Winter 2008 cover v2

Newsletter for The
Japan Exchange
and Teaching
Program
Alumni Association,
New York Chapter
WINTER 2008
Vol. 17, Issue 1
jetaany.org/newsletter
The “DIGITAL MEDIA” Issue
What’s Inside?!
Letter From the Editor
NEWSFLASH! - Elections; Centralized Membership System; & New
JETAA International Execs
TECHNOLOGY TROUBLES:
Tales from the JETAA-sphere
JETAANY Society Page
CAREER LOOK: Profiles of JET
Alums Working in Digital MultiMedia
Comic Award: JET Alum Lars Martinson Wins Grant to Self-Publish
Comic - by Alexei Esikoff
BlogLook - by Steven Horowitz &
Alexei Esikoff
Martha Stewart Visits Japan Society - Reviewed by Justin Tedaldi
BENKYOU 2.0: A review of on-line
Japanese study options
by Steven Horowitz
JET Alums Help NY de Volunteer
by Marc Carroll
Theatre Review: I & Me & You & I Reviewed by Justin Tedaldi
Shonen Knife Returns to NYC Reviewed by Justin Tedaldi
JAPANESE FILM REVIEW: The
Films of Hiroshi Teshigahara Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander
TOP 10: Things that Weren ft Invented for JETs but Should Have
Been
Japan -- Land of the cell phone, the super-robotic all had various interactions with technology
dog and the Starship Enterprise toilet seats. We over there, or in some cases the lack of it. And
WINTER 2008 “DIGITAL MEDIA”ISSUE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Technology Troubles in Japan: Tales from the JETAA-sphere
2. Letter from the Editor
3. NEWSFLASH! Elections; Centralized Mebership System; & New JETAA
International Execs
4. JETAANY Society Page - by Yoku Shitteiru
5. CAREER LOOK: Profiles of JET alumni working in digital multi-media
6. COMIC GENIUS: JET alum Lars Martinson wins grant to self-publish
comic - by Alexei Esikoff
7. BlogLook: The Newsletter picks a random JET alum blog - and reviews it! by Steven Horowitz & Alexei Esikoff
8. Martha Stewart Visits Japan Society - Reviewed by Justin Tedaldi
9. BENKYOU 2.0: A look at on-line Japanese study options - by Steven
Horowitz
10. JET Alums Help NY de Volunteer with new “Explore Japanese Culture”
After School Program - by Marc Carroll
11. Theatre Review: I & Me & You & I - Reviewed by Justin Tedaldi
12. Shonen Knife Returns to NYC - Photographed and reviewed by Justin Tedaldi
13. JAPANESE FILM CORNER: The Films of Hiroshi Teshigahara - Reviewed
by Lyle Sylvander
14. TOP 10: Things That Weren’t Invented For JETs But Should Have Been
Newsletter Editor-in-Chief: Steven Horowitz
Assistant Editor: Justin Tedaldi
Advertising, Letters to the Editor and other newsletter-related enquires:
newsletter(at)jetaany.org
Technology Troubles in Japan:
Tales from the JETAA-sphere
Japan–land of the cell phone, the super-robotic dog and the Starship Enterprise toilet
seats. We all had various adventures with technology over there, or in some cases the
lack of it. Here are some of those tales from your fellow JET alums.
I remember sitting at the one computer at the school I was working at. It was so old
that the screen was black with green letters. It didn’t have auto-return so you had to hit
the space bar. If you edited anything, then you had to go and delete all the spaces and
start over. I had never used such an old computer as that. I also had the giant floppy disk
thing going on too. It was like going back in time with the computer, and yet at the same
time my Japanese friend was buying little state-of-the art mini-disks to copy CDs. -Jenny
Jung (Fukui-ken, 1994-96)
I was in Yokohama with a Japanese friend from Hiroshima, and we were staying with
his aunt and uncle, who were not at home
the first time I needed to use their toilet. It
looked like the cockpit of the space shuttle
to me (we simply had a hole in the ground
in Hiroshima), replete with buttons and
dials and lights. The most interesting one,
however, was the huge red one on the wall
with the kanji for “push” on it. How I
wanted to push that shiny red button. But,
not knowing what it was for, I used my
superhuman powers of restraint to refrain
from its singularly attractive command,
getting out of there before the desire
became overwhelming.
My friend, however, had no such restraint, and so we quickly discovered the mysterious
button’s purpose. It was a (loud) burglar alarm. Obviously, if somebody broke into your
apartment, you could shut yourself in the toilet, hit the button, and wait until the police
arrived. And it was not easy to turn off, there being two switches in different secret places
in the house that must be switched simultaneously so as to prevent a burglar from
disabling it on his own. Curse those childhood button-based toys which so conditioned us.
-Ian Laidlaw (Okinawa CIR/PA 2001-04)
For two of the three years I was on JET, I lived across
the street from an electronics store. I would often go in
there to hang out and “try out” the massage chairs.
Kimochi yokatta yo! -Lee-Sean Huang
When I was 15 years old, I went to live in Japan as a
high school exchange student for a year. My host family
was very wealthy and had a brand new house where
everything was state of the art. On my very first day,
within five minutes of arriving at this lovely house and
being served my first glass of “cowpiss” (Calpis), I was already fighting back tears at the
prospect of spending another 11 months in the home of these people who didn’t
understand a word I said. So I retreated to the bathroom to pull myself together. Upon
sitting down on the toilet, however, I was confronted with a huge panel of multi-colored
buttons with pictures of water spraying up at little manga butts and lots of
hiragana/katana that I didn’t understand. Which one of these buttons flushed the toilet? I
pressed them all and ended up sprayed and dried from multiple angles, but never flushed.
Now the tears were flowing full force. I couldn’t even figure out how to flush the
*@!&ing toilet in this country! I slunk out of the bathroom, sniffling, and found my 19-
year-old host brother, to whom I was able to communicate through an embarrassing
series of gestures and pointing, that I needed him to flush the toilet for me. He loved it!
The story of how Clara couldn’t find the flusher on the toilet became an instant classic for
him (and the rest of the family) and is probably still told at family gatherings today. Clara Solomon (Tottori-ken, 1999-2001)
When I was on JET, I had to walk five miles through the snow to the post office to send
mail. Funny thing is, after I returned to the United States in 1995, I went to Chicago’s
first-ever e-mail cafe to open up an e-mail account. I never got any e-mail, and
coincidently, the cafe closed down. I suppose the cafe was opened two or three years
before its time. Bummer. -L.U.
I moved to Japan in the summer of 1997, before everyone had cell phones and
universal e-mail addresses. I was the first ALT in my town and left the states without an
apartment address and a phone number. My parents were reassured by the fact that I had
traveled to Japan and lived there before. Plus, they had the number of the Board of
Education (not that it would do them any good since
no one spoke English!).
After Tokyo orientation, I traveled out to the small
city in Chiba which would be my home for the next
two years. Once I settled in, my supervisor told me
my home phone number, but said that I could not
make long distance calls without going through an
outside service. So, until I worked out which service
to use, I decided to use the pay phone at the Fujiya
Cake Shop down the street. I called my parents and told them how to call my home phone.
Satisfied that I had effectively opened the lines of communication to my new apartment, I
walked home to wait for Mom and Dad to contact me.
Several days went by and I didn’t hear from them. I figured they were busy and I knew I
was, so I didn’t worry. After a week’s time, I called home from the pay phone and asked
why my parents hadn’t called. My mom told me that she thought I had given them the
wrong number because each time she tried to reach me, a nice Japanese woman would
answer and my mother didn’t know how to respond. After several minutes of checking
the number and the instructions for dialing Japan (country code, city prefix, etc.) I
realized she had been calling my number, only my answering machine had picked up. I
had no way of changing the “tadaima rusu ni shite orimasu…” message and my mom
thought it was a real Japanese woman answering! I soon worked out an Internet service
provider and our communication issues were resolved.
-Cindy Hoffman (Chiba-ken, 1997-99)
My “high”-tech experience in ‘95 was playing
Mahjong Solitare on one of my office’s two computers.
The other computer was, of course, being used by the
school’s other high-tech expert– the gym teacher.
-Andrew Barnes
I used to teach english online after school at englishtown.com. Basically, there was an
online classroom and people from all over the world including Japan would call in and I
would teach them English via a headset. Sometimes we’d get weirdos who would call in
and just make random noises. Luckily, I could block people and mute their microphones.
Also, while I was teaching, my cat used to love jumping up on the kotatsu and stretching
out across my keyboard. It was definitely an interesting
experience, and it actually paid pretty well for a part time gig. I
kept teaching for Englishtown when I came back to the States
for a while–it was a good transition while I was looking for a
job back home. -Megan Miller (Hyogo-ken, 2000-02)
I was very lucky in terms of my placement. Although I was
in a small village in the middle of nowhere (Hirukawamura =
inaka), my two-story house was equipped with the very latest
in technological devices! I even had a Western style bed
upstairs in my bedroom, but I preferred to sleep in the living
room, usually under the kotatsu in the winter. -Alana Alissa
Yoshiko Anderson (Gifu-ken, 1999-2000)
When I was younger, I liked video games. Later on, I got into music. Put them together
and you have the formula for an incurable addiction. Sure I knew about Dance Dance
Revolution (it was already playable in the U.S. around the time I went to Japan), but
I flipped over a helluva rock upon visiting my first game center. Guitar Freaks, Pop’n
Music, ParaParaParadise, and Mambo A Go Go were all sensory overload for me, but the
altar I worshipped at early and often was Konami’s DrumMania. This simulator was
everything I could have wished for in a coin-op (complete with neon and stobe lights!),
teaching me both music appreciation and J-pop history. Plus, with upgrades rolled
out every six months, I never tired of spending that hard-earned JET
money.
Five stages of my addiction:
• For a more “authentic” experience, I purchased my own set of
legendary X Japan drummer Yoshiki’s signature sticks and made a habit
of bringing them with me everywhere (splintering three pairs before
returning to America). A set of Zildjian drummer’s gloves came later, as
my fingers started resembling The Very Hungry Caterpillar after weeks
of heavy play.
• On my first trip to Tokyo, I dragged a friend with me on a pilgrimage
to Konami headquarters just so I could have the satisfaction of visiting
the address on the back of the official DrumMania soundtrack CDs (of
which I now own a dozen). Even though it was just an office building
and it was already closed by the time we got there, it was a magical feeling. If that wasn’t
crazy enough, I also contacted Konami’s branch in Kobe about a possible job interview
as my time on JET wound down. In the end, I decided against going since “I’m in love
with your game” was all I wanted to tell them.
• I’d often play during my lunch hour (if the seat was occupied I would race across town
to two other locations that had it, and if those were similarly occupied I would—you
know—eat lunch, which incidentally was far more economical than playing DrumMania
for an hour). No one ever asked why I always came back to work panting and sweaty, but
I’ll bet there was talk.
• When I visited Seoul with my then-girlfriend, I don’t know what irked her more—the
fact that older versions of the game were available wait-free at every game center we
stumbled upon (under the name Percussion Freaks, which I of course insisted on playing),
or the fact that at the end of the trip I forced her to play it, as it was conveniently at the
Incheon International Airport lounge (since my sticks were already in baggage, I poohpoohed using the tatty tethered ones provided and encouraged her to rock out instead).
Eventually, I got good enough where people would take pictures with me, and I’d get
hearty rounds of applause from girls who watched. All this attention had me wondering if
I was the number one non-Japanese DrumMania player living in the country, and I
fantasized about being the subject of one of those tabloid news segments that profile
wacky gaijin. Since returning to New York, I’ve never seen the game here (sadly forcing
me to quit cold turkey), but the recent domestic boom of (inferior) non-Konami home
games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band gets me all natsukashii. -Justin Tedaldi, Kobeshi CIR, 2001-02
How do people type on a computer in Japanese? Do they need a huge keyboard with
every single kanji on it? That was the mystery I,
a naïve Japan novice, was obsessed with
unraveling when I arrived in Japan. So when I
visited a Board of Ed member’s house on my first
day in my town, I asked their teenage son to show
me. Lo and behold, he typed using English letters
to create Japanese sounds that turned into Japanese
letters or kanji. Mystery solved. Now it seems so
matter-of-fact, but at the time I literally couldn’t
conceive of this concept. -Steven Horowitz,
Aichi-ken, 1992-94
Letter From the Editor: Winter 2008
The “Jetaany 2.0 Digital Media” Issue
This issue is really just an experiment.
Shoujiki ni itte, my true goal was to reduce the amount of time required to put the
Newsletter together. This whole “Digital Media” theme is just a concoction to cover all
that up, as I’m sure you figured out by now. But it turns out that, much like gaseous
matter, content tends to expand to fill up the space and time allowed and new formats
present their own quirky challenges, and such has been the case with this issue as
well. (No doubt those of you reading the PDF version understand quite well what I’m
talking about.)
