the akitan spring issue 2014
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
R&R CONFERENCE
BLOCK NEWS
RESTAURANT REVIEW
INTERVIEW SECTION
AKITA-BEN
Meet Lynne ························································· 4
Meet your Block Leaders ···································· 5
Sandcraft Festival ················································ 6
Interview Section ················································ 8
Restaurant Review ·············································· 10
R&R Conference ·················································· 12
Block News ·························································· 13
Araya Onsen ························································ 14
Travel ··································································· 16
Akita-ben ····························································· 18
Lesson corner ······················································ 19
JALT ······································································ 20
In this issueIn this issue
W inter is finally gone!
Now that the snow has
melted, you can finally
venture out of your apartment to
look at the sakura!
Spring is an exciting time filled with
flowers and conferences! This
issue will fill you in with information
about the new PA and Block
Leaders. It will also give you some
upcoming spring events to look
forward to!
Check out the new Interview
Section! We will be contacting and
asking questions to some
interesting people living around
Akita.
Get your eat on by reading up on
delicious restaurants in the review
article. This edition features Cosi
Cosi, a pasta and pizza restaurant!
-Your PAs
PA Info
Randy Umetsu
080-4608-1073
Josh Drewry 090-2987-1984
Stephanie Hupp
090-7565-5049
Taylor Fustin 080-3322-3820
Lynne Francis 080-6026-8628
AJET Peer Support Group
Everyday 8 p.m.–7 a.m.
Toll free: 050-5534-5566
Meet our new PA! Lynne Francis Hello y'all! I'm Lynne, a Hoosier (that's a person from Indiana), currently
living in Omagari as a SHS ALT A big reason I wanted to do the JET
programme was to get involved with the greater JET community
professionally and personally, so I'm very excited to be a PA this year.
When I'm not writing something for AJET CONNECT magazine, I'm
exploring wherever I can on my bike or by train, or trying to master slow-
cooking in Japan. I hope to give support to anyone who asks. Whether you
need advice, someone to see a movie with, or just chat, I'm here for you!
Da
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Jeff
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2014 BLOCK LEADERS C
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Co
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Se
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T he Sandcraft Festival will be
held the weekend of July 26th and
27th on Kamayahama beach in Mitane-
cho. Every year thousands come to join
this festival, and to enjoy the giant
works of sand art. There will be many
events going on throughout the
weekend including sand sculpture
displays from professional artists, as
well as local residents and students
alike. Come and enjoy the food, live
music, Kamayahama beach which was
ranked the best beach in Tohoku, a
swim suit competition, and of course
the great sandcraft.
Save the dates! Saturday July 26th, and
Sunday July 27th 2014 for Sandcraft in
Mitane-cho.
T he Sandcraft Festival will be
held the weekend of July 26th and
27th on Kamayahama beach in Mitane-
cho. Every year thousands come to join
this festival, and to enjoy the giant
works of sand art. There will be many
events going on throughout the
weekend including sand sculpture
displays from professional artists, as
well as local residents and students
alike. Come and enjoy the food, live
music, Kamayahama beach which was
ranked the best beach in Tohoku, a
swim suit competition, and of course
the great sandcraft.
Save the dates! Saturday July 26th, and
Sunday July 27th 2014 for Sandcraft in
Mitane-cho.
Akita Northern Happinets Interview with Chas McFarland
1. Where are you from? I was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois called Lovington. 2. What are your hobbies? Outside of basketball I enjoy doing anything outdoors. I love to shoot guns and go hog hunting during the summers. During the winter months when I’m in the states I like to go to our hunting ranch with my family and go hunting. 3. What do you like and dislike about living in Akita/Japan? Akita wasn’t a bad city to live in. I enjoyed the people here and our fans made the stay a lot easier on us. The biggest thing I didn’t like was how the team treated all of the import players like babies, and acted like we couldn’t do anything on our own. 4. What is your best memory in Japan? My best memory in Japan would have to be the playoff game when we played at Iwate and our fans took over their gym. It was a really special feeling looking up into the stands and seeing all the pink with hardly any red 5. What are your plans for the future? I plan to go to Europe or Korea next year to continue my basketball career.
Cosi Cosi Cosi Cosi is a delightfully delicious pizza restaurant located in Akita City and
Yokote. They serve both pizza and pasta. Swing by for their lunch special
which includes pizza or pasta, a small salad, and a drink for anywhere between
1000-1500 yen! The food is great, but a downside is that if you have a big
appetite, then the lunch set may not fill you up. If you go for dinner, there is
also a seating charge, similar to an izakaya.
