@API Issue #003

Racism and the Role of the A.P.I. JET Page 6

All Mixed Up

Page 8

The Hidden Life Page 9

@API Exclusive with

Kay Makishi C h ai r o f t h e A J E T N a t i o na l C o u n c i l

Page 10

What Makes a Good Cafe?

Page 16 Lessons Learned:

A Journey of Self-Identity

Page 18

@API

What is “

API AJET

A . P . I . ”?

! u o y hank

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“Asian Pacific Islander”, or “API”, is a term that encompasses all people who identify with the “Asian” and/or “Pacific Islander” demographics, where “Asian” refers to all cultures and nationalities from regions spanning the entirety of the Asian continent, and “Pacific Islander” refers to all cultures and nationalities from regions spanning the entirety of Oceania. hank you to all of the new JET Programme participants who In practice, the term came by the API AJET booth during the AJET Fair at Tokyo “Asian-Pacific Islander” is Orientation sessions A & B. We hope you all have a wonderful year sometimes used in the United on the JET Programme.

States to include both Asian

Thank you as well to all of the Block Representatives and Americans and Pacific Islander everyone else who helped represent API AJET, as well as National Americans, typically used by AJET for helping put everything together. ◆ the Census Bureau. It was a result of the establishment by the U.S. Congress of an Asian/ Pacific American Heritage Week in 1978 for the first ten days of May, later expanded to a monthlong observance in 1992. The designation was to commemorate the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants Q: Was the map of Japan in the U.S. on 7 May 1843 and intentionally placed upside the contribution of Chinese down? workers to the construction of the transcontinental railroad, A: Yes, the map was intention- completed on 10 May 1869. ally placed upside-down. It was visually appealing, and it repre- Because of a 1997 sents looking at Japan from a different perspective with the idea directive by the Office of that we may have been looking at it from the wrong direction all Management and Budget, the along, while simultaneously saying that we’re aiming to turn things “Asian or Pacific Islander” racial around. The red and blue creates a false 3D effect, which symbol- category was further separated izes having multiple dimensions. And the yellow is to take over the into two categories: “Asian” and stereotypical skin color associated with Asians in the west. ◆ “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander”. ◆

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API AJET

Trivia

Some information gathered from the United States Census Bureau, CB11FF.06 (29 April 2011).

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API AJET

@API

All Things Asian Pacific Islander

Contributing Writers

Aimee Wenyue Chen Erika Ehren Akiyo Horiguchi Lee Hanae Ung Melody Wong

Front Cover Photo Kodomari, Aomori

by Charmaine Estacio

Layout & Design Albert David R. Valderrama

Staff Editor Erika Ehren

Chief Editor

Albert David R. Valderrama

Special Thanks to

Kay Makishi AJET National Council

@API

! s g n i t e e r G

Did you know that elephants live in a matriarchal society, where the head cow, along with her sisters, will teach the children everything they need to know to survive, including “elephant manners”? As a consequence of poaching and culling practices, however, if the head cow of a herd is killed, there will no longer be a role model to teach the youth how to behave. Orphaned adolescent elephants have been seen “pushing around [other animals like] rhinos and hippos,” even to the point of killing them simply because they no longer had a mother to show them “how to live in a diverse, multicultural society.”*

We could learn a thing or two from elephant society. One thing is to be able to respect peoples of other cultures and backgrounds.

One way to be able to do so is through education.

That was exactly one of our goals when we first founded the Asian Pacific Islander AJET (API AJET) special interest group. We are now exploring different avenues to achieve that goal, such as organizing events, facilitating discussions, and creating publications like “@API” in order to educate ourselves and each other about the diversity and multiculturalism we all contribute to.

In this 2013-2014 JET year, we hope to bring more content, more substance, and more support for everyone as a whole, so please look forward to more API AJET activity brought to you by the National Representatives and newly appointed Block Representatives here to serve you.

Let’s learn and grow together. We are all part of the same herd, after all.

Additional Thanks to Mariko Cook Christopher De Borja Yolanda Espiritu Asuka Nagase Jaime Ota Arjan Tulsi Geoff Wen Rochelle Zheng

Albert David R. Valderrama

API AJET Co-Founder

API AJET National Co-Representative

@API Chief Editor

Write for us!

Or draw. Or take pictures.

Or whathaveyou. @API is always looking for contributions. Share your story today! Email api@ajet.net.

* Elephant research based on information from Elephants Forever (www.elephants forever.co.za) and Tom Silva, curator and elephant trainer at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA via The Straight Dope (www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1462/can-elephants-jump).