That said, experiments usually lead to learning and new perspectives, such as the
profiles of JET alums working in digital multimedia, or the search for a suitable JET alum
blog to review, which led to the discovery of the website jetsetjapan.com (a terrific
resource which is about to get an overhaul). And the on-line format allows for linking to
various fun and unexpected places, as you’ll find out when you click about the articles.
Plus, you can add comments at the end of articles, creating the opportunity for an INE
(”interactive newsletter experience”). (I just made that term up. Another fun feature of
working in digital multi-media.)
Of course, we’ve kept an eye on some of the off-line happenings as well, such as the
review of Martha Stewart’s talk at the Japan Society and the review of I and Me &
You and I, a two-woman Japanese play that ran here in New York. Articles like these
require someone to log off Second Life, make use of comped tickets and actually sit and
watch non-digital humans perform.
In the end, whether in the real or virtual world, life is about taking risks and trying out
new ways of doing things. Adapt or perish. That’s the only way to grow. And if we don’t
do it, then some leaner, hungrier Japan-oriented alumni magazine will eat our lunch.
So hopefully you will appreciate the plunge we have taken into the ethosphere and read
this issue on-line. Or, perhaps if you’re like me and don’t like reading articles on-line,
you’ll just print out the PDF and read it on the train. Or, quite possibly, you’ll come up
with a completely different way of imbibing the content that I had not even contemplated.
Whatever your chosen mode of content processing, I sincerely hope you enjoy this issue
and benefit from the new perspectives we’ve inadvertently stumbled upon.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
NEWSFLASH!
Elections, Centralized Membership System, and New
JETAA International Execs
1. LET’S PLAY JETAA NY ELECTIONS!
At this moment, everyone else reading the Newsletter needs YOUR
help. Whether you’re an active member, a passive member, a “happy
hour” member, just a regular Yuki or Yukio, JETAA NY wants you
to consider running for an elected position to help make JETAA NY
even stronger.
To learn more, click here to read the position descriptions or contact
any of the current officers (El Presidente Rob Tuck, Vice Prez
Megan Miller, Treasurer C.J. Hoppel or Secretary Carol Elk),
Country Rep Shannan Spisak, or non-elected types (Social Chair
Monica Yuki, Webmaster Lee-Sean Huang, or Newsletter Editor Steven Horowitz).
Here are the positions:
•
•
•
•
President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Ganbarimashou!
**********************
2. JET Alums Soon to Register for Centralized Membership System
In an exciting new development, JETAA International has set up a centralized website
and a Centralized Membership System for all JET
alums—a community of over 40,000 and growing
worldwide.
To be part of this, very soon you will be notified
to go to www.jetalumni.org and register.
How will you be notified? Possibly telepathically
or in a dream, but most likely in an
announcement in the weekly e-mail and or
Quarterly Newsletter.
Why do you need to register? Due to privacy laws in Japan and elsewhere, JETAA
International is not permitted to simply get the database list from each local JETAA
chapter and combine them into one comprehensive database. JETAA International needs
to start from scratch, so to be in the JETAA International database, you will have to
proactively enter your name and contact information.
Once you’re in the system, you’ll be able to customize the type of information you
receive. The JET alumni community has some extremely capable programmers who have
put this whole thing together, and others who have thought through all the privacy issues
to make sure you’re not compromising your identity info.
Contrary to what you might think, JETAA is not a big, centralized, federalist system. It’s
a bunch of local chapters that serve the JET alums in their communities and also try to
work together on a national and international level to try to make bigger things happen.
(Kind of like the original 13 colonies before they became the U.S., but without the power
to go around invading countries.)
This Centralized Membership System is one of those bigger things. It’s taken several
years of hard work by many JET alums around the world (including New Yorkers
Shannan Spisak and Scott Norman). And now it has the ability to create a vibrant and
active on-line community of JET alums—tatami timeshares, on-line forums, tracking
down old friends, job hunting, permanent jetalumni.org e-mail addresses, etc. We’re a
community of over 40,000 people—a fantastic resource—and this is how we’re going to
begin taking full advantage of it.
So go to www.jetalumni.org, take a look around, and when the moment is upon you,
make sure to seize that moment and register da yo!
YOROSHIKU ONEGAISHIMASU!
**********************
3. Meet Your New JETAA International Officers!
In September, JETAA International announced its new roster of officers. They’re
excellent folks working on your behalf, so here’s a little something about each of them.
CHAIR: Michael Adams was an ALT in Kagoshima Prefecture from 1998-2001.
Instead of returning to the USA, he followed his Aussie wife to Sydney. He has been
active with the JETAA Sydney chapter for four years as the secretary, treasurer, and
president. Currently working as a credit manager, he is looking forward to his post-grad
accountancy studies next year.
VICE CHAIR: Joseph Luk was an ALT in Karasuyama town, Tochigi prefecture, from
2002-03. As the country representative for Canada, he is trying to meet the challenges of
facilitating communication among seven chapters spread across 5000 km of distance
(Vancouver to Montréal). One of the tools introduced this year is the JETAA Canada
Wiki, a centralized and open resource for all things country-related. He was once a
software engineer in Silicon Valley, but partly through JET he discovered that instead of
working with computers, he enjoys working with people far more.
SECRETARY: Michelle Fox was an ALT in Saitama Prefecture from 1999-2002. She
briefly returned to Scotland before heading on out to sunny Sydney. She has been the
Social Coordinator of the Sydney chapter for two years, with the highlight of her term
being the successful coordination of the Sydney International Meeting in November 2006.
She is an events manager by profession and loves using the skills learned in her career to
hold successful events for JET Alumni.
PR/TREASURER: Liz Aveling majored in Japanese, graduating from universities in
London and Paris. She joined the JET Programme as a rural CIR in Miyazaki Prefecture
in 1989, moved to Tokyo for some nightlife and a job in 1991 and then roamed the planet
with a backpack before returning to the UK. She worked for Itochu for a bit before taking
a position with the Japan Local Government Organisation (CLAIR London), overseeing
their officer training programs and public relations. It was during this time that she got
involved with JETAA UK. Since then, she has become self-employed, mostly in the
editing and translating business. She has been involved with JETAA International since
2000 and thoroughly enjoys helping to contribute to the success of a program which has
so enriched her own life.
WEBMASTERS: Paul Donovan/Sean Lowry
Paul Donovan (webmaster) was an ALT in Fukuoka prefecture from 1991-94 and has
served as the JETAA International webmaster and Content Management System (CMS)
developer for a number of years. He has also served as the president, events coordinator
and Newsletter editor for JETAA British Columbia. He is a survivor of the Kobe
earthquake and has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia since 1996 where he owns and
runs Living Productions Inc. (www.livingproductions.com), a web, graphic design, audio
and video production company.
Sean Lowry (assistant webmaster) lives in New Zealand. We will provide you with more
information about Sean when we feel that you are ready to handle it.
For more information about the JET Alumni Association at the international level, go to
www.jetalumni.org.
JETAANY Society Page
By Yoku Shitteiru
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu to all of my readers! Yoku
Shitteiru is thrilled to be writing for you on-line, where I no
longer have to worry about kibishii editors and space limits,
only about keeping your easily distracted attention.
Let’s kick off the new year with…a public service
announcement? Elections are upon us! No, not the Democrat
and Republican primaries. The JETAA NY elections, which
are happening in the spring. So if you want to help make
JETAA NY even better by assuming a position in which you
could potentially exert some influence on Yoku Shitteiru, then read about the positions
and/or talk to the current officers to find out more. (Or just go on Leno and declare your
candidacy there.)
Meanwhile, in the spirit of JETAANY 2.0, Yoku
Shitteiru is now on Facebook. Come and find me on
the JETAANY Group on Facebook so you can share
celebrity JET alum tidbits Super Yoku Poke me.
JAPAN ABOUT TOWN: So you just got back from
Japan, you’re walking around the East Village and,
like, you really need to go to the bathroom, but you
want to do it in style and comfort. What’s a full-bladdered gaijin to do? You’ll be
relieved to know that the Cha-An Teahouse (9th St. between 2nd & 3rd Ave.) now
sports a Toto Washlet in the loo where you can
partake in your own private “pee” ceremony. Hey,
don’t laugh. This could be the beginning of a new
movement…… Or, if a warm seat is not your
priority, but quality time on the throne with the
latest copy of Weekend Shonen Jump is what you
seek, now you can pop into the new Kinokuniya
(6th Ave. and 42nd St.) and take advantage of their
(non-Toto Washlet) facilities as well as the Cafe
Zaiya on the second floor with its nice views
overlooking the skating rink in Bryant Park. Take
that, Barnes&NobleStarbucksUSA Industrial Complex!….. Of course, if you really
want to know where to go in New York to “get your Japan on,” you can always just
check out ChopsticksNY.com, the omoshiroi publication that’s not only a great resource,
but also told us they think “the Newsletter is
always so funny and insightful.” (Yoku Shitteiru
knows, of course that by Newsletter, they meant
Yoku Shitteiru.) Speaking of which, if you think
you got some design skilz, Chopsticks is holding a cover design contest with cash prizes.
See details on JETAANY’s main page.
JET ALUMS DOMINATE ESSAY CONTEST: Yoku Shitteiru is proud that the 15
winners of the Kintetsu JET Alumni Essay Contest (out of 76 total submissions) were
all JET alums! Announced at the end of November, they included New Yorkers Earth
Bennett (Ping Pong Diplomacy), Brendan Victorson (Otori) and current Minnesota
resident but New Yorker in her heart Alexei Esikoff (Karaoke: The Great Unifier). Also
making the jaunt was Tennessean David Flynn, who was a JET from 1987-88, now has a
daughter on JET and returned to Japan for the first time since 1988. Go here to see the
full list of winners and read their essays. (They’re in the form of one big 73-page PDF, so
Yoku
Shitteiru
recommends
printing the
whole thing
out at work
and taking it
with you on
the train or
into the ChaAn Teahouse
bathroom.)
For those of
you thinking
about
entering next
year (1 out of 5 odds is pretty good), you’ll be incentivized to know that the victory
package included free roundtrip airfare to Japan, a Japan Rail Pass, and assistance from
AJET and CLAIR in planning a trip to the winners’ respective “hometowns,” with stops
in LA on December 8 for the Departure Reception and in Tokyo on December 11 for the
Welcome Reception. Not too shabby. Yoku Shitteiru also knows well that special thanks
go to Country Reps Shannan Spisak and Shannon Quinn as well as to Clara Solomon,
Jenn Olayon and Liz Sharpe for all their hard work in making this contest a big time
success. Stay tuned for the published version of the essays with some extra bells and
whistles.
THE SOCIAL CIRCUIT: Now time to move on to some of the tanoshimi from the last
three months. We start off with the Career Forum and Welcome Back Reception, both
at the Nippon Club on October 27. (Yes, of course 2007. I can’t even believe you’re
making me clarify that…) A hearty crowd of younger JET alums gathered to garner
pearls of wisdom from a highly regarded panel of established JET alums in a session
moderated expertly by webmaster (and perhaps future daytime TV talk show host) LeeSean Huang. Clara Solomon ran the practical and helpful resume workshop. JET alums
were also treated to the engaging and entertaining perspectives of keynote speaker Ann
Koller (Fukuoka-ken, 2002-04), the International Recruiting Coordinator for Google at
the time and now the Recruiting and Programs Coordinator for DoubleClick…… The
Career Forum was followed, as is the custom, by the Welcome Back Reception where
nearly 100 JET alums got to party down with Ambassador Motoatsu Sakurai and
JLGC Executive Director Hiroshi Sasaki and welcome back the newly minted JET
alums. The crowd also included some heavy duty shacho power, notably CEOs Mr.
Yasunori Yokote of Mitsui USA and Mr. Ryoichi Ueda of Mitsubishi. Special thanks
to the Japan National Tourist Organization for providing luggage tags to all the JET
alums. (Just a quick reminder to use those luggage tags for good, and not for evil.)……
Following the Welcome Back Reception, as has become the tradition, the nijikai then
moved to Faces and Names (W. 54th Street) where the new JET alums were welcomed
in the traditional way…… Lastly, the only downside to the whole day were some party
crashers who weren’t so, shall we say, pa-so-na-ble…… JET alums, of course, like to
party during the week as well, and so November 16 it was off to Galway Hooker (E.
36th Street) where over 50 JET alums gathered in a private nook in the back for an
excellent mid-week happy hour organized by the lovely and gregarious JETAANY
Social Chair Monica Yuki. Plenty of new faces were in attendance, coming from as far
away as Gramercy Park, the Upper West Side and even New Jersey, along with a full
compliment of veteran JET
alums….. Then on Halloween, a
gaggle of JET alums were spotted
at Forbidden City (Avenue A &
13th St.) for an energetic show by
HappyFunSmile, which was
fresh off a performance at the
Anime Festival at the Javits
Center the previous Saturday.