コジコジ by Taylor Fustin
Price: 3/4 Food: 3/4 Service: 4/4
Cosi Cosi is a delightfully delicious pizza restaurant located in Akita City and
Yokote. They serve both pizza and pasta. Swing by for their lunch special
which includes pizza or pasta, a small salad, and a drink for anywhere between
1000-1500 yen! The food is great, but a downside is that if you have a big
appetite, then the lunch set may not fill you up. If you go for dinner, there is
also a seating charge, similar to an izakaya.
Get crazy with the Margerita Pizza, the
most popular lunch item. For 1000
yen + tax you get a salad, drink, and
pizza.
Pizza Lasagna
If you are feeling real hungry, then get
the pizza lasagna (ピッツァラザニァ).
This is the exact same thing as a
calzone. It is much more filling than
their regular pizzas.
Shrimp & Mushroom Pizza
Try some of their less conventional
pizzas, like the shrimp and mushroom
pizza. Beware though, some of their
pizzas may be lacking in the cheese
department!
Margerita Pizza
Locations Yokote:秋田県横手市十文字町西上45-3
Akita City:秋田県 秋田市高陽青柳町1-50 スクエアビル １Ｆ
R&R Conference Date: Friday, June 6 Location: Prefectural Education Center, Tenno Time: Check in 9:30 Closing Ceremony: 16:45 Dress Code: Cool Biz
Click for details
Bl
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Please send any block news you’d like to share to [email protected]
Bl
oc
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ew
s North Block
7/26-27 Mitane Sandcraft Festival
Central Block
5/31 - Hafu movie screening - 2:00 PM
www.aiahome.or.jp/news/detail.html?serial_id=1247&lng=en
South Block
8/23 Omagari National Fireworks Competition
Araya Onsen By Owen Cunningham
Hidden in the suburbs of Akita City lays one of the more rustic onsen gems in the prefecture. It
resides in an area which is quite difficult to find. Weird junctions make having a pin (see end of
article) on your phone almost a necessity. When you finally arrive there, you would be forgiven
for not recognizing the building as an onsen! But rest assured, as soon as you enter the front door
you know you are in for an amazing treat. The beautiful scent of what seems like hinoki, or
Japanese cypress, a wood commonly used in wooden baths, will tickle your nostrils, and
stimulate every last olfactory receptor in your nasal passage. The building is, however, made
entirely from hiba.
Hiba (Thujopsis dolabrata) is a type of cypress tree. It is more durable and has a slightly more
yellow appearance than hinoki. It has a similar fragrance, though richer and more vibrant. This is
due to hiba having a high concentration of hinokitiol, an organic chemical which is known for its
aromatic qualities. Hinoki, on the other hand, has very little hinokitiol. As trees, both hinoki and
hiba look almost identical. The hiba trees used in the making of this building all came from the
mountains in Fujisato, and are between 200~250 years old!
新屋温泉
The main bathing room is also completely made from hiba; walls, roof, floors and of course baths!
The floor is made from slatted pieces of hiba and care is advised when walking on them, as they
can be sloppy at times. There are 3 baths, 2 of which are hot and are 100% pure onsen water. The
largest bath is square and has water that is a comfortable temperature for most people (probably 39
or 40°C). This bath can accommodate about 10 or 12 people. The second bath is smaller and
rectangular in shape. It fits 4 people, and has hotter water (maybe 42 or 43°C). You can lay down
with your head rested on one side and your feet resting on the other. When your body heats up too
much you can move on to the next bath. The third bath is not onsen water, but also isn’t tap water
either. It is from a groundwater source that doesn’t qualify as an onsen, but has the same slightly
cloudy appearance as the onsen water in the two baths that accompany it. This bath is nice and
cold, but not unbearable. It is small, and only fits one person at a time. The nice thing about this
bath is that there isn’t a tap that customers can turn on or off, but when the water level drops (after
the last person got out) it refills quickly, and overflows just a little, which clears out any floating
hairs etc.
Another positive with this onsen is that there are plenty of benches to sit on and cool down, or
warm up, depending on which bath you have just gotten out of. Personally I love working my way
from the warm to the hot bath, then into the cold for a good 5 minutes, and then sitting out of the
water for 5 or 10 minutes relaxing, before repeating the process all over again!
There is no sauna or rotemburo (outdoor bath), which I usually put down as a minus. But with the
hot and cold bath and the amazing aroma everywhere in this establishment it totally makes up for
it. The quality of the source water is top quality. Every minute 260 liters of water gush up from
below the ground at a temperature of 41.5°C. It has a slightly alkaline pH of 7.6, and contains one
of the highest levels (37.6mg) of iodide ion (ヨウ素イオン) in all of Japan. High levels of
sodium and chloride ions also make the water salty. This onsen is particularly recommended for
cuts, burns, skin conditions,
people with a weak constitution,
and chronic female diseases.
