We are asking JET Program participants past and present, as well as other friends of the program to speak out and petition the Japanese government to reconsider the cuts.  Please sign this petition in support of the grassroots cultural exchange the JET Program has fostered and write directly to the Japanese government explaining the positive impact the Program has made in your life and that of your adopted Japanese community.

For more background on this issue, please refer to “JET Program on the Chopping Block” by Jim Gannon on jetwit.com.

Keynote speech by playwright and JET alum Randall David Cook

The History of JETAANY’s Webmaster
By Shree Kurlekar (Shiga-ken, 2005-07)

Originally published in the Summer 2009 issue of JQ Magazine

Since the fall of 2006, Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) has served as the Webmaster for JETAANY, revamping our site and making it one of the best and most user friendly across  the global JET network.

Born in Taiwan, Lee-Sean spent most of his formative  life in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona.  At age 18, he fled to the East Coast to the south of Boston, attending the prestigious Harvard University. At Harvard, he studied abroad in multiple countries, a prelude to what was to come upon graduation. He spent time at the University of Barcelona, the Sorbonne in Paris and Lund University in Sweden.

Having taken Japanese all through college, Lee- Sean knew that he wanted to live in Japan, and, much like the majority of the JET population, with no clear idea of what he wanted to do in the “long-term career” department, decided to apply to the JET Programme.

Lee-Sean spent three years on JET as an ALT in Oita-ken, Nakatsu-shi on Kyushu. The memories that still linger in his heart the strongest are of the onsen (mineral hot springs) and the monkeys. (Oh, and going to the Naked Man festival…)

Relocating to New York after his stint in Japan, Lee-Sean has been living almost exclusively in lower Manhattan. Though he ventures north and to the other boroughs regularly, he has only lived in Tribeca and the Financial District. However, this summer he left the city to take part in an internship at Creative Commons in San Francisco.

His official title there is “International Outreach Intern,” and he’s currently working on a wiki-based community site called OpenEd that is currently in beta. It aims to be a portal site to promote open educational resources, which encompasses everything from lesson plans to worksheets to multimedia assets. Since the JET community already does a lot of sharing of this kind, he definitely recommends checking them out at http://opened.creativecommons.org/.

This internship is in conjunction with his current pursuit of a master’s degree in interactive telecommunications at New York University. It’s an interdisciplinary program that deals with the convergence of art, technology, design and how they interact with people and society.

Before committing himself to academia again, Lee-Sean used to work in the non-profit sector in tech and media, doing things like making Web sites and producing videos for non-profit organizations. When asked how his current career relates to his experience on the JET Programme, Lee-Sean was quick to point out that JET definitely helped him with his public speaking and presentation skills: “Hey, if you can ‘perform’ as an ESL teacher in front of a bunch of Japanese chuugakusei (junior-high school students), you can pretty much do anything in front of any audience.”

Though he doesn’t use it much now, Lee-Sean also credits JET with increasing his knowledge in Japanese and enriching his life with the cultural experience and knowledge he gained there. The most direct relation, however, was being able to write “international experience” on his applications to international non-profits and non-governmental organizations.

In the near future, Lee-Sean plans on finishing up his last year of grad school, which means the next year will be spent solidly on his thesis. He would also love to live abroad again sometime, maybe somewhere in Europe or Southeast Asia, with Thailand or Singapore as frontrunners. He’s open to lots of different possibilities after he graduates and is even considering a trip back to Nippon.

In the long term, Lee-Sean would love to grow his freelance work into some sort of sustainable full-time business doing consulting, strategy and media/Web production for non-profi ts and social causes, or do that and teach part-time somewhere.

He can see himself teaching media studies and production at a high school or college. He also wants to further develop his art and musical projects, including the band and multimedia production company he created with a friend: Hepnova Multimedia, which he describes as “a genre-defying music collective, multimedia production company and modern lifestyle brand.”

In the precious spare time he does have, you might catch Lee-Sean on the waterfront in Battery Park City in warm weather. You might also see him at St. Mark’s for his Japan fixes, especially his favorite food: any kind of Asian noodles.