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@API

Faces of API AJET

Yolanda Espiritu (Aomori, B1)

Hi guys, my name is Yolanda. My nickname is “Yoyo.” I am your Block 1 API AJET Representative! This means I rep. API-AJET members in the Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, and Akita regions! (What up northerners!) I come from Southern California, and now live in a small town at the tip of Aomori’s Tsugaru peninsula--its kind of the complete opposite of where I come from in terms of weather, and town population/ demographics! So it’s been quite an experience! This will be my 2nd year on JET. I look forward to serving and supporting you as the Block 1 Rep, and hanging out with you all sometime soon! Lets make the most of this JET experience! :)

Christopher De Borja (Gunma, B3)

Hello all! My name is Christopher David De Borja, but please feel free to call me Chris. I will be serving as one of your Block 3 API AJET Reps and I hail from the crane-shaped cabbage-country prefecture Gunma.

I will be going into my fourth year on JET and I am originally from the San Francisco City area in California in the USA. When I’m not snowboarding down the mountains during the winter time, I can be found going on adventures around Japan. In my downtime, I play video games, watch movies at the movie theater, and go karaoke. So if you need a buddy for any of those things, just give me a call! I look forward to supporting you on your JET experience!

API AJET

Rochelle Zheng (Chiba, B4)

Hi everybody! My name is Rochelle Zheng, and starting this year I’ll be a 2nd-year CIR and your new API AJET Block 4 Rep! Originally from Georgia in the US, I now live in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. My hobbies include swing dance, ultimate frisbee, and watching ridiculous but wonderfully entertaining variety shows on Japanese TV. I look forward to spending the next year with you all! :D

Akiyo Horiguchi (Toyama, B5)

Erika Ehren (Fukushima, B2)

Hey everyone! My name is Erika Ehren, and I’m your Block 2 API AJET Rep. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! I’m going into my 3rd year as a JET living in Aizumisato, Fukushima, but I originally hail from the great state of Wisconsin, USA. I grew up just outside of Green Bay, and I even brought my Packer cheesehead with me. I take great enjoyment in making my students wear my cheesy hat during English class. I’m looking forward to serving you as your Block 2 Rep, and hopefully we’ll be able to work together to expand API AJET in the upcoming year!

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Jaime Ota (Gunma, B3)

Hello, everyone! My name is Jaime Ota, and I’m one of your Block 3 Reps. I’m originally from sunny California, USA, but now live in Gunma, which is at the heart of Japan. This will be my 5th year on JET, and I’ve worked both as an ALT and CIR. I’m a giant geek at heart, so don’t be afraid to come talk to me! I look forward to getting to know everyone and helping you out the best I can.

I’m a 3rd-year CIR in Toyama, and one of those few married JETs. (Starting my 4th year according to “JET years,” but I was a late upgrade when I started.) I first started getting involved in API organizations when I was at the University of Southern California, and then I went on to immerse myself in the Japanese-American community in Portland, Oregon, where I lived after graduating from college. I am excited to be part of API AJET! I enjoy running, movies, taiko, and watching college football (Go Trojans!).

API AJET

Arjan Tulsi (Hyogo, B6)

Hi! My name is Arjan and I’ll be your Block 6 Rep this year, along with the super handsome Geoff Wen. I live in Akashi City and teach at the High School level. I hope you all have a productive and enjoyable year on JET and if you have a chance please attend one of our Block 6 events!

Geoff Wen (Shiga, B6)

Hey everyone! My name is Geoff and I currently reside in Shiga-ken where I work at two elementary schools and two kindergartens. I originally am from beautiful sunny California and will be entering my third year on the JET Programme in August. In my free time I like to go to the gym and explore the kansai area and have been known to get down on the dance floor in Kyoto sometimes. I (along with Arjan, your co-block leader) am very excited to be your Block 6 Representative for the upcoming year. I hope to bring fun and engaging events so that we can create a stronger API community in Block 6 and across Japan.

If you have any ideas for events please let Arjan or I know and we’ll do our best to make it happen!

@API

Block Representatives

Asuka Nagase (Osaka, B7)

Hi, my name is Asuka Anne Nagase, and I’m an ALT of Kishiwada-shi (famous for the Danjiri Festival), Osaka-fu, entering my 5th year on JET. I’m a 2nd generation bilingual Japanese American born and raised in San Francisco, California. I graduated from the University of California, Davis back in 2009, with a double-major in International Relations and Japanese, and a minor in Asian American Studies. I was very active in the student club Japanese American Student Society for all 4 years, 3 of which I served as an officer. I represented the local Japanese American community as a 2008 Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Princess as well. My first dream of teaching English in Japan via JET came true soon after that. That said, I’m sure we can somehow relate. I look forward to meeting and working with you all. As the Block Rep of Osaka, I hope to make the most out of my final year on JET, while helping to make things easier for us and to get more people to know/understand who we are. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu :)

Mariko Cook (Okinawa, B11)

A big “haitai” from your Block 11 Representative, kicking it all the way down south in Okinawa! My name is Mariko and I’ll be representing Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa in API AJET for the year.

