LETTER FROM THE GENERAL SECTION EDITO Hey! I’m Natalie, one half of the GSE coin! This year has been my first year on JET, and I feel being a part of the CONNECT team really made it a unique one. I initially applied for the copy editor position but was instead selected for General Section Editor, and I couldn’t be happier with what I got. Being able to cross all the categories to source stories allowed me to meet all kinds of interesting people and learn more about types of Japanese tradition I had never thought about before (specifically, the practise of misogi)! A particular highlight was being able to develop friendships with some people I interviewed for articles—I’d have never met them without CONNECT. My personal favourites out of the articles I’ve sourced (although this was incredibly hard to choose) have to be Mike Clapis’s “Ohara Gozaimasu”, a brilliantly written piece about a Shibuya festival which celebrates Kagoshima dance, and “From Dust to Dust”, an intriguing article by Michelle Zacharias on how she is making a commentary on dust and air pollution by creating art from dust itself. To round off my message, I’d like to give a huge thanks to Alice, Hannah, the rest of the CONNECT team for being awesome people to work with and always willing to help each other out. A massive thank you in particular to my co-GSE Eli for being super reliable and just an all-around amazing person to work with! Looking forward to what this new year and new team will bring!
20 Photo: Sora Sagano on Unsplash.com