Costumed in various manga
kitsch, including shamisen player
Kossan in a custom-made
cosplay black-and-white-withblue-hair outfit that would have
fit right in at a Harajuku
gathering, HappyFunSmile rocked the joint with their usual assortment of peppy chin-don
tunes sung by Brian Nishii, Akiko “Kewpie” Hiroshima and Kaori Ibuki contrasted
with the smooth enkas sung by Japanese-Brazilian hearthrob Rodrigo Morimoto. It was
in this festive Halloween atmosphere that Professor Cindy coined the term “slutty dotdot-dot” as the snowclone to describe every female Halloween costume, and that the JET
alum crew observed a propensity for young Japanese women in the Upper East Village
to dress as Marie Antoinette…… The HappyFunSmile party continued on December 12,
as JET alums once again gathered at Forbidden City for an Official JET Alum Happy
Hour, including special cameos by former Secretary Yuki Shimyo and international
dance star from Seattle Ichiho Hayashi. HFS put on an even kick-assier show, leading
the crowd in a bon-odori parade around the bar (”Hotte, hotte! Kagutsuide!”) and closing
with Shima Uta. As it turned out, HappyFunSmile was as glad to see a big Japan-friendly
crowd as the JET alum crew was to dance to the bouncy Okinawan tunes (described by
bandleader Wynn Yamami as a cross between Japanese and klezmer.) Baritone sax
player Rob Perle e-mailed the next day to say, “The JET crew was awesome last night.
Thanks for coming out in force to the HappyFunSmile gig.”…… And just before the new
year, Nancy I. managed to get the JLGC’s Tanaka, Bando and newbie Inoue-samas,
along with a few JETRO folks, to actually leave the office and join a yakitori chowdown at Yakitori Totto, which experts report is sooo much better than its sis Torys. Stay
tuned for future yakitori chow-downs.
IRREVERENCY: Just a quick aside to share two compelling and irreverent websites.
The first is the over-the-top and crude entry on No Gaijins Allowed in the Uncyclopedia.
The second is an on-line, fairly adoruto manga with a large cult following called Sexy
Losers, written and drawn by a Canadian who lived in Japan from 2001-04…… Hey, did
you know that fortune cookies originally come from Japan? Yoku Shitteiru does, of
course. And China may find this claim to be irreverent, but this recent New York Times
article on fortune cookies bucks conventional wisdom to say it’s so…… And this New
York Times article on modernized onsens in Japan helps keep my editor happy by tying
things back to the technology or digital chlamydia or whatever lame ‘n vague theme he
came up with this time. In any event, not actually worth reading the article, which is an
exercise of travel writing cliches and hyperbolic mundanity and was clearly produced in
exchange for free stays in each of the fancy-schmancy onsens……. On a different kind of
irreverent note, Japan Society will host an
NPR Brian Lehrer interview with U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State John
Negroponte at lunchtime on January 31.
The event is sold out, and there is no truth
to the rumor that Negroponte will
demonstrate the human rights and torture
techniques he condoned in Honduras, the
money laundering techniques he learned in
funding the Contras, and God knows what
he’s been involved in Iraq. Still, it’s way
cool that Japan Society has set this up on
their premises, and Brian Lehrer is a great
interviewer, so make sure to listen at work
or at home.
NANI SHITTEIRU YO? November saw Monica
Yuki run the NYC Marathon, Bryan Sherman
move to Tokyo with his wife Miyuki to start his
new International HR gig at Uniqlo, Rosie
DeFremery fly off to a fabulous trip in Japan,
where she tapped into the shodo subculture in
Tokyo, and Clara Solomon jetting off to Singapore
on behalf of NYU Law School in its efforts at
world law school domination…… Nancy Ikehara
was spotted hanging out with Duran Duran
following their Broadway concert and reports, “All
band members are pushing 50, believe it or not.
Simon was sporting a rather nasty potbelly. Nick, as
usual, had globs of mascara on. John’s once
glorious long locks have thinned out
considerably. And Roger is starting to
look a lot like Austin Powers yet without
the charm.”……. In December, Secretary
Carol Elk and “Dr.” Neel Ray were sited
at Macy’s getting into the spirit with
Santa-sama, and Brian Hersey was spotted rock climbing in the Cayman
Islands…… Meanwhile, Laura Epstein, of WaltzingMatildasNYC fame,
says the part-time business she runs out of her studio apartment is picking up,
going beyond friends of friends. So get your pavlova orders in now before it’s too
late!……Ganbatte to Nelson Wan who has taken over as the temporary JET
Coordinator at the Japanese Consulate while Noriko prepares for
the miracle of birth in February…. and Omedetou to Treasurer C.J.
Hoppel who accepted a summer associate position at Morrison &
Foerster, (a law firm that playfully refers to itself as MoFo) and will
be splitting his summer between the New York and Tokyo offices.
Gokuro sama, C.J.!….. From the other side of the world, Drew
“Andrew” Barnes spent New Year’s hopping around Asia with wife
Rika, starting in Osaka and then heading to Singapore (too late to run
into Clara) and Malaysia. Drew fans will be pleased to learn that he’ll be gracing the
States with a visit in the spring…… Also from the other side of the world, George Rose,
former JETAANY Prez and interpreter for Hideki Irabu, has spent the past 4 months
with his wife and 2-year old son settling into life in Tokyo with his new job as Director
of Pacific Rim Business for the New York Yankees (or is that, Yan-ki-zu?)……
Meanwhile, Friend-of-JET (FOJ) Sakura Suzuki, daughter of the owners of Shabu
Shabu 70, has left her job at NTT and moved her heart to San Francisco where she will
serve as Development Manager for the Japanese Community Youth Council……
Artist/illustrator Manya Tessler, who was one of the featured JET alum artists at JETAA
NY’s 2006 Cultural Meishi Exchange, is publishing her first book, Yuki’s Ride Home.
Don’t know if Kinokuniya is carrying it, but go
and request a copy anyway so they know it’s in
demand. Her illustrations are cho-beri oishii……
Moving on to January, we find NYC Marathon runner Monica Yuki in a boot
cast after she tore some tendons slipping on her grandma’s kitchen floor—er,
spiking the volleyball on a deserving opponent—Carol taking photos of JET
alums at Bar 13 to add to the JETAANY Facebook collection, and drunken discussions
of a new line of JETAANY t-shirts to read, “Single, Bilingual, and Ready to Mingle!”
Place your orders now!
GRAMMAR POINT: Our President knows he’s being pedantic, but wants to point out
that “it’s not shinenkai, it’s shinnenkai (note the extra “n”). Without the extra “n,” it sort
of sounds like an association to ask if someone is dying in Osaka dialect. Or something
like that. Anyway. This exercise in pedantry has been brought to you in association with
Presidents for Pedantry, Inc.” Muchos arigatos por la kyoiku, El Presidente!
That’s all for this issue, my digitally enhanced readers. Stay tuned for the Spring issue
and get ready for hanami!
Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
CAREER LOOK: Profiles of JET Alums
Working in Digital Multimedia
This Digital Media issue seems to be going well so far, so let’s take a look at some of our
fellow JET alums whose daily work is all about digital multimedia and see what they’re
up to.
Profile #1: ZI MEI (Saitama-ken, 2002-05)
•
•
•
•
Current line of work: Interactive designer, illustrator, and web programmer. I
design and build stuff like websites, software, Flash animations, DVDs, and
tradeshow kiosks and displays. I also provide technical consultation in several
RIAA file-sharing cases (for the defense). Unfortunately, word has gotten out
about my computer skills, and I’m the first person everyone bugs for free tech
support!
Company: Self, www.sugarcloud.com
Current project:
o Queens Crossing Mall 20′x40′ outdoor LED display (Flushing, Queens)
Recent projects:
o AMD interactive game kiosks and plasma TV displays for CES 2008 (Jan.
7-10, Las Vegas) http://www.engadget.com/photos/amds-ces-2008-boothtour
o FS/TEC 2007 Tradeshow LCD animation, displays, and booth graphics
http://www.sugarcloud.com/blog/images/wtm_tradeshow_arial.swf
o Various banner ads, which can be seen at
http://www.sugarcloud.com/blog/?cat=13
How I got started:
I owe my career in interactive design to video games. By the time I
was 11 or 12, I had found my passion. It all started when my parents
bought me and my brother a Nintendo for Christmas, after months
and months of pestering. Once we got this little grey box home, I
became obsessed with games, and spent all my free time in front of
the TV. All throughout primary and secondary school, college and
even until a year or two after graduation, all I wanted to do was be a
game designer. Unlike other kids who simply played games, I wanted to make my own. I
thought about what made a game fun, or not fun, and set out to teach myself how to make
them.
Today, video games are a pervasive and highly influential part of mainstream culture, and
there’s a lot of support for budding game designers. Several colleges now even offer
degrees in game design. But 10-15 years ago, it wasn’t so. The industry was still small
and didn’t enjoy the kind of respect and mindshare it does today. It was very hard to learn
on one’s own and many of the software tools and technology (3D studio, Maya,
Photoshop) simply didn’t exist yet or weren’t affordable to ordinary folks. Game studios
were out in California or Japan at that time, and being a kid from New York, there
weren’t any places to hit up for an internship.
Frustrated by the high degree of specialization required, absence of interest in
Wesleyan’s comp-sci program, and the realization that game development was a
miserable and thankless existence (long hours, lousy pay), I put my dreams on hold
during freshman year. Luckily for me, another interactive technology was emerging at
this time and rocketing into prominence—one that was a lot easier to learn and would
soon dominate society—the World Wide Web. So, I naturally started learning HTML
and Photoshop as an outlet for my creativity, and for the first time felt that I was in
control. I finally had the tools to express myself to the world. All the skills I learned
while trying to make graphics and animations for my own games transplanted over, and
by sheer coincidence, by the time I graduated, dot.com jobs were plentiful.
Why do I like it?
The web allows me to escape a life in Corporate America and do work I love. I have the
freedom to dress and work the way I want, and I get paid to think up cool ideas and bring
them to life artistically and technically. The work is diverse and challenging, and there’s
always something new to learn because web technology is ever-changing. I love creating
things that bring usefulness or enjoyment to people, and web technologies allow me to
express who I am. Who I am as a person and what I do for a living is one and the same,
so there’s never a fight. I love the Internet. It’s my source of income, news, entertainment,
shopping, means of communication…It’s my life. I don’t know how I’d live without it.
How does the JET experience fit in?
When the bubble burst, I decided to apply to JET. Going to Japan was a childhood
fantasy, but I never seriously considered living in Japan until then. While on JET, I didn’t
do much web development, so I had some catching up to do when I came back.
Weirdest job?
First job after college: eFit.com senior site builder. Duties included morphing overweight
users into images of their slimmer selves. I did Al Roker and Queen Latifah.
Last fulltime job:
Aug. 2007 - Creative Director of Paltalk.com (chat software company), where I helped
define the look and direction of the software, features, and website.
*************************
Profile #2: SHUN ENDO (Ibaraki-ken, 1998-2001)
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•
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Current line of work: Game Artist/Graphic Designer
Company: Microsoft Casual Games (online games at msn.com)
Recent projects:
-Flash Game called “Hop It!” at http://zone.msn.com/en/hopit/default.htm
-Flash Game called “Solitaire In Motion” at
http://zone.msn.com/en/solitaireinmotion/default.htm
-Website for a jewelry saleswoman: http://www.stnhills.com
What’s your background and how did you get into this kind of work?
My majors at the University of Washington were oil painting and Japanese language.
After school, I went on the JET Program, and during my stay, I solidified my Japanese
speaking, reading, and writing. When I got back to Seattle, my friend helped me get a job
at Microsoft as a Japanese software tester. I had to test the Japanese version of Microsoft
software, checking for language mistakes as well as functional problems. I was terrible at
computers, but it forced me to pick it up fast. I got very
proficient at computers, and started to learn graphic design
software like Adobe Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator. On
the side, I started working little freelance projects mainly for
friends, building up an art portfolio. Finally, I had enough of
an online portfolio to get a fulltime job at Microsoft doing
online games built mainly in Adobe Flash.
What do you like about it? I love my job because I’m
drawing and creating all the time. I finally feel like I’m
doing something in line with my passion for art.
How does your JET experience tie in, if at all? Well, JET helped me get into
computers. The only reason I got the first job at Microsoft as a tester was because of my
Japanese language skills. From there, my new computer skills helped me learn all the
design software, and that’s how I really got into the field. Also,
I love to look at Japanese art and animation for ideas as an
artist. JET really helped me to work well in groups, and lastly,
it taught me to be humble. You have to be humble in graphic
design since people are constantly giving you feedback and
criticism. [Editor’s note: Shun is also the treasurer and one of
the two technology officers for JETAA Pacific Northwest.]
Can we see some of your work?
