Jero - African American Enka singer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEmeVeQe56U

A new enka singer has debuted just recently. His debut song is Umiyuki or "ocean snow". He is all over the Japanese music scene. His debut song was the 4th most popular song in a recent weekly ranking in Japan. This is the highest ranking an enka song has reached There is something distinct about him. He is an African-American from Pennsylvania. His Japanese grandmother sparked his interest in enka, traditional japanese songs. He has marked a new era for the enka genre. His name is Jero.

A lot of Japanese people are shocked, surprised, excited, and flattered as they watch an African-American sing an enka song in perfect japanese. His music video is highly amusing. Dressed in hip-hop, wearing a new-era cap, dancing to his own enka song, American style graffiti, and more.

What does this pose for the interesting fusion of tradition and modernity? A minority in Japan singing a traditional Japanese style music. Is it problematic? controversial? normal?

JASCers taking over the world!

So I'm studying abroad this semester in Seville, Spain...and what surprised me most was that there are JASCers here. Yes, there was a 58th Japadele studying in Spain as well, and she came down to Seville for a week so we met for a nice long chat. I'm 59th JASCer, so of course we didn't know each other, but it's really amazing how JASCers click so well. It was incredibly interesting to hear her JASC stories, listen to her talk about how my ECs were as delegates themselves, etc. No matter what JASC conference you attend, every delegate shares the unique atmosphere that you can find only through JASC, and I realized just how much I missed that JASC environment. She told me that summer of JASC was her most memorable of her student days, and I have to say I agree.

The next week was Holy Week, and Spain being a Catholic country, we got a week off of school! :) Conveniently, there was talk about a JASC reunion in Europe; of course I had to go...can't resist the pull of JASCers. Ryota, a 59th JEC, is studying in London for the year. He hosted the event, and Hiro (59th AEC), Tomo (58 Japadele) and Sheehan (57&58, AEC Chair) also came. I was amazed at how international JASCers really are...we don't just discuss global issues, but go on into the world to actually live up to it and invest more in international exchange. There are JASC alum in all corners of the world...working in Prague, studying in Korea, volunteering in Africa....even sailing around Asia on a boat! If you look around, it's pretty easy to find another JASCer in your area. So what if you don't actually know them? Any JASCer would be more than happy to meet different generations of the conference.

Three of the four people I met at the reunion were previous ECs, so they were able to give me a lot of advice for the upcoming conference, and it was motivating to be there with them. Look out 60th, it's going to be another great year for JASC!

4 generations of JASC!
Sheehan, Hiro, Ryota, Tomo, Aya

Meet Your 60th JASC AEC: A Slideshow

This can also be found by following the youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsygGd8TGJ4

Just a little introduction I made using pictures from the 59th JASC (which took place in Japan-more specifically Tokyo, Akita, Hiroshima, and Kyoto) and the American Executive Committee (AEC) Fall and Spring meetings. Granted, some of the shots are a little silly, but that's what gives it the charm. Got to love spontaneity, a good funny face, and -of course- those unforgettable memories. Being an AEC is hard work, and it's true that there are a lot of bumps on the road to making a conference, but still, it's for the smiles that we're doing this, for inspiration, for the connection...

We guarantee you a wonderful time!

creation of thoughts

What determines attraction? What prompts or incites a connection, a desire, a need for a specific thing? Whether a person, an object, or knowledge of a specific field, my greatest interests all develop organically, without any conscious effort or decision on my part. If asked, I can at most give reasons why others should like it or why it's interesting as a general topic; why I specifically feel drawn to it, however, is much less clear. For example...

Home
I love the West Coast, specifically the Northwest. Conscious reasons for this could be that it's where I grew up and although I would rather eat a pinecone than go snowshoeing, I love looking out my window and seeing the mountains. I like the fact that no one here is held back by rain and that the one time a year it snows everyone becomes a little kid again.

(Of course, not everyone's inner child is an idiot like this weirdo.)

I like the knowledge that if I go to the very western edge of my state, I will be looking out not to more of what I am comfortable in but to the Pacific Ocean, across which lie languages I don't yet know, customs I am as of yet unfamiliar with, and places I have not yet seen.

I love all of this about Washington but none of this explains the fact that when I come back to the West Coast - no matter where on the West Coast - I feel more at home than anywhere else in the country. And yet none of these places carry a real sense of home. Why is that? What is it that turns someplace into one's home instead of just where one lives?

Career
As I sit here, less than three months away from receiving a masters in Japan Studies and faced with the very real possibility of entering a Japanese company in the fall, I find myself thinking more and more about how I got into this field. Whether it is wooing me by flowing naturally or torturing me in its reminders of how far I have yet to go in my study of Japanese, I adore studying Japanese. There are many days when I'm reading articles for class that I actually feel giddy, much like a little girl holding hands with the boy she likes. Despite this heady feeling, however, when asked why I started studying the language, all I am able to answer is なんとなく興味を持つようになった. But merely saying "I somehow and for some unknown reason developed an interest" seems at best insufficient.

Examples exist throughout the major aspects of my life, from the personal to the professional to the intellectual to...and the list goes on. Does not knowing the impetus make the desire or interest less viable? Are consciously created desires more powerful or more lasting than the unconscious ones? How are interests created?

I bring up these questions as an aspect of memory and how memories are created. Our interests, our passions, our thought processes...these all play pivotal roles in the creation of memory and its subsequent manipulations and recreations. I believe that what we choose to remember, whether consciously or not, is decided by the same forces that decide our interests and that the relationship between ones desires and ones memories is one of symbiosis.

