rock song of USA, Japan cliches

Here is a highly polished, context-free, series of icons and stereotypes presented in the form of a music video from USA expat in Japan, A. York.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcAscMMScc4

The presentation includes a playful, self-aware, ironic or parodic dimension.

But as an example of a Cultural Production, it is heavily laden with popular, commercial or commoditized meanings.

practice listening to Japanese

[keep up with live, spoken Japanese] nice short podcasts of interviews on business and other topics: http://www.nhk.or.jp/r-asa/

teaching the 3.11 triple disaster of N.E. Japan 2011

http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/html/events/2012-2013/Teaching_3.11_syllabi.html

 [page description] ...syllabi that were presented at our workshop (which can also be downloaded as a compiled pdf document as well as syllabi that other individuals have kindly sent in. Below the list of syllabi you will also find a list of other relevant sources and links. If you would like to have your syllabi, blog, or other resource listed on this webpage please email us [diricc(at)sophia.ac.jp].

scenes from Kansai (Sakai-city) and Fukui-ken

Students of Japanese may be curious to see how far their knowledge of kanji goes when it comes to Simplified Chinese in the slideshows gathered together about Chinese language (below). And they may like to see the photo sets from Japan, too:

a) Posted signboards all around the International Youth Hostel near KIX

b) Other examples of Japanese "in the wild" that I viewed around Sakai-city and also Fukui-ken

Here are the photos overall, http://bit.ly/echizen2012

Photos by theme/topic are grouped at http://www.slideshare.net/anthroview/presentations

The China photos (mostly around Urumqi, but also some from the silk road town of Turpan; also from up north: Altay prefecture)

are online at http://bit.ly/altay2012xuar

And the photos by theme/topic are also at http://www.slideshare.net/anthroview/slideshelf

Five short summer videos - Fukui-ken

Five short video segments of the land, language and look of things middle July in Fukui-ken.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/7661305558/in/photostreamJuly 2012 at Kono-mura on the Fukui-ken coast of the Japan sea. This was Wednesday, but the summer weekends are flooded with people on beaches, roads and water. The two women searching the rocks (speaking something other than Japanese) appear to be poaching 'sazae' -not good for the ecosystem.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/7658524106/in/photostreamValleypanorama of Japan's main island west coast, Fukui-ken (July 15). Note the land use patterns: neat rice paddy irrigation system, electrical power cables, Hino River levy, homes concentrated to maximize productive spaces.

Buddhist temple bell ringing, http://youtu.be/MVS4JFWXtzUThe 7 a.m. bell at Daihou-ji, a Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhist temple, in Echizen-city, Fukui-ken in July 2012. In Japanese: includes lesson on how to achieve maximum sound when striking the bronze bell. Since nearly all such metals were melted for the Pacific War effort, this present bell dates to post-1945. Note the deep reverberation that follows the ringing.

1 minute 38 seconds

Buddhist temple interior, Jodo sect, http://youtu.be/Vi3d60gMuUYTour of hondo (main hall, 1858) of Daihou-ji in Echizen-city, Fukui-ken in July 2012. Mostly in Japanese.

6 minutes 09 seconds

Train line to Kyoto from 25 km north, http://youtu.be/hagj3YgCfREShort train window video segments on the JR West line into Kyoto from the north, along the west shore of Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture in middle July 2012.

2 minutes 38 seconds

Five short video segments of the land, language and look of things middle July in Fukui-ken.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/7661305558/in/photostream

July 2012 at Kono-mura on the Fukui-ken coast of the Japan sea. This was Wednesday, but the summer weekends are flooded with people on beaches, roads and water. The two women searching the rocks (speaking something other than Japanese) appear to be poaching 'sazae' -not good for the ecosystem.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/7658524106/in/photostream

Valley panorama of Japan's main island west coast, Fukui-ken (July 15). Note the land use patterns: neat rice paddy irrigation system, electrical power cables, Hino River levy, homes concentrated to maximize productive spaces.

Buddhist temple bell ringing, http://youtu.be/MVS4JFWXtzU

The 7 a.m. bell at Daihou-ji, a Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhist temple, in Echizen-city, Fukui-ken in July 2012. In Japanese: includes lesson on how to achieve maximum sound when striking the bronze bell. Since nearly all such metals were melted for the Pacific War effort, this present bell dates to post-1945. Note the deep reverberation that follows the ringing.

1 minutes 38 seconds

Buddhist temple interior, Jodo sect, http://youtu.be/Vi3d60gMuUY

Tour of hondo (main hall, 1858) of Daihou-ji in Echizen-city, Fukui-ken in July 2012. Mostly in Japanese.

6 minutes 09 seconds

train line to Kyoto from 25 km north, http://youtu.be/hagj3YgCfRE

Short train window video segments on the JR West line into Kyoto from the north, along the west shore of Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture in middle July 2012.

2 minutes 38 seconds

cross-posting from Japan Foundation newsletter:

LIGHT UP NIPPON: Introducing Young People's Challenge to Energize the

Devastated Areas in Tohoku Region through Fireworks

The Japan Foundation produced a documentary film that featured challenges by the
young Japanese people supporting Tohoku's recovery for the purpose of presenting
a vivid image of today's young generation in Japan.

http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/culture/commonness/lightup-nippon/index.html

conversion from Chinese characters to several E.Asian readings

http://www.cojak.org/ gives the Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese, both onyomi and kunyumi, for nearly all characters according to today's electronic list for Korean Studies

Yiddish-Japanese dictionary story

For Japanese Linguist, A Long And Lonely Schlep

by LUCY CRAFT

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/16/150723840/for-japanese-linguist-a-long-and-lonely-schlep

A smattering of Yiddish words has crept into the American vernacular: Non-Jews go for a nosh or schmooze over cocktails. Yet the language itself, once spoken by millions of Jews, is now in retreat...

one year anniversary 3.11 disasters

:: Set of articles at japanfocus.org

Christopher S. Thompson,

The Great East Japan Earthquake One Year on: Reports From The Field. Introduction

William W. Kelly, NormalizationTohoku's Futures: Predicting Outcomes or Imagining Possibilities?