Here’s my online portfolio of art (www.shunendo.com) and
also my band site (www.theliquidnow.com). I designed the
websites for both of these.
*************************
Profile #3: ELLIOT YAMASHIRO (Hiroshima-ken, 1994-97)
•
•
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Current line of work: Web design
Company: Fox Interactive Media
Projects I’ve worked on:
Fox Sports Fantasy College Bowl Pick ’em Product (All visual design)
http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/collegefootball/bowlpickem
Fox Sports Fantasy Football Product (All visual design)
http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/football/commissioner
ESPN SportsNation’s The Show application (All Flash development)
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/index
ALT Online (my personal Japan/JET-related blog)
http://altonline.blogspot.com/
What’s your background and how did you get into this kind of work?
After leaving the JET Program, I
went to business school, but
wasn’t sure it was the direction I
wanted to go. I wound up leaving
and enrolling myself in a
multimedia program. From there, I
interned with a design agency and
have worked at a number of
companies since then (including
ESPN and Fox).
What do you like about it?
It’s challenging and I love to
conceptualize, design, and produce
work that impacts many peoples’
lives.
How does your JET experience tie in, if at all?
One of my ex-JET colleagues planted the seed in my head to go into the creative field.
What did your ex-JET colleague say to you that planted the seed?
I enrolled in the Art Institute of Seattle’s Multimedia Program. I came across it because
my ex-JET colleague was actually thinking about doing it (but wound up studying
elsewhere). I guess he didn’t really have to “say” anything—so much as just show me the
brochure. After leaving B-school, I contemplated what I wanted to do, recalled that
particular program, and set off to Seattle.
After returning from Japan, I went to Phoenix for B-school, back to SoCal (where I’m
from), off to Seattle, relocated to Connecticut for work, and then back here to L.A.
[Editor’s note: Elliot is also one of the two technology officers for JETAA Pacific
Northwest.]
*************************
Profile #4: ELIZABETH SHARPE (Aomori-ken, 2000-02)
•
•
•
Current line of work: writer/web content manager/writing instructor
Organization: University of Washington/Cascadia Community College
Recent projects (including anything JET related):
-Example 1: Center for Genomics and Public Health Newsletter:
http://depts.washington.edu/cgph/newsletters/Spotlight_Family_History_Day_November.
06.pdf
-Example 2: Web content manager/writer: http://depts.washington.edu/cgph
-Example 3: Former JETAA Pacific Northwest Newsletter editor:
http://www.pnw.jetalumni.org/?page_id=23
What’s your background and how did you get into this kind of work?
I have a master’s degree in English literature and a good deal of experience in teaching
writing. But I first got into this line of work by chance: during my senior year of college,
a professor asked me to help him edit and lay out a collection of essays by his students
that he was going to get published cheaply in Germany. He suggested doing it in Word. I
decided that PageMaker would be better; only, I didn’t know PageMaker. So, I learned it
for the project, the book got published, and then I left publishing behind and went to grad
school and then to teach overseas. When I got back to the U.S., the first job I got was at
the University of Washington as an editor/writer. Since I had access to publishing
software in my job, I set out to learn the new version of PageMaker: Adobe InDesign. I
practiced by laying out the Pacific Northwest JETAA Newsletter for three years. Then I
moved into my current job where I’m the sole writer and need to lay out and design
materials.
What do you like about it?
Laying out materials using
publishing software allows me to be
creative, and to think about how to
make a brochure or a newsletter
attractive or striking, a design or
picture that would interest a reader
enough to pick up the newsletter
from a rack or glance at it before it’s
tossed in the trash. Writing a good story isn’t enough.
How does your JET experience tie in, if at all?
It’s largely because of being involved with JETAA and having the opportunity to be the
newsletter editor that I was able to build up a collection of stories and layout/design
experience to move into the job I have now. Go JETAA!
Do you see yourself more as a writer or a web design person?
I never thought of myself as a digital media expert. Folks at the college where I teach are
starting to do this—incorporate podcasts and wiki into their classes. But honestly, I
haven’t done this yet. Although I assigned a paper on privacy, and one of the options was
to investigate privacy issues around MySpace and Facebook pages. For my class, I have a
companion web site for posting items where I ask students to research electronically, and
at my other job at the university, I guess working on a web site and using publishing
software may count…I’m a public information specialist—that’s my title anyways. That
translates to “writer” for the Web, for a newsletter, and for marketing collateral. Which is
why I just say “writer.”
*************************
Profile #5: LEE-SEAN HUANG (Oita-ken, 2003-06)
Lee-Sean Huang, webmaster for JETAA NY, is in the process of applying to New York
University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, a two-year master’s degree
program. So in the spirit of the Jetaany 2.0 theme, and in case anyone else is thinking of
going this route, we thought it would be interesting to ask Lee-Sean about this unique
program as well as what’s involved in the application process.
First, a little background on ITP in its own words:
Founded in 1979 as the first graduate education program in alternative media, ITP has
grown into a living community of technologists, theorists, engineers, designers, and
artists uniquely dedicated to pushing the boundaries of interactivity in the real and digital
worlds. A hands-on approach to experimentation, production and risk-taking make this
hi-tech fun house a creative home not only to its 230 students, but also to an extended
network of the technology industry’s most daring and prolific practitioners.
Erai deshou!
So Lee-Sean, when is the application deadline, and how far along are you in the
process? The deadline is January 8, 2008. I have done a rough draft of my personal
statement and updated my CV for the application. I have also requested recommendation
letters. I requested transcripts from previous schools ages ago. After I polish up my
personal statement I am pretty much done. They don’t require any standardized tests,
which is great, because I hate standardized tests. They also have an optional creative
portfolio submission. I will probably burn a CD of some songs I produced with my
band/production company Hepnova.com and send them over as well. Can’t hurt I guess.
How do you feel about the application process?
Pretty good, I guess. I’m a big procrastinator, so it took me forever to even get started
writing my personal statement, which was the hardest part. I’m not sure what my chances
are really. My backup plan is to stay at my current day job at Human Rights Watch,
which has been really interesting and educational for me. I’m just going to go with the
flow and see what happens.
What have you been doing up until now that has led to your interest in this program?
I have always been interested in technology. My parents own a computer company in
Arizona, so we had computers around the house since I was really young. I worked a few
summers at their company, assembling and testing new PCs. I took some classes in high
school and college on computer programming, digital video production, and electronic
music production.
Do you know anyone who has done the program or is in it currently? If so, what
have they told you?
At my old job at Avaaz.org, our technical team, Paul and Milena Berry of Talacon.com,
were alumni of the program. In fact, they actually met on the program and got married.
They recommended the program highly and now they own their own technology
company. Paul is also the chief tech guy at the Huffington Post now. In addition, the
former chief operating officer of Avaaz, Ji Mi Choi, was a former administrator at ITP.
She was the one who told me about the program and suggested that I apply given my
interests. I went to an open house at ITP where I ran into Tim Szetela, a former classmate
of mine from Harvard. We took an electronic music production course together. He was
only a few weeks into the semester when I saw him, but he had only good things to say
about the program.
What kinds of things do you think you’d like to work on if you get accepted to the
program?As an activist and an entrepreneur, I am interested in technology’s capacity to
help and empower people, to unlock their creative, social and political potential, and to
improve the quality of their lives. I believe that those who have the privilege to harness
the great the power of technology also share in the burden to use it responsibly. I am
particularly interested in issues of sustainability and green technologies; open source and
the free flow of information; and ways to democratize technology in an effort to bridge
the digital divide of access to information and technology that separates the haves and the
have-nots of the information age. As a musician, I would like learn how to develop new
musical instrument interfaces and new ways of generating sound. I hope to be able to use
these interfaces for cutting-edge performances and “happenings” that integrate sound and
visuals that respond to the physical environment and react to audience inputs in a way
that blurs the distinction between the performer and the audience.
Thanks, Lee-Sean. Good luck with the application process, and we’ll check back with you
in the spring.
We know there are more JET alums out there with a digital multimedia background. So
feel free to post your profiles in the comments section, or e-mail them to
[email protected]. It’s helpful to other JET alums and good for networking.
COMIC GENIUS:
JET Alum Lars Martinson Wins Grant to Self-Publish
Comic
By Alexei Esikoff
There’s an illustration in Lars Martinson’s new graphic novel
Tonoharu that isn’t as flashy or complex as some of the other
wonderfully-detailed illustrations of temples and festivals, but it’s the
one that strikes the reader. Tonoharu follows a fictional American
English teacher in a small Japanese town. A bespectacled gaijin sits
on a floor-chair, snacking and watching television. Floor-to-ceiling
curtains offer a peak of the balcony beyond, and a lone potted plant
is the only other life in the room. This is life for many JETs after a day
at work. Yes, most of us did join groups, make local friends, and
teach on the side, but there were always those days spent alone.
What is wonderful about this mundane scene is the panel that precedes it. Busty Japanese
women in bikinis surround the same bespectacled fellow, this time perched in a lounge chair with
a tropical drink next to bags of yen. A striped sun, reminiscent of the old flag, sets on Mt. Fuji.
“High pay, low stress, an abundance of free time…on paper it sounds great,” reads the caption.
Juxtapose that with the next, lonely panel: “But the reality of it isn’t so pristine. The devil is in the
details.”
Minneapolis resident Lars Martinson, an ALT in Fukuoka from 2003-06, spent four years working
on Tonoharu. His effort paid off: this year, the Xeric Foundation awarded him a sizeable grant to
self-publish it. (Xeric was founded by one of the creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peter
Laird; the comic itself also was originally a self-published work.) In early 2008, Lars will publish
Part 1 of Tonoharu.
“I’m interested in literary comics,” Lars says. “I’m not drawing superheroes.” Though when he
became interested in comics in sixth grade, it was superhero
comics that he read (including Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles). Like many JETs, he discovered Japanese manga
as a teenager. But while his interest in Japanese culture
remained consistent over the years, his interest in manga
eventually decreased. His first comics, drawn Japanesestyle, did not work for him. “Around that time I discovered
‘alternative comics.’ The comics of Chris Ware and the
Canadian cartoonist Seth had the biggest impact on me. It
really opened my eyes to the fact that a work of literary merit
could be created in the comics medium,” he says. Indeed,
Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth has
been compared to the heaviest of literary forces, James Joyce’s Ulysses.
When you look at Tonoharu, the density of the background details is immediately noticeable.
Great care has been taken to make the teachers’ room, bar, and Buddhist temple be instantly
recognizable. The backgrounds look like Japan. When Lars began Tonoharu four years ago, he
drew every single background by hand by dipping an old-fashioned pen in ink. One drawing took
four hours—an “absurd method,” he says now. After such a slow start, he lost his “purist attitude”
and photoshopped layers of drawings on top of one another. A typical panel (there are 400 in all)
has two or three layers.
In contrast, most of the characters are simply rendered. “I emulate emotion. I don’t draw realistic
people,” he comments. He compares his technique for drawing people to calligraphy. Like
creating a kanji character, Lars has a certain stroke order to a
face. It is fascinating to watch Lars sketch a face in front of
you—clearly a methodical process from hours practicing each
character’s features. The head of Dan, the main character,
went through the most incarnations to get to his present look.
“He is in the most panels, and I just couldn’t get him right.”
Former JETs are the obvious audience for the PG-13 (or
perhaps “soft R”) Tonoharu, but Lars hopes to connect with all
travelers. He also seeks support for “Team Comics”—comic
loyalists who promote the medium as a serious art form.
“Older comics, like R. Crumb, they didn’t get any respect.
There’s a core group of people who are pushing comics to
make them legitimate.”
Anyone who has lived abroad will find universality in Dan’s
difficulty to communicate and the loneliness of the language barrier. Dan has run-ins with other
foreigners, one of whom disparages the country he’s chosen to live in. And other foreigners don’t
see the locals as real people: A group of old-timey colonialist Europeans from across town love
living amongst the “adorable natives.” But JET alums in particular will recognize their experiences.
ALTs who expressed frustration with their position will commiserate with the caption
accompanying a game of office solitaire: “No one seems to care what I do for the rest of the time
as long as I am physically present at school for eight hours a day.” (Lars began what became
Tonoharu during those hours of boredom.) And Dan’s welcome party leaves him horribly
embarrassed. In a joke for anyone who’s
watched Japanese TV, Dan’s feeble attempts
to speak Japanese are written in katakana.
It’s the business aspect that doesn’t come
naturally to Lars. He created Pliant Press to
release Tonoharu, and as its sole proprietor
and employee, he does everything himself—
marketing, getting ISBN numbers, and finding
a distributor. “Writing a press release about
yourself is a weird experience,” he says. Still,
Lars dreams big for Pliant Press: he wants to
one day publish others’ work as well, to “give back to culture.”