I hail from the cornfields of Indiana and this is my 2nd year on the JET Programme. I’m excited to see what this year holds for all of us and I can’t wait to meet you all someday.

Let’s make this year awesome!

Which Block are You in?

Block 1: Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Akita Block 2: Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima, Niigata Block 3: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Nagano Block 4: Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Shizuoka Block 5: Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Gifu, Aichi Block 6: Shiga, Kyoto, Hyogo Block 7: Mie, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama Block 8: Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi Block 9: Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi Block 10: Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Oita Block 11: Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa

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@API

API AJET

Racism and the Role of the A.P.I. JET

written by Akiyo Horiguchi (富山県)

Writer’s Note: I tried my best, but I struggled with some of the terminology. I attempted to be inclusive of all APIs rather than only those from my own country (U.S.A.), but where I decided I only have sufficient knowledge of Americans specifically, I made it clear as much as possible that I am speaking of the U.S. or of Americans.

Also, this is from a Western API perspective. APIs from non-Western countries will feel that some of this does not apply to you.

Earlier

this year, a peers are treated like celebriY o u T u b e ties in Japan. But many get video called “Racism in Japan” tired of this constant attention,

by ALT Miki Dezaki made its and the longer they live here, way around the community. the more they do not appreciWhen Japanese nationalists ate persistently being treated began issuing death threats, as an outsider. While the API and the board of education felt experience is different, we are pressured enough to ask actually in a unique posi...we Dezaki to pull down tion to understand. I have to the video, my Faceoften think, what if book feed lit up defend our right this happened to with outrage and me back home, in to call ourselves solidarity. That’s the U.S.? I’ve felt American, Canadian, when I noticed the rage of havAustralian, or that some of my ing “Konnichiwa!!”

API friends seemed yelled at me while whatever we to feel particularly out on a run back are. strongly about these home, and then I think of events. While that may be a co- all the random calls of “HELLO!” incidence, I began to wonder if that my non-Asian friends get in APIs from Western countries are Japan. I can easily imagine how more inclined to be sensitive to I would feel if I were constantly issues of racism and discrimina- complimented on my English tion in Japan. every time I said “Thank you”

The more I thought in the U.S., when my non-Asian about it, the more it made friends speak of the frustration sense. The good news is, the of being complimented for simkind of aggressive racism that ple Japanese phrases no matter the “Racism in Japan” video elic- how long they’ve studied Japaited is not the common type of nese. I think of how I would be in racism in Japan. More often, it is shock and disbelief if someone the more deceptively “friendly” asked my white husband about type of racism that is so wide- me with “Where is she from?” spread in Japan. in the U.S. But in Japan, I have

At first, we might feel been asked many times, “Where annoyed and left out when is he from?” as he stands right our more foreign-looking beside me.

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Back in the U.S., it seems African Americans and Hispanic Americans experience overtly negative racism all the time, such as the perception of crime, or of lack of education. Meanwhile, Asian Americans are seen as the “model minority.” But we understand that “positive” racism is still racism. (I once felt rather uncomfortable at a job interview when the interviewer cheerfully said, “You Asians!

You’re so hard-working!”) Likewise, I think non-Asian JETs start to feel a little uncomfortable with all of the “positive” attention. And we can sympathize, we really do. Of course, the situations aren’t exactly the same, but I think the basic principle at work is similar.

But there’s something else, too. Asians from Western countries often find we have to defend our right to call ourselves American, Canadian, Australian, or whatever we are. I have found this to be the case for APIs of a variety of backgrounds. Time and again, I experience myself as well as hear of other APIs questioned about where we were born, where our parents are from (or grandparents, or great-grandparents, as the case may be), where we’ve lived, what languages we speak, and

API AJET whether we are haafu (“half” tural exchange and internationi.e. mixed race) because we told al understanding. I firmly believe someone that we are American that API JETs have a special role to play in combating racism or Canadian or something To in Japan. Consider: else that we “don’t call someone 1. As described look like.” Howabove, Asian JETs ever, my Euroa “racist” or a pean American “bigot” has become are able to offer unique perspecJET friend is not a terrible slur itself, so tives on race isgenerally asked these ques- much that talking about sues in Japan. tions, though racism makes people We directly see she is from an im- feel uncomfortable how foreigners who stand out are migrant family and or angry. treated differently was not born in the than those who do not, but U.S.

While those of us who at the same time we can symare of East Asian descent may pathize with our non-Asian JET enjoy the ability to blend in the friends.

2. Just by being in Japan crowd, and in that sense we are part of the majority, we are not and sharing about ourselves, really part of the majority. We we are sending the message are more like other people from that gaikokujin does not mean our respective countries, and it looking obviously different. If can be painful and frustrating to the occasion is right, we can be put in a position of having to even point out that the majorexplain ourselves. While it might ity of foreigners in Japan are not seem to other JETs that we can’t people whose appearance stand encounter racism because we’re out: Brazilians of Japanese dethe same “race” as the locals, scent, Chinese people, Koreans, we do, in fact, constantly re- etc.

