By Kirsten Phillips (Niigata-ken, 2005-08)
The trip home was poetic. Trying to spare myself the tremendous charge for checking more than 2 bags on a flight, I condensed the entirety of my JET existence into three bags. One of them (a duffel bag to be precise) broke 30 minutes before the takyuubin people were due so we Macguyver-ed the fucker up with twine and a paperclip and hoped for the best.
How I thought that bag could not be the source of hilarious drama is beyond me.
You should have witnessed me getting it onto the plane. Narita is like some parallel universe where things have to go right even when they are noticeably falling apart. The lack of stress at Narita is downright fucking scary for an airport. Bless its hallowed grounds.
So let me present you with reason #718 of just how stupid I can be. Read More
Kinokuniya sets up JET Alumni Author section
Books, Celebrity, Events, Roland Kelts, Writers 
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In anticipation of the upcoming JET Alumni Author Showcase (set for March 22; e-mail authors at jetaany dot org to rsvp), Kinokuniya has set up a table featuring books by JET alumni authors. The table is on the ground floor in the main aisle, right by the magazine section and features the following books:
- Japanamerica – Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99)
- The Order of Odd-Fish – James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06)
- Zorgamazoo – Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04)
- Learning to Bow – Bruce Feiler (Tottori-ken, 1989-90)
- Importing Diversity: Inside Japan’s JET Program – David L. McConnell
- Hitching Rides with Buddha (originally titled Hokkaido Hitchhiking Blues) – Will Ferguson (Nagasaki-ken, 1991-94)
*See a more complete list of JET alumni authors and their works at https://jetwit.com/wordpress/library/authorsbooks/
Stop by Kinokuniya and take a look!
Other Kinokuniya-related information that may be of interest to you:
- Kinokuniya now offers an Anime/Manga Membership Card – for $15 you get 10% off all of your purchases. You can find the application form at the checkout desk in their stores.
- Anime Day @ Kinokuniya – Sunday March 15 (1073 Avenue of the Americas & 40th St. in NYC) – 11am to 6pm – First 10 fans dresses as Zetsubou-Sensei will win Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Vol. 1 from Del Rey Manga!
- Japanese Young Artists’ Book Fair_3rd – Feb 15 thru March 8 – Comics, graphic books, picture books, art books, phtoograph books, poetry books, art object books and more at 4 different locations in NY: Kinokuniya (Midtown), Printed Matter (Chelsea), St. Mark’s Bookshop (E. Village), Spoonbill & Sugartown, Booksellers (Williamsburg) and
JETAA DC Bookclub Update
Books, Events, JETAA Chapters, Writers Comments Off on JETAA DC Bookclub Update
Via JETAA DC:
Hi all,
After a great first meeting in February, our book club is officially alive and kicking. The March meeting will be on Monday, March 30 at 6:30 location TBA (please let me know if you have any thoughts). We will be discussing Out by Natusuo Kirino.
Here is a brief summary courtesy of Publishers Weekly: “Four women who work the night shift in a Tokyo factory that produces boxed lunches find their lives twisted beyond repair in this grimly compelling crime novel, which won Japan’s top mystery award, the Grand Prix”
Let me know if you are interested in coming or if you have any questions. Here are some discussion
questions to consider along the way.
I hope to see you on the 30th. Happy Reading,
Jillian
Job: Credit Analyst and Corporate Treasury Relationship Manager (Chicago)
Jobs Comments Off on Job: Credit Analyst and Corporate Treasury Relationship Manager (Chicago)
Via JETAA Chicago:
JOB OPENING: CREDIT ANALYST & CORPORATE TREASURY RELATIONSHIP MANAGER
Credit Analyst
- – Analyzing the credit worthiness of existing and potential Japanese corporate borrowers
- – Minimizing the Bank’s credit risk by assisting in the development of acceptable deal structures
- -Conduct credit control and portfolio management assessments with senior credit members This person may be out of undergrad or have 1-3 years of experience. For those with no experience he/she must have finance or accounting degree. Corporate Treasury Relationship Manager
- – Manage the business development activities with Japanese corporate relationships in order to create new revenue streams
- – Partner with senior corporate bankers in development of business plan and sales execution Required background
- – 3-6 years of treasury management or cash management experience
- – Fluent in Japanese
Interested parties please contact Ben Godfrey at bgodfrey@ michaelpag e.us.com
On Wisconsin: New JETAA subchapter starts in Wisconsin
JETAA Chapters Comments Off on On Wisconsin: New JETAA subchapter starts in Wisconsin
According to the weekly JETAA Chicago e-mail webletter, there is now a JETAA Wisconsin subchapter. Any interested Wisconsonians can join the yahoogroup at at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wijetaa/.
The best thing in sushi since vinegar…
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Posted by Jamie Graves (Saitama-ken 2002-2003). Jamie is a freelance translator specializing in food, cooking and literature.
In case you haven’t seen this yet, a totally charming little YouTube video shot in a kaiten-zushi place in Hokkaido.
That parade of faces is absolutely priceless.
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James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, has a new blog post in which he “attacks” the American Library Association in a uniquely entertaining way. Below is an intro which doesn’t even begin to do justice to the full post.
In January the American Library Association held its Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Teenagers were invited to talk about their favorite books that were nominated for YALSA’s “Best Books for Young Adults” list.
It was reported that one fan of The Order of Odd-Fish wore a three-foot-long red-and-white fish hat in its honor, declaring that the book was “incredibly, ridiculously funny. You just don’t see books like this very often.”
I was able to track down a photo of the gentleman. His name: Kevin Buckelew. I have written a factual account the incident below.