Part 1 of Tonoharu, including the prologue, is 115 pages. Lars has sketched out Parts 2 and 3,
plus an epilogue and appendices. When asked how long this will take him to complete,
considering Part 1 needed four years, he groans: “I had a full-time job when I started Tonoharu.”
Now, though, Tonoharu is his full-time job, thanks to the Xeric Foundation’s generosity and
money saved up while on JET, and he thinks the rest of the project will come together much
faster.
Tonoharu, in its insistence to show both positive and negative aspects of teaching in a small town
in Japan, rings true. It can be read in one sitting, but the nostalgia it invokes stays for a long time
afterwards.
For the past eighteen years, Lars knew he was meant to be a comic book writer. Now, with a
professionally produced copy in his hand, he is one. Tonoharu Part 1 is available on his blog,
larsmartinson.com, via Amazon.com, and, thanks to a recent deal with a distributor, in bookstores
as of May 2008. This graphic novel is sure to inspire natsukashii feelings in JET alums and could
even be a useful tool for people considering the JET program.
BlogLook: The Newsletter Picks a Random JET Alum
Blog—And Reviews It
By Steven Horowitz and Alexei Esikoff
This is the first attempt at what we hope will be a recurring feature in the JETAA NY
Newsletter. We picked a blog written by a JET alum, more or less at random, and have
reviewed it in the form of a discussion.
The purpose? Well, to entertain you of course. But also to let you know some of the
interesting things your fellow alums are undertaking, and also to help you discern what
random accumulations of info may be worth your while.
•
•
•
The Blog: Avoidinglife.com
Blogger: Jamie Patterson (Aomori-ken, 2003-06)
Found it: On jetsetjapan.com, a nice site that has aggregated a lot of JET-related
content, including a list of JET alum blogs.
Let’s get things started, shall we?
**************************************
There are plenty of blogs out there with useless crap on them, so it’s important to know
which useless crap is actually worth spending your precious
time on. Fortunately, I believe I’ve come across one that has
some of the more useful useless crap out there.
Avoidinglife.com is zettai ni a blog worth visiting the next
time you’re bored at work. Started by Jamie Paterson
(Aomori-ken, 2003-06), now a web producer for CTV
(Canada’s largest private television station), it contains
many visual posts with a bit of commentary here and there.
In fact, he describes himself as one of the original video
bloggers in one of his early posts. He also seems to have an
affinity for Aomori trains and pro wrestling, and yet it’s
more involved than that.
My introduction to the site (via jetsetjapan.com) was his post on Osaka wrestling, and as
a non-wrestling fan, I almost made the mistake of skipping past it. But that YouTube play
button is so darn easy to click and next thing I know I’m watching a bizarre and
amazingly acrobatic version of local pro wrestling, apparently in Osaka, that I’d never
seen before. So right off the bat, I’m definitely pleased with this choice of blog.
Next I start watching the Aomori train videos: The first one a sappy video about a high
school girl leaving Aomori for Tokyo, rife with snowy, low budget shots of the Aomori
train station that made me surprisingly natsukashii for a place I’d never even visited
while on JET. The next two were obsessive techno music videos of local trains in Aomori.
I’m not sure what was so special about the trains that multiple techno music videos had
been made in homage, but maybe it’s something akin to trainspotting in the UK. In any
event, I found the sappy video more enjoyable but appreciated exposure to this otaku
Aomori train culture as well.
I read some of the non-Japan related entries to get a sense of who Jamie Patterson is, and
also found myself drawn in by some of his backstory: how he left his previous job in TV
production to go on JET and avoid life for a little while, and how he seemed to be a little
ahead of the curve in terms of web development experience. I also appreciated when
some of the non-Japanese postings turned out to in fact be Japan-related. Though
admittedly from a JET alum perspective, it’s really the Japan-related entries that drew my
attention and I found myself skipping and scanning over the Canadian commentary until
the next Japan item. And pretty much all of them were worth digging for.
The Holy Grail that I didn’t know I was looking for, however, appears in a post on
2/16/07 - “Weird Al” Yankovic performing “Eat It” on a Japanese comedy show and
incorporating Japanese into the song. For this I say, “Honto ni o-sewa ni narimashita” to
Jamie.
Now I’ll turn to my colleague, Alexei, for her comments. Alexei, you’re a busy person,
and I’m making you look at this random JET alum’s blog. Was it worth your valuable
time, or did I just set your career back about five months?
-Steven
**************************************
Well, Steven, like many busy people, I spend a good portion of my day wasting time. Of
course, the best way to waste time is to look up things that make you all natsukashii for
childhood, and it was your mention of “Weird Al” that did it for me. As an eight-year-old,
I spent a great deal of my allowance money on his cassettes, and to this day I still know
all the words to “Yoda,” sung to the tune of “Lola.” (”I met him in a swamp down in
Dagoba/Where it bubbles all the time like a giant carbonated soda.”) The promised video
was so completely wonderful that it justified YouTube’s existence for me, i.e., that the
site is not just a bunch of bored suburbanites who like to film their cats.
I was distracted further from my busy day by the Osaka wrestling. It resembles a lowbudget version of the WWF in its glory days, when Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake taught
us all how to fight dirty with our siblings. Jamie writes that his favorite thing in the world
is music recorded by professional wrestlers, and I’m starting to agree. I definitely
appreciated the long-lost single by Crush. To my almost-thirty ears, it’s hilarious, all
synthesized beats and random interjections of “If I was back home in Hawaii, I’d be
surfing right now.” As a kid I probably would’ve thought the song ruled.
As for the trains set to techno music, to my untrained (ha!) eye, the featured
videos seemed like patently uncool trains. There was a real disconnect between the speed
of the music and the snub-nosed trains. A phallic Shinkansen gliding through snow would
seem more appropriate. (Now I’m going to get all sorts of I’ll-show-you-up emails from
train enthusiasts.)
Another of Jamie’s interests is McDonald’s. I can’t even take that one with a kitschy
grain of salt. I just don’t dig McDonald’s. Of his four main interests, I could leave or take
trains and McDonalds. I predict, however, that many hours in my future will be spent
browsing the novelty music and pro wrestling sections, remembering the glory days of
entertainment when I had no discernible taste.
Overall I’d say avoidinglife.com is an excellent way to procrastinate.
-Alexei
**************************************
I think you’re too hard on yourself, Alexei. We’re not machines, unlike those sleek and
beautiful Aomori trains that you disparage. If avoidinglife.com is a poem, then the train
posts add subtlety and depth to much of the light and frothy fare he shares. And if
avoidinglife.com is not a poem, then maybe the train videos are just a Freudian guy thing.
Speaking of poetry, the completely-unrelated-to-Japan McDonald’s rap video post
(performed by some guy named GoRemy) was one of the best satire pieces I’ve seen in
recent Internet history (meaning the past week or so) and just a senbei’s width below the
“Weird Al” video in entertainment value. All that you (and I) find distasteful about
Mickey D’s was encapsulated in the extremely clever lyrics. (And on a tangent, I failed to
resist the urge to follow the YouTube trail and ended up watching GoRemy’s similar raps
on 2% milk, eggs over easy and TurboTax. All interesting enough, but hard to live up to
the McDonald’s rap. So if you’re aiming for efficiency in your time-wasting, avoid
veering from the path cleared by avoidinglife.com.)
As for pro wrestling, it is my sincere belief that the world would be better off without it,
so I don’t share your nostalgia, despite many a Saturday morning of watching the Iron
Sheik pummel Bob Backlund while I waited for the cartoons to start. That said, the Osaka
wrestling video is an intriguing new genre for me, and all I can say about the other
wrestling posts is that they make the other non-wrestling posts more attractive in the
same way one might improve one’s own attractiveness by hanging out with one’s less
visually appealing friends.
One of the other touches I enjoyed in the blog are his descriptions of attempts to reintegrate himself into life after Japan. Whether putting out omiyage candy for his coworkers, trying to track down Don Tacos in Chinatown, or the August 12 posting about
“some of the stuff” he’s been up to, which, if you click the “read more” option, includes
doing hanami in a Toronto park and checking out a psychedelic Japanese rock band
called Acid Mother’s Temple, his reverse culture shock adaptation attempts resonated
with me.
I have to say, Alexei, that as we review other blogs in future issues, we’ve set the bar
fairly high with our first choice, and I think avoidinglife.com will be an excellent
standard against which we measure other JET alum blogs.
Dou omoimasu ka, Alexei-sensei?
-Steven
**************************************
Truly this blog has something for everyone. If I’m happy listening to novelty songs by
professional wrestlers, and you are happy watching techno trains, then we all win.
I went into the archives of the blog to check out Jamie’s ALT years, and was also amused
by the more personal stuff. There’s a wonderful series of photos under the heading
“Japanese People Hate Spicy Food,” illustrating the day he brought Mama Zuma’s
Revenge potato chips to school. View the results for yourself—at least the teachers tried
them!
A lot of the photos look like the universal JET experience photos—gaijin friends
sprawled on tatami mats surrounded by beer bottles, and lots of uniformed kids giving the
peace sign. Oh, and students wearing matching Hitler t-shirts for Sports Day. Jamie wrote:
“For me, the most interesting part of Sports Day has always been the unique T-shirt
designs that the students come up with for their teams. I don’t know if it’s because of
ignorance or what, but teachers never seem to be bothered by what the students put on
their shirts, no matter how inappropriate it might seem to be. I thought the marijuana
shirts from previous years were something else, but the students at one of my schools
really topped themselves this time…” This is followed by said Hitler T-shirt, which is
bright pink. Of course.
-Alexei
**************************************
Sore de wa, enough of our jabbering. Time to go see the website for yourself:
avoidinglife.com, and perhaps share your own comments below.
Stay tuned for the next edition of BlogLook in the Spring 2008 Issue. Feel free to suggest
a blog worth reviewing (or offer to review one yourself) by contacting us at
[email protected].
Martha Stewart Visits Japan Society
By Justin Tedaldi
Some quick facts about Martha Stewart: Her favorite color is drab. She would most
like to be reincarnated as one of her horses. She’s also nuts about Japanese superstore
Tokyu Hands, has one of the “most ancient unaltered” gingko trees in existence, and
is so fond of Kyoto that she named a fabric shade (Kyoto Green) after it.
All these tidbits and more were revealed by the president and CEO of Martha Stewart
Omnimedia herself in a one-hour lecture entitled Martha Stewart: A Passion for
Making a Home at Japan Society on November 14 as part of its Centennial Speaker
Series. The visit marked Stewart’s second speaking engagement there; a recent
encounter with its president Richard J. Wood sparked the encore appearance. But this
was no off-the-cuff talk, as Stewart’s achievements were illustrated by hundreds of
carefully-timed slides that flashed by with her commentary.
“This time it’s more personal,” Stewart began, with the first half of the lecture
basically serving as Martha’s Greatest Hits, tracing her upbringing from a “Sears
home absolutely devoid of aesthetics” in New Jersey to her first abodes at Riverside
Drive, the Berkshires, and then Westport, Connecticut. The farmhouse she restored
there served as the launching pad for Stewart’s empire in the early 1980s, sporting
one of the most photographed kitchens in America. “I love my kitchen,” she said,
“which is full of details that any Japanese craftsman would be interested in.”
Add Japan Society’s crowd to that list. Whether it was due to star power or her
massive appeal to armchair entertainers, the hall was oversold (not that those forced
to stand complained). Patrons with subscriptions to Better Homes and Gardens were
clinging to her every word as one pearl of wisdom after another tumbled out
(examples: an outdoor pool with a black bottom is economical because you don’t
have to heat it; it takes about 13 years to have a beautiful garden; and it takes an entire
day to embroider a napkin Martha Stewart-style).
As if to poke a bit of fun at all the spit-shined perfection on display, Stewart spun a
Thanksgiving tale in which her hand required nine stitches after a mishap with a knife.
Adding to the chaos, a guest got kicked by a horse, and foul weather threatened to
snow everyone in. True to form, the guests were all smiles in the photos.
For the second half of the talk, Stewart dished exclusively on Japan. Many of her
observations focused on the link between traditional Japanese spiritualism and good
living, a hallmark that she strives to infuse both her work and products with.
Next came the Kyoto story, where Stewart happened to be during 9/11. On that trip,
she visited the Miho Museum in Shiga prefecture at the invitation of a member of the
Shumei family, the founders of a Buddhist organization. Designed by the legendary
I.M. Pei, the museum houses the family’s art collection. While there, Stewart
described how touched she was to hear “America the Beautiful” unexpectedly
chimed from a bell tower. Next, she visited the old Imperial Palace (Kyoto Gosho),
which according to Stewart is open to visitors only two days a year. But instead of a
story on architecture or design, she humorously recounted how the groundskeeping
ladies swept the sidewalk in front of her: “They didn’t know who I was, but that was
good housekeeping!”