3. We are walking exceive very different treatment from other JETs because of the amples of multiculturalism in way we look. Isn’t that the defi- our home countries. You might nition of racism? Being treated have begun to hear the word differently or assumptions are tabunka-kyosei (literally “mulmade about you because of the ticultural harmonious living”).

While the overall number of way you look? foreign nationals in Japan is demight be thinking clining, a growing percentage that this is getting re- of people are here as permaally depressing. Is Japan a racist nent residents. While the idea of country? Yes – but every country multiculturalism may be second is! It is human nature to think of nature to many of us, this is a people in our own “group” as relatively new concept for Jadifferent from others, however pan. We have a lifetime of expewe perceive that group to be. rience to share!

To quote the brilliant musical 4. We are often (though Avenue Q, “Everyone’s a little bit not always) taken more seriracist.” ously than non-Asian JETs, be We are here in Japan, as cause many Japanese people ALTs and CIRs, to promote cul- will instinctively feel closer and

You

@API more comfortable with us. You can use this to your advantage to open up dialogue!

I have

found Japanese people on the whole (it would be racist of me to say “everyone,” right?) to not be very defensive or cynical when new ideas are presented to them. While many people will not readily accept a new idea right away, or they may be confused, most will at least be willing to listen to you. If you are working with children, you will have even more opportunities for success!

“Racism” has become a bit of a taboo word. To call someone a “racist” or a “bigot” has become a terrible slur itself, so much that talking about racism makes people feel uncomfortable or angry. I try not to talk about “racists” or “bigots” because I don’t think that’s helpful to anybody. (Again, we’re “all a little bit racist.”) Those are combative and pluralizing terms that put labels on people. But I think we can and should talk about racism, with or without actually using the word “racism.”

As JETs, most of us are only in Japan temporarily, and we go back to our home countries after one to five years. But there are many foreign nationals who are here permanently, and many of them experience the not-so-friendly kind of racism.

Meanwhile, the word kokusaika (internationalization) has been thrown around a lot as Japan tries to figure out how to have its citizens think more globally.

We can each help in our small way.

Whether this is your first year or last year in Japan, make the most of it! ◆

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@API

API AJET

Al l M i xed Up

written by Erika Ehren (福島県)

I’m all mixed up about my mixed up race.

I’m all mixed up about my multicultural face.

I don’t know what to do when someone asks me about my race.

Do I say America?

Because after all I’m American.

Or do I explain about my mixed up skin about my mixed up upbringing of American burgers and Filipino pancit?

Does the asker really know what they’re getting into?

They’re getting into questions of race, identity, family racial profiling and vanity self-esteem issues and questioning looks at hi-nice-to-meet-yous checked boxes on surveys boxing me in but all the while I just don’t understand.

What does it matter?

Aren’t we all mixed up?

If only a little.

I bet your great-grandmother had a dash of Chinese or Japanese Spanish or German.

Maybe you’re two-thirds Russian Maybe you’re one-seventh French Maybe you’re a quarter Icelandic or just a drop Haitian.

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Maybe you’re from a country that’s no longer a country.

Maybe you’re from a place no one knows.

Maybe you were born over there but you grew up here then moved away someplace else.

Don’t you see?

Don’t you see?

We’re all a little mixed up inside.

It doesn’t matter.

What matters to me is where you are now the person you are the things that you know or even the things you don’t know the person you aren’t.

It’s you just you just the essence of you.

And it’s me just me just as you plainly can see.

So let’s start now.

Let’s start here.

Let’s throw out all those checked boxes and questions of birth.

Let’s define ourselves by our merit and worth.

Let’s take that status quo and mix it right up.

Let’s mix and stir and shake the foundations of conventional thinking.

Let’s stop with defining.

Let’s start with being. ◆

API AJET

@API

The Hidden Life

written and photographed by Aimee Wenyue Chen (山梨県)

The

supermarket I usually go to near my workplace is expensive, clean, beautiful, has individually wrapped vegetables and fruits, and plays inoffensive (or rudely offensive, in other people’s opinions) pop music. It is overall quite sterile, like many places in Japan.

Today, I leave work early (in other words, on time) and go to my favorite bread shop that has a huge wall painting of a cheerfully rotund guy in a chef’s hat and a Lars-the-Viking mustache. Got me some bread—its name in incorrect French makes it all the more delicious—and randomly decided to go to the meat shop and vegetable store that I heard was near my apartment. I first arrive at the vegetable/fruit store and it is tiny, crowded, disorganized, and dirty with flies and more dirt. The vegetables are lumpy and misshapen and some are mysteriously discolored. It’s also dirt cheap. It’s like the antithesis of all supermarkets in Japan. I ask where the baskets are, hear a response in unintelligible old-man Japanese, and get ignored when I ask again. I finally—aha!—find the baskets hidden in a grimy corner, grab me tons of mushrooms, skip the peppers (which, when poked, simply gurgled and let my finger sink in), bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, and garlic (which, in nice supermarkets, are usually one dollar for a head!).