Visit Lee-Sean’s homepage at http://leesean.net.

I attended a sake tasting and dinner organized by JETAANY on Monday night at Bao Noodles.   Chris Johnson, JET-alum, sommelier, and owner of Bao Noodles, presented a tasting of his restaurant’s Vietnamese specialties paired with Momokawa and Murai Family sake.  Chris is extremely knowledgeable about sake; he explained the different kinds of sake and how sake was made.

It was the first time I had sake with Vietnamese food, or sake with non-Japanese food for that matter.  It turned out to be a very educational experience.  It may sound strange, but it just works.  Sake is indeed a very versatile beverage.  My favorite pairing was the dessert: coconut and pandan panna cotta with nigori (unfiltered) sake.  The combination of the coconut, pandan and sake became an explosion of tropical aromas in my mouth.  Yum!

Needless to say, I wholeheartedly recommend Bao Noodles, so go check it out.

See also:

• Chopsticks NY: The Self Made Sake Ambassador
• Tasting Table: Tokyo Joe

Above: Meredith, Elizabeth, Lee-Sean & Kris

More photos on Flickr.

Recipes after the jump.

Arugula, Pear, Walnut, Blue Cheese Salad

1 shallot, minced
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of fig jam
Juice of half a lemon
2 splashes of olive oil
1 handful chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

1 handful of Old Chatham Ewe’s milk blue cheese (Roquefort, or other mild blue cheese)
1 small pear
2 handfuls of toasted walnut halves
1 bunch of arugula

Mix the first 7 ingredients in a salad bowl to make the dressing.  Add the remaining ingredients, mix and serve immediately.

Cranberry Dried Fruit Compote

Juice of 2 oranges
1 cup of Port wine
1 cup of dried cherries
Half cup of dried apricots, halved
Half cup of dried figs, halved
One 9 oz can of pitted prunes, halved
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Sherry vinegar

Spice bag filled with:
5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 whole vanilla bean
5 cardamom pods
1 star anise

12 oz bag of fresh cranberries, washed

Combine all ingredients except for cranberries in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook for about 30 minutes or until dried fruit is swollen.  Add fresh cranberries until cook until berries just begin to pop, about 5 to 8 minutes more.  Make ahead and chill.  Serve cold or at room temperature.

Roasted Duck with Duck Sausage Stuffing and Port Wine Pomegranate Gravy

1 free range Long Island duck (~6.5 pounds), brought to room temperature, giblets and neck removed

Stock
2 liters of organic chicken stock
1 cup of dry white wine
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
2 stalks of celery
1 handful of parsley stalks
2 shallots, sliced
1 duck neck
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon of herbes de Provence

Put all stock ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer while preparing the stuffing.

Stuffing
1 stick of butter
One 8.5 oz package of D’Artagnan duck sausage, chopped
Duck giblets, chopped

3 sticks of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup shiitake, chopped
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (pimentón)
1 teaspoon of herbes de Provence
Half loaf of whole wheat bread, crumbled
Stock (see above)
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large pot.  Add sausage and giblets and sauté until meat begins to brown.  Add remaining ingredients except for the bread and sauté until softened.  Add the bread and enough stock to soften.  Stir to combine.  Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature and stuff into the cavity of the duck.  Transfer the remaining stuffing to a casserole dish to bake separately (20-30 minutes at 400 F or until the top browns).

Place the duck on a baking tray and roast for 2 to 2.5 hours at 400 degrees F or until skin is golden brown and juices run clear when a pairing knife is inserted into the leg.  Baste every 15 minutes with some of the stock.

When duck is done, remove from oven and transfer to a serving platter to rest.  Pour off the duck fat from the baking tray, reserve 2 tablespoons and save the rest for another use.

Deglaze baking tray with 1 cup of port wine, 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice, and juice of 1 orange.  Scrape solids free form the baking tray and transfer mixture into a saucepan and reduce.