When traveling to Japan, Stewart eschews modern high-rise hotels for traditional
country ryokan (inns). She said that staying in one is “living a lifestyle that I could
only hope to emulate,” and a lot of her ideas for interiors are inspired by their walls as
well as the façade, which are conceptually borrowed for fresh wood paneling ideas
back home.
As for food, Stewart’s favorites include hibachi and kaiseki, the latter being a
specialty of Kyoto. Ever the gourmand, Stewart explained that she purchased cooking
grills on her holiday in an attempt to recreate a similar mix of delicacies in her own
kitchen. “I still have to go to Japan for the amazing ideas; it is all so beautifully
arranged,” she said, citing as an example a sashimi platter decorated with the foliage
of the season, or giving props to the mammoth department store Tokyu Hands.
“There’s not a store like that in America,” she said, “especially when you consider the
organization of their millions of products.”
The lecture wrapped with a candid Q&A session by the diverse audience, revealing
more of Stewart’s opinions on Japanese life and style. Describing a wine that her
company planned to market in the new year, Stewart philosophized on the Japanese
ethic of packaging quality as an equal to the product itself. “Though it’s wine, the
bottle itself is art,” she said. “In Japan, this concept is a continuum.”
A story about a visit to a shrine in Ise followed, where Stewart learned that although
the shrine itself had been in existence for 1,500 years, it is routinely knocked down
every 20 years and rebuilt in the same manner. “The beauty of the religion is that they
honor tradition, craft, and art [instead of] knocking everything down,” she said.
Stewart also acknowledged the pitfalls of staying modern. Fielding a question on
what she thinks the Japanese have taken for granted, she remarked that it “bothered”
her to see “so many McDonald’s and fast food places. The world is flat and I
celebrate Japan for keeping tradition alive, and I’ll do anything to help with that.”
For more information on upcoming lectures at Japan society, click here. Visit Martha
Stewart’s homepage at www.marthastewart.com.
BENKYOU 2.0:
A Review of On-line Japanese Study Options
By Steven Horowitz, with helpful contributions from the JET alumni community and
from jetsetjapan.com
In the beginning, the God of Japanese Language Study (”GOJLS”) made textbooks and
kanji dictionaries. And they were good. Lo, then GOJLS saw that all those books were
heavy and made the Canon WordTank, and it was even better. But the people were easily
distracted with instant messaging, YouTube and Facebook, and GOJLS got all meta and
created on-line Japanese study methods and dictionaries. And they were better still.
(Though the WordTank is still pretty darn handy.)
So let’s stop now and take a look at what GOJLS hath wrought. At least before it all goes
the way of the kanji dictionary.
YAPPR.COM
This rather addictive site offers short YouTube-like clips of pop culture in English with
simultaneous, bilingual translation running on the side with occasional cultural
commentary.
Though intended more for people interested in learning English, it’s also an excellent tool
for studying Japanese. And while you’re there you can work on your Chinese and
Spanish as well, with more languages to come.
Part of what makes it so attractive is the simplicity—you go to the site, see a bunch of
videos and just click one to start. Another nice quality is that you’re so busy being
entertained by the videos, you don’t even feel like you’re studying. And while you could
inadvertently spend a large chunk of time on the site, it also makes it convenient to
squeeze in bite-sized study portions at any point throughout your day at work.
Yappr.com is the brainchild of Patrick Nee, a graduate of MIT who studied at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology where he admittedly associated with a number of JETs. While in
Japan he met his Italian wife, and since leaving Japan has had to adapt to living in Italy as
well. In his struggles to gain fluency in both Japanese and Italian, he observed (as did
many of us) that watching TV was one of the best ways to improve language ability. And
yet, following talk on TV can be very difficult and frustrating until you reach a certain
level. The site evolved as the bridge to help the non-advanced take fuller advantage of
TV as a learning tool.
Additionally, according to Patrick and his partner B.J. Greenspan, a bigger-picture goal is
to set up a wiki-style translation community, where videos are posted and the community
has the opportunity to provide translations.
Go take a spin on yappr.com for yourself, and stay tuned for future developments.
JAPANESEPOD101.COM
While Yappr.com is a wonderful tool for casual and entertaining study by those of us
with at least basic Japanese ability, JapanesePod101 is
perhaps the gold standard for comprehensive Japanese
study online and the website recommended by most
JET alums I spoke to.
It offers a prodigious number of beginner,
intermediate, and advanced lessons for free in podcast
form, much like ChinesePod.com, which I used this
past year to start learning Chinese. (FYI, as far as I
can tell the two companies are unrelated.) For
$5/month you get access to the PDFs of the lesson
notes which enable you follow along while you listen,
and for $15/month you get full access to the site
including PDFs of the transcripts. In my experience, you need the printed materials to get
the full benefit, so it’s probably safe to assume that the $15 is the option most users will
choose.
Cost saving tip: I signed up, in the name of journalistic research, for the free service with
no intention of upgrading. Each day for the next week, however, I received an
enthusiastic e-mail from owner Peter Gallante offering me a better and better deal, right
up until the final hours before the offer expired.
Hi Steven,
I seem to have touched a nerve…
In my last email I asked why you hadn’t upgraded
your membership at JapanesePod101.com to Premium
yet. I understood that you may have just been too
busy with life, but I wanted to make sure you
extended your membership before your free trial is
up (it ends the day after tomorrow!)….
“Heck yes, I’ve been busy, Peter!” I responded. “I’m trying to write this review while
pulling the Newsletter together!” Undeterred, however, Peter attempted greater intimacy
with me.
Hi Steven,
I’ve got a confession to make…
Before when I told you about JapanesePod101.com, I
shared everything that our Premium membership has
to offer. I did this because I truly believe that
this is the BEST way to master Japanese fast….
I had a confession to make as well. “Hi, Peter. I really just signed up so I could write a
review of your site.”
Anyway, I assume these e-mails are automatically generated (I know my responses were)
and Peter is not sitting up late at night working on just the right wording for me alone, so
I encourage you to play a game of chicken until the last second to get the best possible
deal.
Like yappr.com, JapanesePod101.com distinguishes itself with the simplicity of its
interface. You go to the site and you quickly understand your options (unlike some other
sites reviewed here). Sign up. Download podcats. Take a tour. Study kanji. Beginner.
Intermediate, etc.
The podcasts are entertaining, useful and straightforward. Also, one of the gripes I had
with ChinesePod doesn’t seem to be a problem here—a 15-second introduction to each
podcast that becomes rather redundant and irritating. Another nice feature, the
JapanesePod101 site is flexible enough to enable a user to organize his or her study in
whatever manner is most convenient. Focus on listening, speaking (they have a feature
that lets you record your own voice and listen to it), vocabulary, kanji (you can “bank”
your kanji and vocabulary and go back to them later in flashcard format) and/or writing.
There’s also some great testing options, including prep for all levels of the Japanese
Proficiency Tests.
They even began offering a feature that enables you to download the transcripts to your
iPod so you can read the text on your screen, eliminating the need to bring printouts with
you on the train.
There are too many features to thoroughly describe them all here, and I’m not about to
shell out money to study more Japanese, because my days of intensive Japanese study are
behind me. But given the similarity to ChinesePod, if I someone held a kendo stick to my
head and said I have to study for the Japanese Proficiency Test (and I can’t sign up for
classes at Japan Society), JapanesePod101.com would be my method of choice.
[Editor’s note: The next few sites reviewed were found on jetsetjapan.com. Just prior to
publication, we received word from them that the jetsetjapan.com website is a bit out of
date and will be overhauled soon. So take the reviews with a grain of salt,
onegaishimasu. And stay tuned for a feature article on the updated jetsetjapan.com in
the Spring 2008 issue of the Newsletter, due out in April.]
TALKSUSHI.COM
Talksushi.com is listed on jetsetjapan.com under the name “Learn Japanese Online Fast.”
The non-commital comment turns out to be telling: “Improve your Japanese with
streaming audio and video lessons.”
The black background with red writing is also telling, hinting at a certain cynicism
(which I inferred using my powers of pop psychology). The creator fulfills this
expectation by mixing links to basic Japanese and kanji lessons with jaded commentary
on topics such as Teaching English, Hot Japanese Girls, Japanese Whaling and Japanese
Love (”After living in Japan for ten years now I have come to the final realization and
understanding that the majority of Japanese don’t or can’t love.”)
Ten years indeed.
Like another site reviewed below, I could learn some Japanese from this site if I had to,
but I don’t recommend it. The site uses a combination of charts, explanations and short
homemade videos, including a promise that nice Japanese girls will be teaching you
Japanese through the videos. And the content of the lessons is fine, I suppose. But too
much digging around to find to what you’re looking for if you’re interested in actually
studying. On the other hand, if you’re looking for one more jaded gaijin to “tell you
what,” then maybe this is a good site for you.
LEARN-JAPANESE-RIGHT-NOW.COM
It’s listed on jetsetjapan.com under the heading “Learn Japanese Free” with the comment
“Learn Japanese free. New free lessons added every day. No strings attached!” But new
management must have taken over, because the site that popped up was called Learn
Japanese Right Now.
I knew I was in trouble when the first line of text says, “Attention: If you want to
effortlessly speak Japanese…this may be the most important letter you ever read.”
Yowza.
After using extremely large text to pose the important question, “Who Else Wants to
Effortlessly Quickly and Easily From Your Home Computer?”, a man named David
McGimpsey offers a lengthy and narcissistic blog of a sales pitch that tells a third-person
story of an “average Joe thrown into the middle of Osaka, Japan and forced [at gunpoint?]
to memorize 2 Japanese alphabets and 100s of vocabulary in just days…while working
full time!”
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I’d hired a team of striking writers.
How does he do it? Why of course with a software download called “Bullet Japanese”—
basically online flashcards with pictures—that he created for his own study but now
wants to share with you. And if you’re still not sold, well, he offers you “My 100%
Satisfaction Guarantee!”
The real takeaway from this site is a fascinating anthropological perspective on how
people market themselves. In fact, if you click on the affiliates section at the very bottom,
Mr. McGimpsey offers you a chance to get in on this pyramid scheme—er, I mean sales
opportunity for you to earn 75% commission on every sale. He even provides a series of
tools such as a pre-written e-mail (”Hey [name], how is your Japanese study going? Mine
was grinding to a halt, then I discovered a method that lets you…”). Fortunately, most of
us don’t actually have friends that write like that. Nor will most of us end up using
“Learn Japanese Right Now.”
Another site that’s low on educational value, high on entertainment value.
LEARN JAPANESE NET (www.learn-japanese.net)
Listed on jetsetjapan.com as a “comprehensive site with a well structured and practical
approach to learning the language,” I found the site to be a little confusing upon arrival,
particularly since it was sporting the mid-1990s database look. There were a few postings
on the homepage from various people that seemed interested in learning, but if I’m going
there to learn for myself, frankly I’m not really interested in the hopes, desires and issues
of their Japanese-less souls.
I decided to click on the menu links on the left that listed the following categories. The
Beginner’s Corner was promising, listing a slew of lessons, though the format included
written Japanese that would have scared me off back in the days when I couldn’t decipher
any Japanese.
As I moved on to Intermediate and Advanced, however, there were no lessons, only dropdown menus offering me a chance to search through threads. Maybe it’s just the fact that
I’m working under a deadline and was feeling a bit impatient, but I wasn’t able to track
down any lessons in these categories. The other categories were similarly bare.
Perhaps this is a somewhat abandoned website that was started with good intentions but
passed its peak a while back and I just stumbled onto the remnants, kind of like Charlton
Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes. I’m sure I could extract some study value out of
this if it were my only option, but there are better sites out there and it didn’t seem
prudent to expend any more effort on this one. If you happen to be a fan of the site and I
missed something, please let me know.
LEARN JAPANESE LANGUAGE (www.learn-japanese-kanji-hiraganakatakana.com
Another barely useful Japanese study site created by some guy named Mr. Takanori,
promising “you will get immensely satisfying results FAST…”
There are some basic lessons intended to pull you in, but they want your contact info so
they can send you seven days’ worth of free lessons via e-mail before charging you some
amount that I couldn’t determine from digging around the website. For entertainment
value, however, I do recommend the testimonials which more than likely were written by
Mr. Takanori himself given the comical use of English.
MYHAPPYPLANET.COM & FRIENDSTER
Here are two other creative ways to study or improve your Japanese online. Friendster (if
anyone still uses it) recently sent me an e-mail to let me know I can invite my Japanese
and Korean friends to join my network. Potentially more interesting is
MyHappyPlanet.com, which aspires to be a Friendster or Facebook for language learning,
offering the tagline “Learn a language. Make friends. Have fun.” Although the last time I
went to the site I was informed it’s in “closed beta” and was invited to submit my name
and e-mail address so I can be notified as to when I can join the club. (Needless to say, I
did so in the name of journalistic research.)
