JETsAD Newsletter #6

#6 August 29, 2015

NEWSLETTER February 2016

Kaminoyama Kasedori Festival P.3

Exclusive with

Ayana Wyse

Creator of Black Creatives Japan P.4-5

Upcoming Events

“What Do You Love About

Japan” Giveaway

JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Table of Contents

Announcements •Happy birthday to everyone

• Kaminoyama Kasedori

Festival….……………….…… 3

• Black Creatives Japan: A Space

born in February!

•Congratulations to Kimmisha

Thomas, the winner of last for Creatives in Japan…..……. 4-5 month’s giveaway!

• Recipe Corner……..……..…6 • Quotes of the Month…..….

7

• Brain Challenge…………… 8 • Upcoming Group Events… 9 • Events in Japan……………. 10

•A big thanks to everyone who

• February Giveaway..……… 11

filled out last month’s surveys!

We truly appreciate your time and effort.

• JETs AD Opportunities…… 12

•If you haven’t already, be sure to

check out last month’s Members of the Week and our Life After JET Q & A with Monique Dehaney on our webpage!

Looking forward to getting to know more members and hearing the experiences and wisdom of more sempais!

•Looks like the votes are in and

our spring trip will be in Kyoto!

•Deadline to apply for the After

JET Conference is Feb 1st.

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Kaminoyama Kasedori Festival Written By: Amanda James Winter sure took its time coming to Tohoku this year, but now that

the snows are finally well underway I’d like to take the time to tell you about the most wonderful winter festival on God’s (not-so) green Earth. That’s right, children, I’m talking about the Kasedori Festival in Kaminoyama City, Yamagata Prefecture.

Q: What exactly is the Kasedori Festival?

A: Well, I’m glad you asked. Every year on February 11th several brave souls strip down to their undergarments and don conical straw coats to become Kasedori. These modern day heroes travel through the city singing and dancing around in the snow as spectators toss buckets of ice-cold water on them.

Q: Okay, but why? Why would anyone do this? Is there some type of Hunger Games situation going down in Kaminoyama?

A: Um, isn’t it obvious? The Kasedori pray for Kaminoyama's protection from fire in the coming year as well providing good fortune to all of the local businesses. Also, according to superstition, the straw obtained from a Kasedori’s coat is a charm that promotes the growth of thick and shiny hair.

Additionally, all of the Kasedori dancers are volunteers. It’s actually quite a coveted position and participants come from as far away as Saga and Hokkaido Prefecture. Some foreigners also participate.

Q: That sounds ridiculous. Won’t they all catch hypothermia or die?

A: Probably not. According to the experts, when someone wears the special straw coat they are acting as the incarnation of a god and thus invulnerable.

Ostensibly, no one has ever taken ill as a direct result of Kasedori participation.

Q: Yeah, okay… sounds fake, but okay. I have to see this for myself.

Where and when did you say this was going on?

A: Check out the details below!

When:

Thursday, February 11th, 2016 (National Foundation Day) from 10:00 AM- 3:30PM

Where:

Kaminoyama Castle (opening ceremony) & throughout Central Kaminoyama (including Kaminoyama-Onsen Station, KAMIN shopping center, Yamazawa, and York Benimaru parking area)

Cost:

Free to the public. / B.Y.O.Bucket

If you have any further questions, please contact me.

Amanda James Senior Kasedori Correspondent Kaminoyama City BOE

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Black Creatives Japan: A Space for Creatives in Japan What happens when Japan, talented black people and Facebook meet? Magic!

In 2015, Black Creatives Japan was created. It is a Facebook group that brings together creatives living in, interested in or that have visited Japan. Since its creation, it has since grown into a positive community and includes a wide range of talents such as visual artists, poets, musicians and vloggers. This month we had the pleasure of interviewing Ayana Wyse, the creator, and getting the scoop on this new group.

About the Creator and Inspiration for the Group From:

New York; a Caribbean American with family in both Barbados and Grenada

Background: With a deep interest in Japanese culture and language, Ayana left New York in 2011 to teach English in Japan as an eikawa teacher, arriving one week after the big earthquake and experiencing a shake for the first time.

Since arriving and living in Osaka, she has made the shift from teaching in English conversation schools to teaching at international preschools, which she really enjoys. She is most noted for her YouTube videos and being featured the YouTube documentary, Blacks in Japan.

Talents:

Personal creative talents include a vlogging camera presence and coloring. Athletic talents includes track and field, pilates and pole-dancing.

Her desire to create a group started when she initially came to Osaka. Before coming to Japan, she used Meetup.com to connect with people in New York. However, after arriving she soon found that using this convenient networking site wasn’t possible due to it’s lack of popularity in Osaka at that time. Later, she found out about a group that had started off as a writing group called Create Osaka. She began attending a couple of their meetings. “I felt like this was a nice kind of community that I would like to see expand,” she stated. Although she felt it amazing to be around so many creative minds, there was something lacking. “In the end, I kind of just stopped going because I just didn’t feel the connection that I really wanted with the people that were in it it,” she commented. She recalls that part of this was due to the group’s shift into becoming a sort of English practice with the new Japanese members.