I arrive at the counter and the total is 425 yen—about 4 dollars—for an entire bag’s worth

of food. (Granted, it might be expired, but it’s still food.) The old lady, whose Japanese is only slightly less unintelligible than the old man’s, grabs my money, dumps all of the mushrooms in a bag, and then stacks the rest of the vegetables on top of it.

She then proceeds to forget what the operating hours of the store are when I ask her.

This is the part of Japan that I love, and strangely miss the most, even though I’m living right here. I miss the coarse, perhaps rude (or just well-meaning but comes off as rude), intimate, and hidden part of Japanese life. Little alleyways with cigarette butts and who-knows-what-else on the ground, tiny restaurants that only fit one, max two, customers; old obaachan and ojiichan who barely understand standard Japanese and thus don’t care whether I’m a foreigner or not; graffitied walls and rusty bikes; ramshackle houses. (Don’t forget the squatting toilets.) Japan is not only about the glitz and glamour of skyscrapers and neon lights, tea ceremonies, and Shinto shrines.

There’s the dirty, dark parts of it. So much of it. And no one speaks of it, at least not publicly.

But there’s this side too, this coarse but intimate part of Japan. She bears her face to me not with a shy coyness, but with a cigarette hanging off her lips and a belch ready to erupt, as if saying, “Take it, or leave it.” ◆

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@API

API AJET

@API Exclusive with

Kay Makishi

Kay Makishi

C h ai r o f t h e A J E T N a t i o na l C o u n c i l

transcribed and edited by Albert David R. Valderrama (茨城県)

Third-year JET Programme Fukuoka CIR, Kay Makishi, talks to @API about her special relationship with Japan, her journey of self-discovery in Okinawa and Peru, and her goals as Chair of the AJET National Council.

Makishi in Peru.

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API AJET

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@API

Study Abroad in Toyko

think the first time it hit me was when I studied abroad in Tokyo. When I came to Tokyo, I could understand Japanese, but I couldn’t really speak it. You know, people look at me, I’m Asian, and they expect me to speak fluent Japanese.

One time I couldn’t get my Suica card to go through, and the train attendant came over, and he just [started] yelling at me. I don’t know what he was saying because at that time, I didn’t really understand Japanese that well.

I was just so frustrated because I just wanted to be like, “I don’t understand you. I’m sorry. I know I look Japanese, but I don’t understand Japanese.”

Because both my parents were from Japan, the way [people] reacted and just their surprise reaction [to] me not knowing Japanese Makishi with cousin, aunt, and uncle while studying kind of made me feel ashamed and just really abroad in Tokyo. embarrassed.

My first week, I was just in tears. But, for the first time, I felt like I started to understand.

Okinawa and Peru I developed a sense of appreciation for my hile I was working, I got a full scholarship parents for the very first time. I think [about] to study in Okinawa for a year, where all the struggles that they went through both my parents are from. I really got in touch immigrating, moving from Japan to America, with my roots, met my relatives for the first not knowing the language, having to find a time. I met eighty to ninety of them. job, having to raise kids, just daily tasks, you It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say know, with not knowing the language. that I felt overwhelmed with the sense of,

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Makishi with relatives while studying abroad in Okinawa.

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@API

API AJET

Makishi at a traditional tea ceremony while studying in Okinawa.

“Wow, I’m in the right place at the right time, I told them that I’m searching for my right now. And I’m so meant to be here.” It was distant relatives, “Do you...Are you my relative? just really powerful to just know where I came Do you think you might be my relative?” from.

And then we found somebody that kind

I went and visited my “butsudan” of matched the description, and I was like, (Buddhist altar). It had this huge family tree. “Great. Would you be willing to meet me?”

Literally, it’s a huge document. And there’s a And they’re like, “Sure.” published book of my family’s heritage.

So I actually went to their house and “Wow, In this, I saw that a lot of my just heard their story. I was crying. relatives...there was a section that I was in tears afterwards. It was I’m in the was “Overseas Immigrants,” and really great.