In my experience, however, I found (as many of you probably did as well) that language
exchanges never worked out too well since I felt silly struggling to speak Japanese to
someone once I knew their English was better than my Japanese, or alternatively, I felt
frustrated listening to someone struggling to communicate with me in English when we
could have more easily been conversing in Japanese.
But as the saying goes, “Ju nin to iro” (Ten people ten colors), in which case maybe this
will appeal to certain folks out there.
FRANCIS BRITTO’S JAPANESE WEBLAB
A late addition to this article, so no time to review thoroughly. But essentially a
comprehensive resource for Japanese study with links to various other sites broken into
categories such as Pronunciation, Conversation, Listening, Grammar, Writing, Quizzes,
Kana & Kanji, Reading, Various Skills (e.g., Teach Yourself Japanese), Vocabulary,
Dictionaries, and Resources. Interestingly, Japanesepod101.com is nowhere to be found
on the page. Perhaps the site is only interested in free study options?
In any event, this clearly should have been one of my first stops in doing research for this
review. Then again, I have to admit it was much more fun reviewing some of the wackjob sites.
ON-LINE DICTIONARIES
I rarely use Japanese-English dictionaries. Not because I know every word out there,
mind you. I just don’t have occasion to use them.
So with that disclaimer, I’ll leave you with recommendations from some experts from the
JET alum community, including Stacy Smith (professional translator/interpreter), Scott
Alprin (trademark lawyer to many a Japanese company) and El Presidente Rob Tuck
(Ph.d candidate in Japanese literature at Columbia):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch (Yahoo dictionary, Japanese-to-Japanese)
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?9C (Japanese
dictionary geared toward foreigners; can search kanji by radical, etc.)
http://www.alc.co.jp/ (Amazing Japanese dictionary geared toward Japanese;
incredibly extensive examples but some use stilted English expressions)
http://rnnnews.jp/ (Really useful dictionary that breaks down words into
categories; e.g., economic, medical, law, energy. Useful for studying specific
topics)
www.kantango.com (Lets you make online flashcards)
www.mlcjapanese.co.jp (Courtesy of The Meguro Language Center, which has
self-study materials for all levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.)
www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~mohso/kyozai98/KANJI/top.htm (Test your kanji
knowledge)
www.kanjiclinic.com (By Mary Noguchi)
Do you know of some better sites for studying Japanese? Have comments on the ones
reviewed here? Share your comments and thoughts below.
JET Alums Help NY de Volunteer with New “Explore
Japanese Culture” After School Program
By Marc Carroll (Gifu-ken, 2001-03)
Think globally, act locally. Perhaps this may be a slogan for environmental movements, but it’s
also certainly relevant to what we can do in our everyday lives.
In this same spirit, Noriko Hino, founder and
Executive Director of NY de Volunteer, is hosting yet
another impressive program called Explore Japanese
Culture! An After School Program. New York
City’s premier Japanese community service
organization started this educational initiative in 2007
in partnership with the Parks and Recreation
Department’s After School Program, and it will sweep
through four NYC boroughs through the spring.
Its goal is to cultivate a sense of “global citizenship” in
students, some as young as six, and to encourage
exploration beyond their immediate neighborhoods.
This may seem like a lofty goal, but the program accomplishes it by introducing Japanese cultural
arts such as kendo, calligraphy, origami, and tea ceremony.
At the end of the eight-week Brooklyn session, Noriko invited me along with Adren Hart
(Nagano-ken, 1998-2000), another fellow JET alum, to meet and speak with the students in the
program they were running at St. John’s Recreation Center in Brooklyn. Adren and I were more
than happy to volunteer, since, like most of the students, we are Caribbean and African-American.
Noriko had many Japanese volunteers in attendance as well but recognized the real advantage of
students seeing someone like themselves who has benefited from experiences abroad.
When we arrived at the center in late November, something familiar was in the air. The session
began with Noriko approaching the front of the room and dropping the signal. What happened
next broke space and time, and there I was warped back into the shogakkou classrooms of inaka
Gifu-ken. The appointed class kaicho commands, “Kiritsu! Rei!” To my amazement, all of the
students stood, then bowed in unison. Impressive. Next was a very enthusiastic call and response
introduction between the students and the 15 or so Japanese volunteers. At the same time it was
somewhat of a sad occasion since this was the last week that students and volunteers would meet.
Relationships were forged over these short few weeks, yet the kids were anticipating another
week that would not happen.
We wasted no time and dove right into the current session’s activity, a massive origami project
led by an expert origami artist. The students were given step-by-step instructions to create their
own origami. Lastly, they wrote their names on their creations, but in yet another twist, most were
impressively able to write their names in katakana…from memory! The final step was to
combine each origami into what looked like soccer ball-sized object out of Katamari Damacy.
Next, Adren and I were to speak and it was clear that we could ride the wave of student
excitement. Funny, when planning we first thought, “YATTA! Finally, a captive audience who
will sincerely listen to our stories as cultural ambassadors in Japan!!” That shortly then became,
“Eh…er..but chotto matte. So we’re explaining GLOBAL citizenship? We’re going to stand in
front of almost 40 hyper six-to-ten year olds and in 20 minutes orate on this broad topic with little
direction. How are we supposed to…” Oh yeah. We’re JET alums, we’ve done this a thousand
times before, and it was time to dust off the ol’ ALT noodle for a little improv.
To whet their appetites, we started with stories of exotic cuisine, biking in the rain and the
requisite cultural misunderstandings that we all have had. To maintain momentum and attention,
we jumped into a short, simple exercise. Keeping in mind that we had to make this personal, we
wanted to illustrate just how small our world is. So, we had them all take off their right shoes and
hold them above their heads; just long enough for some quizzical looks and correct ripeness of
foot-funk in the air. We told everyone to look at the labels inside the shoes and tell in what
countries they were manufactured. A sea of hands flew up and answers were Spain, Bulgaria,
China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Not one was made in the USA. “Back on with your
shoes; our noses have suffered long enough,” I exclaimed.
To continue the exercise, Adren and I tasked them with searching for other items in their own
homes and finding out where they were made. We explained that their shoes, like many other
things, might have once been a product of the USA. But now, everything from our food, to our
toys, to our ideas comes from many places. Similarly, we also exchange our food, toys and ideas
with other countries. The world is shrinking and it is important to understand and cooperate with
people different than themselves.
The questions and answers that followed demonstrated that we really captured their interest, and
they were very curious about our time abroad. Ironically, these were much like the questions we
were asked during our time in Japan. Where did we sleep? What did we eat? The most insightful
came from one of the youngest, “Did you miss home?”
Noriko’s goal for the program was not specifically to promote Japan, but to address an
increasingly pertinent need to bridge both cultural and social gaps. As former JETs, even if we’re
not sharing our experiences in Japan, we still have much to offer hungry young minds. Get
involved in your community in some way. If you are interested in NYdV, it is hosting three more
eight-week sessions in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.
For more information on the program, check out the New York de Volunteer site at
http://www.nydevolunteer.org/activities/afterschool/index_e.html.
Theater Review: I and Me & You and I
By Justin Tedaldi
Every once in a while, we wish that we could be someone else. Someone more
intelligent. Someone more charming. Someone more together. But what if, in
order to improve your own life, you’d have to become somebody you absolutely
hated? This is the premise of I and Me & You and I, an English language play by
Japanese-born Michi Yamamura, who makes up one half of this two-woman show
which in November capped an eight-date run at the Bleecker Street Theatre.
First staged in Tokyo in 2002 under Yamamura’s direction, I and Me & You and
I’s American development came four years later. Laura Hembree and Michael
Roberts adapted the original script for a New York reading in the spring of 2006,
and Mahayana Landowne helmed the director’s chair for its Off Broadway debut
the following year.
The curtain rises on an empty hotel room, the play’s sole setting. Nothing
elaborate, save for a bed, sofa, table with some personal effects, and of course, the
mini-bar. The door suddenly opens and in crashes a young woman clad in fluffy
pink cat ears, who scurries underneath the table. This is Potan. The lights go out,
and then a conservative-looking older woman appears. Clutching a homemade
noose, she gazes up to the sky. “Again…I failed,” she moans. This is Yoko. So
begins the tale of two strangers who at first believe that they have nothing in
common but ultimately learn much about each other, discovering similarities that
run more than skin deep.
The story: Yoko, a snobbish, suicidal banker (played by Yamamura), hesitantly
allows Potan, a fuzoku girl (Emi Ikehara, marvelous) to stay upon learning that
she’s recently been beaten by her boyfriend, whom she nevertheless affectionately
calls “Asparagus.” The two go from awkwardly knocking back a couple of drinks
to locking horns when Potan (a slangy katakana-ized abbreviation of anpontan, or
unimportant) breaks into an impromptu karaoke performance with her portable
Hello Kitty microphone.
Yoko doesn’t care for Potan’s rendition of Kyu Sakamoto’s international smash
“Sukiyaki” and other American pop nuggets. Potan is equally dismayed by Yoko’s
reluctance to sing anything at all. The girl reveals that it was once her fondest
desire to be a singer, but faith in a bogus producer ended with debts, which led to
her current relationship with the “civil servant” nicknamed after an unlikely
vegetable. “I’m not a hooker,” Potan purrs to her hostess. “I can see the
difference,” Yoko snorts.
Although Potan is
caught in an
abusive relationship,
she points out that
she at least has
someone. “Part of
me likes it when he
gets pissed—I get
the chills all over,”
she sighs. Both
have no parents.
Potan proudly
proclaims herself to
be a lady, drawing
laughs from both Yoko and the audience. Soon, what starts out as yet another
mismatched couple takes an interesting turn. Potan flashes an experimental
metamorphosis drug swiped from Asparagus that she claims will enable anyone
who drinks it to wife, er, life swap (one of her many malapropisms). Naturally,
Asparagus is hunting Potan down for it as she speaks. Initially skeptical about
its alleged effects, Yoko’s eyes glimmer when Potan warns that ingestion could be
fatal. Unaware that she barged in on what was Yoko’s third failed suicide attempt,
the two toast to colorful background visuals of dancing psychedelic flowers before
passing out.
Examining their new bodies later, Potan is distressed to look (and smell) old, and
wonders aloud about the scars on her new arms. Meanwhile, the morose and
reserved Yoko is thrilled to have a second shot at youth, save for the particular
undergarments she finds herself in. She reclaims her glasses and fashions some
extra clothes to cover up, a remarkable transformation from the bouncy bubbliness
the character once displayed. Pawing her new face like a lump of clay, the old
Yoko blanches. “Stop distorting myself, I’m going to have wrinkles in strange
places!” she snaps.
Potan’s phone then beeps out the theme from The Godfather. It’s Asparagus, and
he’s coming. Reluctantly, the ladies must hatch a plan to outsmart him, all while
growing accustomed to their new identities, forcing them to view each another in a
different light.
Thematically, I and Me & You and I is about the decisions these women have
made in life, and will now choose to make following their chance encounter.
While the duo comes from opposite ends of the spectrum, their Japaneseness
magnifies the gap, both social and generational. These are two people—both poles
apart and exiles on the fringes of their own groups—who would associate with
each other only in desperation. Yoko’s scorn for Potan is white-hot at first,
showing no signs of mellowing until the realization that she too is guilty of
making the same mistakes in life. “I hate women like you who have no sense of
reason,” she hisses. “It’s okay, I like you anyway,” her charge chirps, the trust of
youth. In another poignant scene, Potan encourages the gloomy Yoko (in her new
young body) to be a bird and fly. “How can a turkey fly?” she scoffs.
A noted television, film and theater actress (she is a veteran of NHK and Fuji TV
programs and also appeared in Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale), Yamamura’s
dialogue is finely tuned, with
humor injected in the right spots
to keep the melodrama at bay.
Ikehara, another Japanese-inNew York transplant, makes her
theatrical debut here and nails
the pair’s distinct personalities
without sinking into parody. The
two heroines are first introduced
as failures of sorts, unable to
live respectable lives. But as
they peel back the layers and
pride crumbles under honesty,
they discover redemption, which can occur only by walking in (and criticizing)
each other’s shoes while facing some hard truths. “My tree of life has only one
branch, and it’s rotten,” Yoko gripes at one point. Yes, but the tree can still
survive.
I and Me & You and I is a production of Gorgeous Entertainment Inc. For more
information, visit www.gorgeousentertainment.com.
Shonen Knife Returns to NYC
By Justin Tedaldi
New Yorkers jonesing for J-rock received a Genki Shock as Osaka’s legendary Shonen
Knife hit the Blender Theater at Gramercy on November 19. The standing room crowd
was treated to selections from their latest album of the same name, along with older
chestnuts from their 25-year career. Naoko, Atsuko, and Etsuko were all in loud, fine
form and left the crowd with smiles on their faces and bated breath for their next NY
concert, which may or may not happen before an equally anticipated area gig by Led
Zeppelin.
Visit www.shonenknife.net/english for updates.