You can meet James on March 22 at the JET Alumni Author Showcase in New York, along with Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, and Robert Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of Zorgamazoo. Space is limited to RSVP to reserve your spot. Details at http://jetaany.org/authors.
Job: Director, Office for Latin American Programs – Texas A M (TX)
Jobs Comments Off on Job: Director, Office for Latin American Programs – Texas A M (TX)
Via Chronicle of Higher Ed’s international programs job listings:
3/4/2009
- Texas A&M University at College Station (Texas) : Director, Office for Latin American Programs
- Learn more in our Employer Profiles
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By translator and writer Jamie Graves (Saitama-Ken 2002-2003)
If you studied Japanese at the college level, your first exposure to the language most likely came from the red and black circles of Eleanor Harz Jorden’s seminal textbook “Japanese: The Spoken Language.” Jorden recently passed away at the age of 89, having spent her entire adult life studying and teaching Japanese linguistics to English speakers. Jorden was part of the generation of Japanese scholars that became active and influential just after World War II, and whose work laid the foundations for modern study and understanding of Japan in the English speaking world. When the translations of Donald Keene and Edward Seidensticker inspired many to study Japanese language and literature, it was often the system Jorden developed that they used to learn it.
As a linguist, Jorden was extremely concerned with accuracy and precision. Switching to Japanese in the middle of my junior year, I moved from the copiously illustrated “Genki” series of textbooks, with its illustrated storyline of Mary-san the exchange student slowly learning Japanese language and culture, to Jorden’s blocky and forbidding introduction. There were no photos, illustrations or cultural asides in Jorden’s book, just rows of text and the occasional explanatory table. Instead of hellos and introductions the book begins like a science text, defining its most basic terms. “Mora is the term we will use to refer to the syllable-like unit of Japanese: each mora represents one beat and occupies roughly the same unit of time (a 3-mora word takes three times as long to pronounce as a 1-mora word).” Read More
By Kirsten Phillips (Niigata-ken, 2005-08)
I had an inaka bank. 弟四銀行. Anyone outside Niigata even heard of it? Is it just a Niigata thing? Do they have those in Nagano/Toyama/Nagoya?
I was always nervous going to Tokyo because the only ATM that would recognize my ATM card was the 7-11. Not the Save-On, not the AM/PM, not the Circle K, not even some of the LAWSON’S in the big city would take my card but I could always rely on 7-11. Oh, how sad I was when I parted with my cute little pink ATM card with the cartoon duckies on it. Nah, I’m not shitting you.
Learning the Japanese ATM ropes was quick enough. Once I recognized the kanji for “balance” and “withdrawal”, my financial worries were over. Furikomi? Yeah, I love those! They’re sooo yummy, especially when they’re r-….wait, that’s not a food?
Ohhh, friends. Nothing could be more tragi込み than watching American citizen Numero Uno trying to pull off a delicate kanji procedure such as a furikomi on her own. Read More
Introducing the 2009-10 JETAA DC Council
JETAA Chapters Comments Off on Introducing the 2009-10 JETAA DC Council
Via JETAA DC:
2009-2010 JETAA DC Council
- President: Michelle Spezzacatena
- Vice President: Justin Manger
- Secretary: Brooke Howell
- Treasurer: Susan Gundersen
- Ad Hoc Chair: Heather McDonald
- Outreach Chair: Margaret Burton
- Newsletter Chair: Abby MacBain
- Online Chair: Ben Bucher
- Returnee Handbook Chairs: Abby MacBain and Jeff Herman
- Social Chair: Cynthia Hawkins (Rosalyn Adams)
- Volunteer Chairs: Naomi Basik and Stacey Yanagawa
- Non Profit Chair: Mac Maloney
Japanese art and anime festival at the Orlando Public Library
Events, Japan Trends, JETAA Chapters Comments Off on Japanese art and anime festival at the Orlando Public Library
Via JETAA Florida:
There will be a Japanese art and anime festival at the Orlando Public Library Friday, March 13 through Saturday, March 14. Check it out. http://ld-e.com/jclub/J.Fair2009.jpg
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Big news to announce. This event is a direct outgrowth of the Writers Interpreters Translators (WIT) Group and JetWit.com.
Click on image to go to jetaany.org/authors to access full-size PDF of the poster.
Read on for more details about the event and the authors.
By Kirsten Phillips (Niigata-ken, 2005-08)
My first year in Japan schooled me.
Learn how to suck it up, you soft American pansy. This is Nippon and we don’t care if your carcass is rotting and your soul is spiraling rapidly towards damnation. We will smile and hand you the five letter dirty word: G-A-M-A-N. Now get your sorry ass into that tanmoku of 40 revved up first years or we will not be amused.
Going in to work sick is a part of life. You popped your meds, filled your water bottle and dragged your dead weight to class. Some days you just don’t have the juice to perform. When you haven’t seen the sun for 3 straight months and Kocho thinks its a swell idea to keep the heaters turned off in January to save money, you sometimes have to look under the couch of your soul and hope to scrape up some change in order to get through the day.
Nonetheless, sick is sick.
I only ever got heinously ill once in Japan. Heinous enough to see a Japanese doctor, that is. The guy was curt, handed me a vast array of Read More
Bankruptcy Bill #12 – Facebook #1
Cartoon/Illustration, Humor, Writers Comments Off on Bankruptcy Bill #12 – Facebook #1
Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall. To see more strips as well as original bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
*Note: For those unfamiliar with the bagel reference, you can find the explanation in this NY Post article along with some additional modern bankruptcy cultural history in this NY Observer article.