South America and America, right place at the I recorded all the and then Peru, Bolivia, Brazil. information. I took pictures of right time, right all the documents. And then,

That inspired me to search a little bit deeper [about] now. And I’m so when I went back to Okinawa, my cultural heritage. So after my aim was to kind of figure out meant to be where in the family tree they fit Okinawa, I actually backpacked South America for 3 and a half in. This was 2011. here.” months. And I went to Peru with the aim

Since then, I’ve been to Okinawa of finding my distant relatives that immigrated many times. And I visited the family tree stuff, there before WWII. And I put in an article in and I was able to piece together where they the Japanese Peruvian newsletter. And I also fit. So it was really, really, really cool. It was searched the Lima public phone book. probably one of the best experiences in my

There [were] about 15 Makishis, and life. so with my Peruvian friend, we called every After Okinawa, I just felt like a complete single one, and we asked them, sort of a really person fundamentally. There’s always room to quick self introduction: “My name is Kay. My grow and stuff, but I mean the fundamentals parents are originally from Okinawa. We’re of me, I just felt like, “Oh wow, I am a hundred from Okinawa City, where my parents are percent confident of who I am and my life.” from, blah, blah, blah.”

There was the missing link in my life.

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API AJET I mean, my life is very short. I’m twenty-four years old. I’m talking like I’m ninety, but I know even when I’m ninety, that’s definitely going to be one of the milestones in my life.

I

On the JET Programme

t’s really great, honestly, and I don’t mean great as in flowers and la-la music. Every single day is a great experience because I feel like I’m really experiencing Japan full-on in different ways. I experienced it as a student, and now I’m experiencing it as a “shakaijin (full-fledged member of society),” and working as a public employee, and going through a lot of difficulties and challenges and struggles.

I’m honestly very grateful for going through all the struggles that I’ve been going through, and seeing how people around me react to that, and how I react to it. I think it’s just amazing because I’m learning more about myself and I’m learning more about Japan.

The first time I heard about [AJET] was through Connect Magazine, and then actually my first year, I called the Peer Support Group hotline because I just went through a

@API drastic culture shock, because I...was in South American mode. And then I went to America, back to the U.S. in Pennsylvania for a week before coming to JET. And even within that week, I just felt reverse culture shock, from South America to America. And then going from America to Japan, it was like even more of a reverse culture shock. And South America to Japan is just totally, very, very different....

A lot of the struggles I was going through, a lot of the micro-aggression stuff that just goes in the beginning, I think got more dramatic for me because of that. I was coming from this curious venture to Japan, with people saying, “Oh, wow, you’re great at chopsticks,” or “Nihongo jouzu desu ne.” And trying to teach me things about Japan that I already experienced and I already knew was a little bit frustrating. And I got stressed out; there were no other foreigners in the area.

In the beginning, I didn’t have any money, so I couldn’t go out, so I didn’t attend any of the block events. I didn’t go to the city because I was like a poor college student, basically.

So I called the PSG hotline.

The person I talked to was really, really great. And after that, reading the Connect Magazine, reading the articles, especially the “Winter Blues” article. Seriously, everyday, I was like, “Oh my gosh. I have to quit. I can’t do this anymore.” That helped.

And through the Connect Magazine again, and attending my prefecture’s Fukuoka AJET events. I didn’t really understand that AJET was the JET community, and so I just kind of started getting involved in that.

I Life on the JET Programme with Makishi and friends.

Becoming the AJET Chair

kind of came into JET thinking, “All right, I don’t want any foreign friends. I want all Japanese friends. I really want to improve my Japanese. I want to

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contribute to Japanese society.” I came with have the opportunity to create events. that mindset. But then, after everything I went Another goal of mine was to increase through in the winter, I was like, “No. I think personal and professional development that’s great, but there needs to be a balance, opportunities for JETs. Again, that was fueled and you’re definitely going to have days by my feeling of not having any professional when you’re like, ‘screw Japan’. If you don’t, development in my workspace. Especially in then you’re doing something wrong, I the first couple months, not having think, and you’re not getting the full any work and then not having that experience.” support structure in work, I was “...I really

And I realized how like, “Oh, man. There are so many important that support structure wanted to help talented JETs out there, and it’s and the JET community really such a shame that it’s not being make [AJET] betis to just your health, your put to use, or that they’re not “seishin (mind or spirit).” ter, even if a little developing themselves.” So Seriously and mentally, working even just a little bit. Even if it was bit...” and supporting each other. I think just introducing opportunities that’s part of being in Japan and post-JET, or different conferences, the JET experience. It’s not just about or different speakers, or whatever. you and your country and Japan. It’s about Being able to increase that for everybody on you making connections and all these other the JET Programme, ideally. people.

My third goal was to make more

Because AJET and the JET community- volunteer opportunities. If that wasn’t my -well, AJET is the JET community--helped me original goal, it is now. Again, that could be so much, I really wanted to help make it better, collaborated through JETs and Japanese even if a little bit, or wanted to do something people organizing more events with each to contribute to that. other together.

I had three goals when I ran for chair. One was to increase more grass roots opportunities Things to Look Forward to between JETs and Japanese people. It’s not so hat am I looking forward to the most?

There are so many things. We have much about going through a formal process of creating an event like I do as a CIR. Through Tokyo Orientation coming up. The Opinion AJET events, I think more “kokusai kouryuu Exchanges and the Opinion Surveys because (international exchange)” can happen through people need to understand that they may be those avenues, especially for ALTs who don’t disappointed in their current situation in Japan.