JAPANESE FILM REVIEW: The Films of Hiroshi
Teshigahara
By Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02)
When the film Woman in the Dunes (Suna no Onna) was released
abroad in 1964, it defied audience’s expectations. Fans of Japanese
cinema had been used to a steady diet of samurai dramas (jidaigeki)
and hard-boiled yakuza thrillers, interspersed with the occasional war
film. The “Cinema of Alienation,” whose thematic roots lie in
continental existentialism, was confined to European auteurs.
Woman in the Dunes, however, presented a metaphysical conundrum
as bleak as anything conjured up by Michaelangelo Antonioni. Yet
despite its critical and financial success, having won the Special Jury
Prize at Cannes, Woman in the Dunes did not herald the arrival of a
great new filmmaker. In fact, few, if any, of the director’s subsequent
efforts were distributed outside of Japan. Many film fanatics, myself
included, wondered, “Who exactly is Hiroshi Teshigahara”?
Thankfully, the always-reliable Criterion Collection
(www.criterion.com) has succinctly answered the question with the new
box set, The Films of Hiroshi Teshigahara. The set contains an
extended cut (by twenty minutes) of Woman in the Dunes, Pitfall
(Otoshiana, 1962), The Face of Another (Tanin no Kao, 1966), along
with a fourth disc containing three early short documentaries and a short
film. The final disc also includes a Criterion-produced documentary
about the filmmaker.
Teshigahara was the son of Sofu Teshigahara, founder of the famous
Sogetsu school of ikebana. Growing up in an artistically inclined
household (his father was a maverick pottery maker and sculptor as well
as flower arranger), Hiroshi studied painting and fine arts in college.
Despite his classical Japanese education, Hiroshi’s paintings reflected
the modernist touches of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
Recognizing his talent, acclaimed painter Taro Okamoto introduced him to a circle of young
avante-garde artists, led by novelist Kobo Abe. Like Teshigahara’s paintings, Abe’s literary work
blended traditional Japanese and Western modernist devices–scholars claim they are situated
somewhere between Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Franz Kafka. Recognizing their similar artistic
inclinations, the two decided to collaborate on a series of films. The new medium enabled them to
maximize their talents by leveraging Abe’s narrative and linguistic gifts with Teshigahara’s visual
acumen. They also shared a philosophical interest in the meaning of identity and personal
freedom in a world where modernity and tradition often antagonize each other. Indeed, both
artists viewed such themes not just through an existential lens but as indications of Japan’s plight
in the contemporary world–as a nation rushing into an industrialized capitalist economy under the
umbrella of American hegemony.
The first collaboration, Pitfall, is based on a play
by Abe. It tells the story of a poor miner (Hisashi
Igawa) who is murdered for no apparent reason
in an abandoned Kyushu mining town. Returning
as a ghost, the miner tries to find out why he was
murdered and uncovers a plot among competing
mining unions and management. The most he can
discover, however, is that he was killed due to his
exact likeness to a union representative (also
played by Igawa). As in Antonioni’s L’Aventura (an obvious model for this film’s structure), the
plot is never fully resolved. The miner never uncovers the details of the murder plot and his
curiosity is exacerbated by the killer’s (Kunie Tanaka) cryptic remark, “Everything went
according to the plan.” By portraying the miner as a victim of a plan which he does not
understand, Abe and Teshigahara emphasize the existential torment of the ghost. He is eternally
burdened with an unanswerable question.
Pitfall contains a number of interesting visual shots–most strikingly that of the abandoned town
populated by ghosts, each of whom is eternally condemned to mimic what he or she was doing at
the time of death. There is an eerie ethereal quality to the film as well, foreshadowing the
subsequent films. Similarly, the exploration of the doppelganger–in the murder victim’s exact
resemblance to the living union member–prefigures greater exploration of this theme in later
works. Abe’s script, however, is caught between the “real world” and the “ghost world.” He
spends too much time with the plot of the mining unions and this aspect of the story is not fully
integrated into that of the ghost story. There is too much tension among these two plot strands and
Abe would have been wise to focus more on the ghost story.
Woman in the Dunes succeeds where Pitfall fails–its narrative is
strictly confined to an impossibly surreal situation. Adapted from
Abe’s bestselling novel, Woman tells the story of an amateur
entomologist (Eiji Okada) who has come to a local desert to collect
insect specimens. When he misses the last bus back to Tokyo, the
native villagers arrange for him to stay with a widow (Kyoko Kishida),
whose house lies at the bottom of a sand pit. The next morning, he
discovers that he has been tricked as the ladder that lowered him is no
longer there and the sand pit is too amorphous for him to climb. He
has involuntarily become an assistant to the woman, who shovels sand
from night until morning. The shoveling serves two purposes–first, it
prevents the sand from collapsing and destroying her house; second,
the sand is exchanged with the villagers for food and water. The entomologist wonders aloud if
they are “shoveling to live, or living to shovel?” Unlike Albert Camus’ Sysiphus (doomed to roll
a boulder up and down a hill for eternity), the apparent futility of the entomologist’s task is
lessened by the necessity for survival.
Such an abstract narrative has lent itself to interpretation over the years–everything from a
justification of totalitarian authority to a Taoist fable of redemption. But these interpretations are
too literal. The film works extremely well on its own open-ended terms. Teshigahara fills his
frame with de-familiarizing close-ups of sand, water and insects. In one particular close-up, sand
and sweat form an unusually grainy fluid on the canvas of the woman’s skin. The shifting nature
of the sand as it breaks away from the dunes is a recurring motif that emphasizes the neverending chore of shoveling. The ethereal nature of identity is revealed in the entomologist’s
psychological disassociation and removal from his former civilized self, a theme which will be
further explored in Teshigahara and Abe’s next collaboration.
The Face of Another finds Teshigahara and Abe leaving rural Japan for the urban sprawl of
Tokyo. Based on another novel by Abe, the film features a man named Okayama (Tatsuya
Nakadai) who has injured his face in an industrial accident. A psychiatrist (Mikijiro Hira)
constructs a new face and successfully transplants it on to the patient. Okayama’s new face
disassociates him from his previous self and, unlike the protagonist in Woman, he re-enters
society with a new identity. This newfound freedom has a negative aspect, however, as Okayama
becomes psychologically isolated from his fellow man, not only
in social terms but in moral terms as well. There is a subplot
about a suicidal woman whose face has been scarred by the
atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Her inability to erase the scars on
her face leads to dire consequences. Teshigahara and Abe do
not offer easy solutions for either character–Okayama is
burdened with an isolating lack of self while the woman is
burdened with the pain of the past.
Face is even more visually striking than Woman and utilizes a
full arsenal of cinematic techniques. The movie is full of freeze
frames, rack lighting, fast zooms, stuttered editing, jump cuts,
still photographs, and edge framing. In one segment,
Teshigahara even breaks the 1.33 aspect ratio and erupts into a
widescreen frame. He also films many sequences in parallel
succession. For instance, Okayama rents two apartments in the same building–one as a tenant
with his new face and one as a tenant wrapped in bandages. Many scenes use the same camera
angles and set-up, only substituting the bandaged Okayama for the un-bandaged Okayama. Abe’s
script is a solid effort and he constructs a compelling story even though his dialogue for the
psychiatrist is cliché-ridden (example: “Are you controlling the mask? Or is the mask controlling
you?”) While not as powerful or accomplished as Woman in the Dunes, Face of Another
definitely succeeds in its own right.
Unfortunately, Abe and Teshigahara collaborated only once more after Face of Another. Abe
continued to write novels and founded a theatre company while Teshigahara took over the
Sogetsu school. As progressive as he was, Teshigahara nevertheless adhered to the Japanese
system of iemoto, according to which an artistic institution’s management continues through the
bloodline. In the 1980s and early ’90s, Teshigahara returned to make
three more films, including an acclaimed biography of the Catalan
architect Antonio Gaudi. But one wonders what he might have
accomplished if he had continued filmmaking with Abe throughout
the 1960s and 1970s.
As usual, Criterion has supplied superbly restored prints and
extensive supplemental material. Most valuable are a series of video
essays (one for each film) by film scholar James Quandt. His
narration is perfectly complemented by the video and he provides
specific visual examples of his analysis. The fourth DVD contains
one short film about a day in the life of a sixteen year old girl (Ako,
1965) and three short documentaries encompassing such subjects as
the woodblock artists Hokusai (Hokusai, 1953), modern Tokyo
(Tokyo 1958) and Sofu Teshigahara and his Sogetsu school (Ikebana, 1956). The last is the only
one that really demonstrates the director’s talent. The others are relatively crude apprenticeship or
experimental works. But these are minor quibbles in what is an exceptionally good DVD box set–
ideal for both film fanatics and Japanophiles.
THE JETAANY TOP 13
As Japan continues its rapid technological evolution, many
of us look back on our days of JET and wonder how much
better things could have been if only some of that technology
had been available to us. We here at the Newsletter have
contemplated all of the great inventions and innovations and
come up with…
THE TOP 13 THINGS THAT WEREN’T INVENTED FOR JETS
(BUT SHOULD HAVE BEEN)
13. Cortex Experience Downloader - Downloads your JET experiences directly into the
cerebral cortexes of friends and relatives, saving
valuable time on Q&A.
12. Oyaji-to-English Pocket Dictionary - This
year’s edition has an entire appendix on grunts!
11. JokeToner 3000 - Freshens up jokes so you can
re-use them in different classes for up to a week
before they go stale.
10. Street Names - So you’ll never again have to
say “I’ll meet you in front of Shinjuku Station.”
9. Canon ImplicationTank - Input what someone says and it tells you what they really
mean.
8. FutsukayoBeGone - Amazing food processor that combines two-day old rice, Calbee
Flakes and furikake to produce a guaranteed hangover cure.
7. Adobe ResumeJETTER - Converts JET resume lines such as “helped teach English
classes” into “developed bi-lingual curricula for
Board of Education in eight municipalities.”
6. Macudonarudo-izer - Insert prong, press
button, and instantly convert any undesirable
food (e.g., cow brain, raw sea slug, school lunch,
etc.) into McDonald’s French fries.
5. GaijinGoggles - Placed over the eyes of any gaijin male object of desire, prevents him
from noticing local females.
4. Kawa, the Clothes Drying Robot - This cutting edge mechanical breakthrough
enables JETs to skip the clothesline and dry their clothes by “feeding” them to Kawa.
3. Shamisen Hero - Start at Level 1 with “Sakura,” pluck your way through
“Greensleeves,” and unleash your true Zen spirit with
“Stairway to Heaven.“
2. Backpatters - Voice activated device that attaches to
your shoulder and pats you on the back every time you
come up with a “clever” pun based on a Japanese word
that sounds like an English word.
1. SkiPlayer - Attachment enables JETs to finally learn to
“play ski.”
Newsletter Writer Bios and Staff
Marc Carroll (Gifu-ken, 2001-03) is a localization engineer for Translations.com. He
grew up in Hempstead, Long Island, and currently lives in the East Village.
Alexei Esikoff (Fukushima-ken, 2001-02), a frequent contributor to the Newsletter, is a
book editor for an independent publisher, Scarletta Press. She received her MFA in
fiction from Brooklyn College. Originally from New Jersey, she has lived, studied, and
worked in Wisconsin, the Netherlands, London, Japan, Brooklyn, and Minneapolis.
Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) has served as the Newsletter editor since 2002. A
lawyer by training, Steven works for The Altman Group as a bankruptcy claims and
balloting agent. On early Wednesday mornings and weekends, Steven can often be found
playing ultimate Frisbee alternatively in Prospect Park or on a distant beach. He lives in
Brooklyn with his wife Wynne.
Yoku Shitteiru has been writing the JETAANY Society Page column since 2002 and
knows a great deal.
Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) has a background in theatre and film
production but enjoys writing about them much more. He has been a reviewer for the
Newsletter since 2004 and lives in New Jersey.
Justin Tedaldi (Kobe-shi CIR, 2001-02), the Newsletter’s assistant editor since 2005,
covers notable Japan-related goings-on in NYC. Past features include music, literature,
theater, sumo, opera, pink film, kabuki, and a JETAA web-exclusive interview with
Puffy AmiYumi. Justin lives in Queens, enjoys writing, concerts and travel, and has
vowed in 2008 to meet his deadlines.
Editor
Steven Horowitz
[email protected]
Assistant Editor
Justin Tedaldi
President
Rob Tuck
[email protected]
Vice President
Megan Miller
[email protected]
Secretary
Carol Elk
[email protected]
Treasurer
C.J. Hoppel
[email protected]
Social Coordinator
Monica Yuki
[email protected]
Philadelphia Representative
Therese Stephen
[email protected]
Webmaster
Lee-Sean Huang
[email protected]
Database Coordinator
Shannan Spisak
[email protected]
For more info, subscribe to the weekly e-mail from our secretary or check out our
website at jetaany.org for updated announcements.
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