it has been recognized with critical praise and honors including the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.” (RADiUS-TWC)
By Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03) for JQ magazine. Stacy is a professional Japanese writer/interpreter/translator. She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations in the periodic series WITLife.
Director Zachary Heinzerling’s debut documentary is the captivating Cutie and the Boxer, which follows two New York-based Japanese artists who have been married for over 40 years. It stars Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, a couple separated in age by two decades who have a truly unique union. They alternately bicker and support each other, but you get the sense that their respective existences are necessary for the other to survive. As wife Noriko puts it, “We are like two flowers in one pot,” meaning that when things are going well they are essential for each other’s flourishing, but when things are not they are fighting over limited space and nourishment.
Ushio (a.k.a. Gyu-chan) is an artist who was active in the avant-garde art movement, and is known for his boxing paintings and motorcycle sculptures. He achieved great fame in Tokyo before moving to New York to test his skills in the States. He was 40 at the time he met Noriko, who was 19 and had come to New York to study art. Things happened quickly between them, and soon they were married with a son, Alex. Noriko put aside her artistic aspirations to help Ushio in his career and raise Alex, thus curbing the potential for her own success.
Meanwhile, Ushio was floundering in building a name for himself as an artist in his new country. Despite the fact that he had become a father, he didn’t want to move beyond his old ways of drinking with friends and discussing philosophies regarding art. One of the most poignant and candid scenes in the film is when Ushio becomes quite drunk at one of these gatherings and emotionally describes both the pain and sublime pleasure he receives from creating art, saying that he would rather die than do anything else with this life. It is one of the film’s truly heartbreaking and inspiring moments.
Amegoui – Praying for Rain
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Posted by Benjamin Martin, a JET from 2008-2013 in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com and author of the award-winning YA fantasy series Samurai Awakening (Tuttle).
Since the end of the rainy season early this year, the weather on Kume Island has been full of clear sunny days. While it makes for great sight-seeing and beach-going, it has been a hard year for farmers, with little or no rain to sustain critical crops. For the first time in 15 years, the island locals returned to their roots, asking for the help of the Chinbei, the name of the high priestess from the old Ryukyu Kingdom to come and pray for rain.
This rare ceremony began early on August 11th. The Chinbei and other priestesses (noro) met at Chinbei Dunchi on Kume Island. There, a sacred rock was encircled by rope to signify the presence of a kami. After offerings of rice, fruit, and sake, the noro poured water onto the rock while the Chinbei and other local representatives prayed. The Chinbei poured sake from a small cup, repeating the process until she felt the kami was satisfied.
Afterward, all the attendees were asked to participate in a tug-o-war competition outside the grounds. In addition to the physical offerings of sake, rice, and fruit, the offering of effort and strength signified by the competition was in offering to local kami. While competing, locals were sprayed and doused with water, and afterward danced in the simulated rain.
From Chinbei Dunchi, the priestesses and local leaders made offerings at two other shrines in the area. These shrines date back hundreds of years. One was a natural rock formation where a kami is thought to reside. The other was hidden away near the airport grounds where a concrete structure enclosed the sacred home of another kami. At both sites, offerings of rice, sake, fruit and prayers were put forth.
Immediately after the prayers ended, it began to rain. A tornado was even spotted, though it did not touch down. The farmers and local representatives happily returned to Chinebei-dun, the parched ground sated with the first short downpour in a very long time.