Alyne Elizabeth Delaney,

A Report from One Miyagi Fishing Community

Dawn Grimes-MacLellan,

Students in the field at the site of the Great East Japan Earthquake

Christopher S. Thompson,

Local Perspectives On the Tsunami Disaster: Untold Stories From the Sanriku Coast

David McNeill,

The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Fight for Compensation

Sakurai Kunitoshi,

The Henoko Assessment Does Not Pass

Andrew DeWit,

Japan, the Pentagon, and the Future of Renewable Energy: Battle Lines Form

John O'Brian,

On hiroshima: Photographer Ishiuchi Miyako and John O'Brian in Conversation

:: Several related events:

1. STS (Science and Technology Studies) Forum on Fukushima,http://fukushimaforum.wordpress.com/conferences

2. Tohoku Tsunami debris flow animation‏, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17122155

3. photos 11 months on, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099811/Eleven-months-tsunami-earthquake-ravaged-Japan-new-pictures-incredible-progress-multi-billion-pound-clear-up.html

4. more pictures: Eleven months after the tsunami and earthquake ravaged Japan,http://www.newsweekjapan.jp/stories/world/2012/02/311-2.php

5. Symposium and art exhibition about the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.

The Fire that Doesn't Go Out, Exhibition Organizing Committee, Exhibition: March 1-30, The Fire that Doesn't Go Out will open on March 1st, 7:00 p.m., at The Baron Gallery in the East College Street Development, Oberlin. There will be a showing of Misato Yugi's video animation, Red Dot Radiation Art, with a live score by the Cleveland group, SINUU. On March 8, the Art Department will host talks by Ellen Johnson Visiting Artists, Yuichiro Nishizawa (at noon in the Baron Gallery) and elin o'Hara slavick (at 7:00 p.m. in Hallock Auditorium).

For a schedule of events and more information on the exhibit, please go to our blog at:http://unendingfire.tumblr.com,

The symposium, Fukushima: Lessons Learned?, will be held on March 9 and 10 in the Norman C. Craig Lecture Hall. The symposium will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 9 with a memorial for the victims of the Tohoku disaster by Leading Edge Speaker, Akira Tashiro, the award-winning editor and reporter for the Hiroshima-based Chugoku Shimbun. This will be followed by a keynote address, Dilemmas of Nuclear Energy, delivered by Dr. Kennette Benedict (OC '69), publisher of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. After a break for dinner, the first panel, Compound Catastrophe and Nuclear Aftermath, will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Detailed information about the symposium schedule and speakers is online athttp://shansi.oberlin.edu/fukushima-lessons-learned.

documentary, "Sushi - The Global Catch"

cross-posting from the e-list for East Asia Anthropology, EASIANTH

In this meticulously researched documentary, filmmaker Mark Hall traces the origins of sushi in Japan to its status today as a cuisine that has spawned a lucrative worldwide industry. This explosion in demand for sushi over the past 30 years has brought with it problems of its own, as fish stocks have steadily depleted, threatening the balance of the ocean's ecosystems.

Through extensive interviews with prominent industry representatives and environmental activists, Hall carefully presents the various solutions being proposed to the vexing issue of overfishing. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival, Sushi: The
Global Catch raises some pressing questions that all sushi lovers should seek to address.

See the trailer at http://vimeo.com/23332161 or learn more at http://kinolorberedu.com/film.php?id=1244

cf. investigative journalism TV at 60 Minutes (12 minute segment) on the Japanese blue fin tuna market & sushi ("The King of Sushi in Trouble"):

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4423723n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

latest textbooks, Beginning & Intermediate Japanese

The full announcement by Tuttle Publishing links to related media (workbook and so forth). Here you have the two textbooks.

The tables of Goals include chapter by chapter targets for kanji, culture, grammar and so on.

Tuttle is pleased to announce the availability of Intermediate Japanese: Your Pathway to Dynamic Language Acquisition. In this second book of a 3-volume series, authors Michael Kluemper and Lisa Berkson continue to teach Japanese through an engaging storyline that emphasizes real-life situations in contemporary Japanese culture and authentic written, visual and oral materials. By the end of this second book, students will have mastered a cumulative total of 300 kanji, well on the way to AP- and IB-level proficiency.

...To download the introduction to either textbook immediately, just click here for Beginning Japanese or here for Intermediate Japanese.

database of lesson plans, culture notes, etc

University of Pittsburgh announces a Teacher Portal. Search the Teaching Materials Database to download the lesson plans and culture notes, read the study tour blogs, and view and/or download photos in the Photo Gallery.

http://noborders.ucis.pitt.edu/nctalib/ 

USA HighSchool Students - JET Memorial Invitation Program

Opportunity for US students in grade 11 or 12 who now study Japanese.
[forwarded from EASC at Indiana University]

JET Memorial Invitation Program (JET MIP) for High School Students

The JET MIP program provides 32 high school students with the opportunity to go to Japan for two weeks as a group to meet Japanese students, experience Japanese culture, and study the language. It was created in 2011 in memory of the two beloved American teachers of English who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011: Taylor Anderson(Ishinomaki, Miyagi) and Montgomery Dickson (Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate). The program is open to 11^th and 12^th graders who are currently learning Japanese, and it seeks to honor the principles which Taylor and Monty valued during their lives.  For more information, please visit http://www.jflalc.org/jle-12-jet-mip.html.