In a separate saucepan, make a roux with the reserved 2 tablespoons of duck fat and 2 tablespoons of flour.  Add 1.5 cups of reduced stock from above and stir to combine.  Add stock and roux mixture to the mixture above.  Stir to combine and cook over medium heat until thickened.  Strain mixture into a serving container and serve with the duck and stuffing.

Miso Walnut Green Beans

6 shiitake, sliced
2 shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons of white miso
2 teaspoons of mirin
2 pounds of green beans
Salt and pepper

Sauté the shiitake and shallots in olive oil until lightly browned.  Bash up the walnuts, miso and mirin with a mortar and pestle until well-incorporated.  Stir in the shiitake and shallot mixture.  Steam or blanch the green beans until al dente.  Mix the green beans with the sauce.  Season to taste.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Maple Whiskey Butter Yams

2.5 lbs of yams (sweet potatoes)
1 stick of butter, softened at room temperature
2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons of Sortilège (Canadian whisky and maple syrup liqueur) or substitute Bourbon

Wash the yams and poke holes in the skins with a fork.  Wrap the yams in aluminum foil and roast in a 400 degree F oven for 45 minutes or until soft.  When yams are cool enough to handle but still warm, peel the skins off and mash in a bowl with a fork with the butter, maple syrup and Sortilège.

Sauerkraut-style Brussels Sprouts

2 pounds of Brussels sprouts, stem ends and outer leaves removed
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of caraway
Splash of olive oil
1 apple, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 cup sweet white wine (I used Riesling)
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper

Sauté the Brussels sprouts, onion and caraway in olive oil until onions begin to soften but not brown.  Add the wine, broth and vinegar and braise until the Brussels sprouts are tender.  Add more liquid if necessary and season to taste.

The JETAA (Japan Exchange & Teaching Programme Alumni Association) 20th Anniversay Kintetsu Essay Contest Publication is now available online as a downloadable PDF.

A big thank you goes out to Liz Sharpe (JET Alumni Association Pacific Northwest) and Steven Horowitz (JET Alumni Association of NY) who worked so hard to compile the publication. And a shameless self promotion: the music/design/lifestyle company I co-founded, Hepnova Multimedia, did the cover design.

The publication is a compilation of the 15 winning essays into a format that we are hoping to have printed for new and future JETs to read to get them excited about the JET Programme as well as for the enjoyment of the JET alumni community.

For new readers of my blog (including fellow ITP‘ers, holla if yo’ out there!),  I was an English teacher on the JET Programme from 2003-2006 in a city called Nakatsu, on the island of Kyushu.  I also did some freelance writing and played keyboard in some bands, including a salsa band that played a major summer festival, an Ani DiFranco/Cranberries coverband, and did some one-off solo and special guest gigs with vocalists as well.

Click here to download the Essay Contest Publication.

More photos on Flickr
Thanks to Monica, JETAANY Social Chair, for the organizing the event and for taking photos!

I recorded the Career Forum presentations and panel discussion.  Visit JETAANY.org to read more and to download the MP3s.

Above: Me and Takae from the Japan National Tourist Organization in NY

Last Friday, I joined members of JETAANY and the new 2007 JET Programme participants departing from New York City for a reception at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence, a Louis XV-style townhouse (with elements of japonisme, of course) in the tony Upper East Side. I felt like Marie-Antoinette at Versailles as I munched on Beard Papa cream puffs.

Good luck in Japan to all the departing JET participants. Gambatte ne!

Above: Me and Monica, Social chair of JETAANY.

See all of my photos of the event on Flickr. And Carol’s photos here.

Bohemian Beer Garden
Astoria, Queens, New York
14 July 2007

More photos on Flickr.

Last night I sang up a karaoke storm with my peeps from JETAANY.org.

More photos on Flickr!

On Saturday, I met up with Rachel and the peeps from JETAANY.org at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for the Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri 桜祭り). The custom of hanami (花見) or “flower viewing” in Japan is a time for celebrating spring and having picnics with friends, families and colleagues under the blossoming cherry trees.

Check out all the photos on my Flickr account.