Great! That’s awesome! I’m glad that they’re disappointed. That means that there’s always room for improvement, and there’s always going to be room for improvement. But they need to understand that complaining about it and having a negative attitude about it isn’t going to change it. What’s going to change it is being able to collectively have these opinions sorted out in a scientific way.

We’re in Japan, we got to do it the Japanese way. And what they want is they want to see papers, they want to see statistics.

Any policy-oriented thing, they always want to see research and statistics. And so, one of the biggest goals for AJET National Council is to provide the Japanese government with these Makishi with AJET Treasurer, Alan Inkster (left), numbers and with these statistics to back and Vice Chair, Martin Barry (right). up all those feelings and all those thoughts

W

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Makishi with nephew back in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

that if you decided to join the JET Programme, you decided to come to Japan, obviously you wanted something different. So when you’re having a bad day, remembering that this is what you wanted. You’re not going to grow if you’re not struggling, which is something I always tell myself every time I have a hard day.

Just keeping that mindset. Just living in the moment.

Always, always, always keep an open mind. Always, always, always keep an open mind. I Advice for JETs have three pieces of advice. “Always, always, hear a lot of stories of people One would be to live in the always keep an saying, “Oh my gosh. These moment, and don’t worry. I people are so closed-minded,” open mind.” think when I first came to JET, but I’m thinking that, “Well, if you’re saying that, that means I was worried about what I was going to do after JET. Like, “Oh, that you’re sort of closed-minded as well if you can’t accept that about gosh. JET is a finite time. I need to their culture.” find a job after JET.” Especially in the And just to have no regrets is my third winter time, I was like, “Oh, man. I hate Japan.

I’m going to quit Japan, so I need to find a job advice. No regrets. If there’s something you now.” Just live in the moment and live every want to join, join it. Don’t be shy, and just be voice. So when you’re going and you have a yourself and don’t have any regrets. ◆ great day, have a great day. When you’re having a crappy day, have a crappy day, but realize that that’s part of the experience. And realize and ideas that we see all these JETs write on Facebook, frustrations or joy or whatever....

That’s what I’m most looking forward to. I probably won’t be able to see it this year or my time in Japan, but making those changes in Japan. That’s my biggest motivation and what I’m looking forward to the most is just seeing things get better within Japan, Japanese people, and the JETs. And just everyone to be happy.

I

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What Makes a Good Cafe? written and photographed by Lee Hanae Ung (岡山県)

In her first year as an ALT in Okayama Prefecture, Lee Hanae Ung has become a budding cafe connoisseur. Between organizing cafe nights with ALTs and locals and writing reviews for the Okayama AJET lifestyle blog, coffee has become her second job of sorts. Now, on the eve of the release of her current blog project profiling competitive Japanese baristas from around the country, she tries to put her love of the Japanese cafe experience into words.

My

parents started their first business in their mid-twenties. As two poor kids growing up in Los Angeles, they had nothing to lose, and their entrepreneurial adventures paid off. By the time I was in high school, they were running the largest minority-owned graphic design agency in LA.

Early semi-retirement hasn’t taken the edge off my parents’ eccentricities either. My father has rigged an entire room in his house with flat screens that he uses to predict stock market trends by tracking minute visual patterns, and sometimes I still find the ceiling in my mother’s house temporarily streaked with black ink from a particularly impassioned session of Japanese calligraphy.

My childhood, as one might imagine, was atypical, and it could be (and has been) argued that I am somewhat unusual. But where am I going with this?

Since arriving in Japan, I have found myself drawn, almost compulsively, to the independent coffee shop culture here to the point where I’ve started getting questions, such as: What is it about cafes that you find so interesting? What makes a good cafe?

These are simple questions with complicated answers, but, for the sake of anyone who might benefit from this, I will try to answer.

In a country like Japan, where cultural norms make intimacy and forming relationships difficult, especially with foreigners, baristas are more willing than most to warm up to strangers. But why?

1. Coffee is inherently an internationalized product. Beans exported from major tropical centers around the world, including Indonesia, Africa, Hawaii, and South and Central America, are roasted in a number of regional styles and served to patrons all over the world. Coffee promotes interest in world cultures simply by existing.

2. Baristas and world travelers are both risk-takers. A cafe is a window into the mind of its creator--everything from the brewing equipment to the interior design chosen is an extension of the owner’s personality and philosophy. This requires a willingness to be open and vulnerable that many would shy away from.

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Tokyo-based The Theatre Coffee’s Junichi Yamaguchi with his signature pour, “The Ballerina” (close-up).

What makes a good cafe is the relationship you want to have with it. Whether you want to sit in a corner and people watch or experience life like a local, cafes provide a myriad of possibilities for any traveler or foreign transplant--you just have to go out and look.