Last year, she began to make moves to turn her initial desire of starting a group into reality. She searched for groups on Facebook to see if there were any groups like the one she envisioned.

Although there were groups for worldwide creatives, there wasn’t a group specifically geared toward black creatives in Japan. Thus, Black Creatives Japan was born.

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Q & A WITH AYANA

1. What does “being creative” mean to you?

I think it’s a lot of things and what I think most of it is being open minded, trying new things or new ways of thinking. Sometimes you have an old idea you want to mix it up. Even something like a project that you've done and you felt it wasn’t good enough, just try again.

Or, changing things that have always been an idea that everybody does all the time. Just trying to change that up making something new like that.

3. What do you find most challenging about being a creative person in Japan?

Definitely, your time. It’s challenging to get. Since working in Japan means the job sucks up a lot of your free time, it’s kind of hard to create something or be focused on creating something. You can still, of course.

I think “creative” is not only about art. I think a lot of people are mistaken when they hear the word “create” that it’s like “ All right, let’s draw,” “Let’s paint,” or “Let’s make a sculpture.” That’s also included, of course, but I think being creative is also with anything like technology, science and even business—ways of thinking of how to solve a difficult situation.

It might be like a wild dream but I was thinking of taking it more offline. And even maybe having my own studio and having the Facebook group connected with it.

Then, it have its own official website. But for now, I just want to grow it and see where it takes me organically. But, I do think that I want more stuff offline like the meet-ups I started up. And not just in Kansai but elsewhere. I want other people to take the initiative.

5. What action would like the readers to take?

Check it out. If you’re interested, join. Don’t worry about it. It’s an open space. If you have any creative stuff you want to share, please feel free. Also, I change the banner of my group weekly of other people’s visual stuff. And it could just be something like a sculpture you made. Just need to take a picture of it. It needs to be something you have to see, of course. But yea, I would definitely like more people to join and participate in the group.

2. What has been the most touching or amazing moment you’ve experienced as a creative person in Japan?

I was given an amazing opportunity to model, although it was a small type of opportunity from an independent artist. He had approached me on the streets of Shinsaibashi one time with his business card. He was telling me he has this opportunity and he would love to have me model for his clothing. So, even though my Japanese skills were a little low, I took a chance and participated in it.

He printed out these long cards of my stomach down— the pants, basically— and they were showcased in the Hankyu Department store in Osaka. I also got free pants from him and the pictures that I now have up on my wall.

4. Where would you like the group to be in 3 or 5 years from now?

After that is getting your work seen or taken seriously in Japan, especially if you’re trying to be more professional. According to one of my friends, who’s also a visual artist, she said that if your visual work resembles Western art, even slightly, it will get rejected. I thought that was shocking. And I think that also may go the same for other mediums like music and such.

Like for music, if something is a little Western, they would want to have a Japanese person try to make it Western and not have it done by some who’s already from another country. That’s what I’ve noticed.

6. Anything else you’d like to mention that I didn’t ask?

I’m hoping in the future to make a directory or something where I can bring everyone together—all the creatives in Japan… Just have that kind of one-stop shop to find these people in Japan because there’s a lot of us in Japan. It’s just that we’re all spread out—another reason why I made this group.

Check out Black Creatives Japan by going to: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/BlackCreativesJapan/

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

RECIPE CORNER Snowball Cookies It’s winter time! What better way to enjoy the season than with some beautiful snow inspired cookies. Actually, these cookies have many names but snowball happens to be one of them. So, let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!!

Ingredients •

1 cup all purpose flour ( 小麦粉)

•

1 cup finely chopped nuts of your choice (almonds, walnut, pecan, etc) Note: Toasting the nuts beforehand may enhance the flavor.

•

3 tbsp sugar (if you want it sweeter you could add 1/4 cup)

•

1/2 cup of softened butter ( or vegan butter)

•

1 tsp vanilla extract

Other •

1/2-1 cup of powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar) for coating

•

1 ziplock bag (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C (325 degrees F).

2. Thoroughly combine all of the ingredients in a bowl until a crumbly dough starts to form.

3. Roll the dough into balls and place onto an ungreased baking sheet or parchment lined baking pan.

4. Put them in the oven and bake for about 20-25mins until lightly browned.

5. Remove from the oven and let them cool.

6. While the cookies are still warm, roll them around in the powdered sugar in either a bowl or ziplock bag.

7. Enjoy warm or let the cookies completely and give them a second coating and then eat.

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Quotes of the Month 

“Life

 is

 short,

 and

 it’s

 up

 to

 you

 to

 make

 it

 sweet.�

 - Sadie Delany

Japanese Proverb: 茆水盆㠍返ら㠚 Romaji: Fuku sui bon ni kaerazu.