For more photos from this special event visit MoreThingsJapanese.com
WIT Life #245: Count Down My Life
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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 night I went to go see the US premiere of the Japanese rock musical Count Down My Life, which was featured as part of the 17th New York International Fringe Festival. I was especially excited to check this show out as I had heard that the director and playwright, Ikko Ueda, is from Kumamoto, which is where I spent my time on JET. 28-year old Ueda has created a partially autobiographical play that tells the story of a playwright (referred to only as “a man”) who is striving to win an award those younger than 30 are eligible for. It begins with him turning 29 and realized that gives him exactly a year, after which point he will give up on his dream of becoming a success and return to his hometown. In his struggle to write an award-winning play, the man is visited by several people, including a mysterious fan, who help him in his endeavors. Through these encounters, he begins thinking about Read More
Job: Political Affairs Assistant at the Consulate-General of Japan at Houston
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Thanks to Houston Consulate JET Coordinator Ryan Pauley for passing this on. Posted by Kim ‘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: Political Affairs Assistant
Posted by: Consulate-General of Japan
Type: N/A
Location: Houston
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Start Date: N/A
Primary Duties & Responsibilities:
- Research and analyze political and economic issues for the states in the Consulate jurisdiction (currently Texas & Oklahoma),
with a heavy concentration on local industries and regional politics - Write daily news reports summarizing relevant local, regional, national and Japan related news articles
- Assist with preparation and planning of events and receptions related to the Consulate – Write speeches and presentations for
diplomats - Assist in writing of letters
- Assist other sections of the Consulate as required
- Other administrative duties and assisting the diplomats with day-to-day tasks Read More
Job: Online English Teacher for Japanese Students – ISUS
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Posted by Kim ‘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: English Teacher for Japanese Students
Posted by: ISUS (ispeakuspeak)
Type: N/A
Location: Online
Salary: N/A
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
Teach your language when you want, where you want. Experience valued, but enthusiasm most important. Excellent conditions, with training and support provided. Become an online language trainer. ISUS, an innovative online telephone teaching platform with thousands of students around the world, is currently hiring. If you are a qualified English teacher who is skilled in teaching English to low to high level Japanese learners, have a PC and a reliable internet connection you have everything you need to start an exciting career with ISUS.
Qualifications
- IT literate (and have telephone, computer, broadband internet connection)
- ESL or other educational field qualifications and/or experience
- Business experience is also highly-valued
Check out our website at: www.ispeakuspeak.com
If you are interested please send your cv to recruitment@ispeakuspeak.com
Job: Japan Society – Education Assistant – Part Time Temporary (NY)
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Thanks to JET alum Christy Jones of Japan Society (NY) for sharing this JET-relevant opening. Posted by Kim ‘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: Education Assistant
Posted by: The Japan Society
Type: Part Time Temporary
Location: NY
Salary: N/A
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
The part-time temporary Education Assistant will play a key role the smooth functioning of Education Programs during the Leave of Absence of the Education Associate. The incumbent will have an opportunity to participate in all aspects of the education program. The position will be two days per week for at least three months.
Specific responsibilities will include:
- Aiding JS staff with administration of Going Global social network, particularly coordination of US schools
- Helping in uploading materials for the About Japan: An Educator’s Resource website
- Proofreading of grant proposals and reports in English
- Tracking expenses
- Aiding Education staff with administration of family programs as needed
- Aiding with preparation for student exchange program
- Other duties as required Read More
Job: Job Openings at Japan Foundation LA
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Thanks to JETAA NO CAL’s Mark Frey for passing these postings on. Posted by Kim ‘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: Librarian
Posted by: The Japan Foundation
Type: N/A
Location: Los Angeles
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles (JFLA), seeks a friendly, innovative and enthusiastic librarian to be responsible for providing library and research services, maintaining the information center and its collections, and conducting outreach programs utilizing our information center’s collection.
Hours
35 hours per week. Assignment hours include both evening and weekend shifts based on the needs of JFLA
Reports To
Deputy Director
Job Description
1.Provide hospitality to JFLA patrons and visitors
2.Provide library services in response to the needs of information center users
3.Plan and coordinate outreach programs utilizing the collection of the information center with outside organizations
4.Plan and coordinate events for information center users and local community
5.Maintain the organization of information center materials
6.Provide effective access to information center collections and resources by maintaining the catalog of materials
7.Manage the planning, administrative, and budgetary functions of the information center
8.Perform other related duties assigned by Director or Deputy Director Read More
WIT Life #244: Japan’s 活 boom
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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.
Recently on the Japanese morning news there was an interesting “Saki Tsubu” segment which highlighted the Japanese phenomenon of using the character 活 (katsu) to describe various activities. Many of you are probably familiar with the original combination of 就活 (shuukatsu), introduced in 2000. This phrase, comprised of the characters for work and activity, is an abbreviation for 就職活動 (shuushoku katsudou) and refers to being engaged in job searching.
This coinage was followe
d in 2007 by 婚活 (konkatsu), which puts together the characters for marriage and activity to describe young men and women trying to meet each other with the goal of getting married (and is an abbreviation for 結婚活動 (kekkon katsudou)). Little did the world know that over the next couple of years there would be an explosion in katsu expressions, covering things ranging from the mundane to the morbid. The following is an outline of several katsu expressions that can be commonly heard in Japan these days. Read More