To me, a good cafe makes Japan feel like home, despite the language and cultural barriers.

The baristas and coffee shop owners that I have bonded with in Japan are kindred spirits. In a country of rigid expectations, the new generation of Japanese baristas are people who have rejected traditional social roles and shot themselves into the abyss. It’s a beautiful thing.

In the same way that my parents experimented and evolved to perfect their craft, these men and women spend their days challenging their skills at coffee making. Their eccentricities comfort me in my times of homesickness, and being a part of their growing movement is an inspiring and enlightening experience.

In the next two months, I will be launching a site of my very own, The Naked Portafilter (www. thenakedportafilter.com) where I will showcase talented baristas from around the country in hopes of building a better connection between English-speaking coffee enthusiasts and this new generation of coffee makers. Have a look if you feel so inclined. I know my friends would be happy to meet you. ◆

Left: Me and Kyoto-based Kiyomizu Kyoani’s Kazunori Matsubara. Right: Matsubara’s rosetta. Opposite: Free pour is a style of latte art where the design is formed by pouring only, without any etching.

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Lessons Learned:

A Journey of Self-Identity written by Melody Wong (岡山県)

It’s

over. Two years of a journey of a lifetime and it’s finally coming to an end. It’s hard to believe that time has passed by so quickly, but I have definitely learned so much about Japan and myself. It has been a fascinating and life-changing journey, to say the least.

Some of my greatest joys and greatest woes were faced here, especially being a female of Asian/Pacific Islander (API) descent. Two years ago, I embarked on my Far East movement to Japan and now I am packing away my lessons learned in my memory suitcase. So, what have I learned? Let me count the ways…

Expect the unexpected.

As a foreigner, we are constantly told that we will stand out and often times will get treated like a celebrity. Though I knew that they weren’t necessarily referring to a foreigner that looks Japanese, I did expect to be treated like I was someone different. I really didn’t mind so much that I blended in with the locals while I was on my own, but I really didn’t expect to be hyper-invisible when I was around other foreigners who, well, looked foreign. I didn’t expect to be ignored, yet at the same time be treated like I was the Japanese tour guide for the group of gaijin. I was especially surprised and hurt when some of the locals would laugh and make fun of me when they found out that I needed a Caucasian person to translate Japanese to me.

Instead of distancing myself and holing up in my introverted cave to avoid these situations, I decided to accept and seek the positives of it all. I had to realize that Japan is very different from where I come from and there really isn’t much exposure to people like myself here. Learning to accept the situations as they come and having a close network of friends and a support group has helped me embrace my unexpected encounters.

Remember who you are and be yourself.

There will be times when you’re expected to be “Japanese.” By that, I mean you’ll have to obey the cultural rules that are not necessarily written down and learned through any kind of class. These are things you pick up through social interactions and witnessing other Japanese people’s behavior. I found it to be especially crucial for someone who looked Japanese like me to be “Japanese” since it would be particularly

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difficult for me to pull out a “gaijin card” if I ended up breaking some cultural rule. Perhaps this was some additional standard I placed upon myself, but I didn’t feel very happy with this pressure. Eventually I learned to do my best to integrate into the Japanese culture, but I also knew I had to remain true to myself. It was quite a balancing act!

Remember that just because you may or may not have a good grasp of the Japanese language or culture, it doesn’t determine your self-worth. Be who you are and don’t compromise yourself. If you do your best and do what you think is right, you should be alright.

Be patient. It takes time.

My friends and family have told me that I come off as a rather charming person. Given the language and cultural barrier, it was often hard for my charm to come through with folks in my Japanese community. I wasn’t able to chat up a storm by the water cooler at work, nor was I able to really be myself around neighbors because they didn’t understand me (nor would they open up to me). Slowly, but surely, my Japanese language ability improved and coupled with my constant exposure to the same people over and over again, a little bit of myself was able to shine through.

It didn’t come right away, and, regrettably, my charm is only now making its way through to my colleagues and neighbors, but it made it. From my experience, some people are just paralyzingly shy or just adverse to new faces. Change is hard, but you’ll make your impression on people.

As I am going through my list of thank-you notes to send to people and saying my last good-byes to my colleagues, students, and friends in Japan, I am realizing that it really didn’t matter in the end what I looked like to them. Beyond my skin color, physical appearance, and language ability, it was me who they saw; as an ALT, a coworker, and a friend. People will treat you how they know how to treat people and what it boils down to is whether it really matters to you and how you respond to it. I have learned so much from my experiences in Japan, particularly to be strong, to be positive, and to be true to myself. I’ll surely miss this amazing country, and I am thankful for every single second of it. ◆

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@API is a publication compiled in partnership with the Asian Pacific Islander Association for Japan Exchange and Teaching (API AJET). The views expressed by @API contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the API AJET Special Interest Group.

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