Translation: What’s done is done./ No use crying over spilt milk.

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

BRAIN CHALLENGE Japan Quiz: a. はい、チーズ! b.１＋１は？ c. ３ー１は？ d. all of the above e. only a & b

FEBRUARY WORD SEARCH Can you find them all?

Nigatsu winter Setsubun snow festival ice love heart Black History National Foundation Day Valentine's Day red pink rose tulips kiss hug celebrate

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JETs AD Newsletter

February February2016 2016

Upcoming JETs AD Events • 2016 Sapporo Snow Festival

✦

When: February 6-10

Sapporo has its annual Snow Festival (Yuki Matsuri) in February. This year the festival will be from February 5-11! Marvel at the spectacular snow and ice art and enjoy the plethora of snow activities Hokkaido has to offer. Ready to get in on the snow adventure? See the Facebook event page for more details!

• 2016 Spring Trip: Kyoto

✦

When: March 19-21 (National Holiday)

More info coming soon!

Check the Facebook event page for more details!

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JETs AD Newsletter

February February2016 2016

Events in Japan February Sunday

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 1

2 Setsubun

Mantaro (Nara)

3

4

Samurai Costume Parade (Tochigi)

7 World Hobby Fair (Osaka)

8

Samurai Festival

9

14

15

Sapporo Snow Festival ends

Otaru Snow Light Path Festival ends (Hokkaido)

21

22

28

29

Tokamachi Snow Festival ends (Niigata)

Tokyo Marathon

17 Hachinohe Enuburi starts (Aomori)

23

Giant Mochi Lifting Battle (Kyoto)

24

12

11

Kasedori Festival (Yamagata)

16

5

Otaru Snow Light Path Festival starts

6

(Hokkaido)

Holiday

Bamboo Fight Festival (Akita)

Sapporo Snow Festival starts

Saturday

(Hokkaido)

10 National

(Nagomi, Kumamoto)

Friday

18

Black History Month Tokyo 2016

19

Tokamachi Snow Festival starts (Niigata)

25

Warabino Naked Man Festival (Chiba)

13 Meet-up

Okayama 20 Naked Man Festival (Okayama) Hachinohe Enuburi ends

27

26

Movie Releases: • The Martian (オデッセイ) (02/05/2016) • Steve Jobs (02/12/2016) • The Hateful Eight (02/27/2016)

Concerts:

• Macy Gray (Tokyo- 2/22; Osaka-2/23)

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

CALLING ALL CURRENT AND PAST JETS OF AFRICAN DECENT CURRENTLY LIVING IN JAPAN WE ARE HAVING A…

For How to Enter and Rules: https://jetsad.wordpress.com/2016/01/31/monthly-challenge-2

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Share With Us! Got some amazing classroom tricks, amusing comics, hair tips, delicious recipes, great teaching resource or information on an amazing festival in your town? Want to share an experience you had? Whatever it is you have, we would like to hear about it! You can write about anything your heart desires, with only a few exceptions. If you have something you would like to share with the JETsAD community or would like more information, send an email to JETsAD@ajet.net with the subject header “Newsletter Contribution.”

Exceptions: Posts about political, religious or commercial activities, posts from businesses looking for clients or employees and anything deemed inappropriate by the editor.

***Get Involved*** ✦

Open Positions: • Block Coordinators for the following blocks: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 • Newsletter Editor • Website Coordinator(Webmaster)

✦

If you are interested in any of these positions, send an email to JETsAD@ajet.net.

The Block Coordinator application is located in the “Files” section of the JETsAD Facebook page.

✦

Be apart of Sempai Connect, a buddy system linking current JETsAD & former JETs AD. If you are interested, send an email to JETsAD@ajet.net. To help the pairing process, fill out and send the questionnaire. Questionnaire is also located in the “Files” section of the JETsAD Facebook page.

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

What is JETs AD? 


JETs AD (JETs of African Descent) is a group that is open to all and focuses on topics related to JETs of African Descent. This group serves as a platform for discussion, support, and announcements relating to the JET community at-large. We aim to provide useful information and share resources on hard-to-find hair and beauty products, foreign foods, events, ways to stay connected, and other topics relevant to our demographic. We also plan nationwide and region-specific events.

We are affiliated with The JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme.

Join us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on all the happenings in the JETs AD community. For more information, email us at jetsad@ajet.net.

JETs AD Newsletter is newsletter for current and former JETs to share information, tips and any other information that may be deemed useful. The views expressed by contributors to this newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of the JETs AD Special Interest Group nor the JET Programme and its affiliates All contents retain their copyright to the respective contributor(s) and are printed by JETsAD Newsletter under special permission. Š2016 JETs AD Newsletter. All rights reserved.

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JETs AD Newsletter

February 2016

Thank you for reading!

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