For those at all interested in the topic of memory, I recommend the following:
* Feather in the Storm: one woman's recollection of growing up in a family of intellectuals during Mao's Cultural Revolution

* After Life: Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, one of my favorite directors (other works include 幻 [Maboroshi], 誰も知らない [Nobody Knows], and 花よりもなほ [Hana Yori Mo Naho - no English title]), this is one of my favorite movies. Coming from a background as a journalist, Kore-eda devotes the majority of the film to interviews with his characters regarding what memory they would like to take with them into the afterlife.
An interesting note about this movie: while the characters who are featured throughout the movie are professional actors, the majority of the people interviewed in the beginning are just random people.


Responses are welcome.

Spring Meeting

At the end of February, the AECs had their Spring Meeting in the lovely environs of Maine, where we stayed at Bowdoin College- the academic home base of our fearless chairperson, Samantha Scully. It snowed beautifully, calmly, quietly...which absolutely dumbfounded my University of Michigan mind. 

What? Snow without blistering winds? 

An interesting weekend nonetheless, and thoroughly intense. Here are a few snapshots (thanks Bethany) of what happened between -and sometimes during- our bouts of discussion. 

Notice...my unflattering picture, my translucent, diaphanous soul leaving my body and flickering in the darkness... 

Late nights and paperwork can take their toll on even the most energetic of students. It's hard work, but I love it. 

JASC is not boring.

I know what you're thinking: I'm a member of the planning committee. Of course I'm not going to say the conference is boring, particularly not in a pubic space where potential delegates could read it. That is true. To do so would be tantamount to shooting myself in my currently recruiting foot. But this is not what prompts me to say (yet again): JASC is not boring. Nor, moreover, could my life since first attending JASC and even more since joining the AEC even remotely connect itself to such a term. This past weekend was a perfect example...

February 28-March 2, 2008
60th JASC AEC Spring Meeting
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.

Thursday (thoughts from my journal)

I feel like a country girl gone to the city for the first time, only perhaps in reverse. Never before have I seen ice on the ocean but, looking out my plane window, such is my first view of Maine. Greeting the lobsters and marveling at tire tracks on what seem to be frozen lakes, my mind immediately creates images of sailors with ice-encrusted beards, people bundled to three times their size in fur boots and parkas, and me: a naive West Coaster equipped with only her peacoat and a homemade hat. This is the first time I've ever been nervous to step off a plane. Maine: land of lobsters, baked beans factories, and soon to be a frozen member of the AEC. I'm so excited.

Friday
After a very short night (bringing JASCers together again seems to equal very little sleep. I think we finally went to bed around 3am and woke up around 7:30 or 8) of laughter and shushing ourselves, it's time for a full day of meetings. But first, breakfast...



Stomachs full, we set off for a morning of site and AO rundowns. We like to start easy and build to the hard stuff, or in this case delegate selection. Not having Aya there made the weekend feel incomplete, I think, but Aya seems to have somehow anticipated conflicts that arose and the comments she had sent proved invaluable.

Speaking of conflict, though, I find that, perversely enough, I really enjoy hashing out the business stuff. This team constantly surprises me and while there are plenty of frustrating moments as in any group project, at the end of the day, I'm left with people that will crawl into a fireplace with me,

that will climb on a butt-numbing polar bear,

and steal numerous custards from the cafeteria, all of which may initially seem insignificant but nevertheless remind me of how lucky I am to have this group of people as AEC this year. I feel free to express my opinions knowing that even though there may be rampant objection,

when we leave the table, our relationship is just as strong as it was when we first sat down.

Of course, meetings aren't all pain and suffering. Far from it, actually. Highlights of this weekend include: "I wish they'd leave me alone so I could go back to whacking my monsters,"

"Thumperton" and "Grovestand," The Plague (okay, that wasn't fun, but it was an adventure), the taxi driver who was channeling Jack Black, and finally Portland Airport security holding me from my plane as it took off leading to being driven through Maine by a hippie elderly couple with grandchildren, a bus trip down to Boston

and flying around the country from Boston to Houston and back to Seattle.
I blame the fever for this...
(I really have no excuse, but who can resist
making monkey face after a day of flying?)


So all in all, a typical AEC meeting.

CSR

Oh, what the hell, as long as I am procrastinating:

The Economist ran a special report on corporate social responsibility in its January 17th issue. Articles include:

Do It Right: Corporate responsibility is largely a matter of enlightened self-interest
A Stitch in Time: How companies manage risks to their reputation
How Good Should Your Business Be? Corporate social responsibility has great momentum. All the more reason to be aware of its limits

The Economist is, of course, a very pro-market publication, but the questions it raises are nonetheless relevant for any real (i.e. non-utopian) discussion of CSR. For instance, how does one counter the argument (advocated by Milton Friedman, among others) that the greatest social responsibility of firms is to generate profit? Alternatively, is it responsible for CEOs to use the capital of others -- namely, their stockholders -- to polish up their corporate image? And is it enough for firms to simply approach CSR as a risk-management strategy?

Ponder, ponder.

(By the way, access to the above articles may require subscription to The Economist, but most colleges and universities should have a subscription for their students and faculty. Check your library's e-resources for more information.)

Memory

I ran across this passage while researching for a paper and thought it relevant for Bethany's RT on Memory and Tragedy:

"Also significant to our analysis is that the unconscious of a nation, like that of a person, includes traumas in the past, inflicted either by domestic or by foreign forces. The traumas wait for the opportunity to come alive."

How poetic.