Link to map:
https://www.google.com/maps/
place/福祉健康新屋温泉/
@39.682791,140.089313,17z/
data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!
I am a fourth-generation Japanese-American with roots in Okinawa. While my family has lost all contact with relatives in Okinawa over the past one-hundred or so years, I had
been looking to visit my ancestral homeland for quite some time. I finally made the journey to Okinawa with my friend right before the Golden Week holiday for a total of five days. From Naha airport, our flight took another hour or so to reach Ishigakijima, our final destination.
The warm weather coupled with some familiar flavors, such as sata andagi (Okinawan donuts) at every convenience store, made me feel as though I were back home in Hawaii. For a second I wondered why my ancestors ever left this paradise of beautiful ocean water, warm weather and tropical landscape; then I remembered they emigrated to Hawaii, haha.
During the trip, we visited an underground cavern, took a ferry to another island for a tour on a water buffalo, rode on a glass-bottom boat, took drives around the island, watched an eisa (Okinawan dance) show, visited several beaches, and even got to meet three of the four JETs living on the island. This probably goes without saying if you know me, but the food was by far the most memorable in my mind. I racked up about five bowls of soki soba and 30+ andagi during the five-day trip.
If I had a choice of living anywhere in Japan, Okinawa would rank number one on my list. For those looking to travel to Ishigakijima, my entire travel pack cost 57,000 yen and included a roundtrip flight from Haneda Airport, a rental car, hotel and the boat tour. Budget another 10,000 yen if you plan on getting the rental car insurance.
By Randy Umetsu
Ishigaki, Okinawa
石垣島
AkitaAkita--ben Cornerben Corner
What is Akita-ben? Akita-ben, literally translating to “Akita dialect,” is a sub-dialect of the Tohoku dialect umbrella (often called Zuzu-ben).
For most of us, learning Japanese is hard enough as it is. Throw Akita-ben into the mix and we have a nearly unintelligible language. (It is often accompanied by subtitles in national broadcasts). But not to fear! Give these Akita-ben phrases a try and you will be conversing with the local obaachan and ojiichan in no time (WARNING: Not for use in formal situations)!
In every new issue of The Akitan, we will be featuring a new Akita-ben word or phrase.
We’ve all had someone ask us or have asked ourselves:
げんき（元気）ですか？
But now you can fit in with all those elderly men at the bar by saying まめ
でらが？ instead. Try it out next time you’re having a conversation!
Example:
テイラー：ランディー、まめでらが？
ランディー：いや、カレーたべすぎた。
Translation:
Taylor: Randy, are you doing well?
Randy: No, I ate to much curry.
まめでらが？
SO MUCH CURRY!!!!
AkitaAkita--ben Cornerben Corner
Students often have issues spelling. Sometimes this is a result
of the emphasis placed on using katakana to write English. A
good way to start breaking down this katakana spelling problem
is to have students translate katakana words into English. It can
help combat the instinct to load up their English words with
vowels. This can be played as a game or could be used as a
serious class activity. There are numerous ways to employ this
idea. Take time to think about your class size and lesson
objectives before creating an activity.
Example: Have students break into groups and work to see who
can correctly translate a list of katakana English words.
サラダ —> salad
ナイフ ——> knife
ライス ——> rice
カレー ——> curry
Katakana Spelling
Lesson Corner
A re you interested in
learning more about
language teaching?
Would you like to connect with
other language teachers around
Akita or maybe Japan? If so, then
you may be interested in The
Japan Association for Language
Teaching (JALT).
JALT is a non-profit organization
dedicated to the improvement of
language teaching and learning
both within Japan and
internationally. The Akita JALT
chapter meets monthly and
invites you to check out the
workshops. You will find a
schedule for workshops for the
year on their website.
There is a charge of 500 yen for
all non-members (It used to be
1,000 yen, but they lowered it for
us!) JALT members and students
are free. Scheduled meetings are
at JOIN US in Akita City.
NOTE: The Akita JALT community
would love to learn more about the
JET Programme in Akita and team
teaching. If you are interested in
presenting something, please contact
Wayne Malcom:
Akita JALT
We hope that you found this newsletter useful. If you have
any suggestions to make The Akitan better, please do not
hesitate to contact us.
Lastly, submissions from you will make this work-related
newsletter all the more interesting. So, if you have lesson
activities, work-related essays, job postings, news articles,
photos, etc., please submit them to one of the PAs. As always,
thanks for reading!
Life After the BOE by David Namisato
Good luck returning JETs!
We are looking for great photos and
articles by you! Please send anything you
would like to contribute to one of the PAs
and help make The Akitan even better!
Created by your PAs
Design and layout : Randy Umetsu and Taylor Fustin
Contributors:
Randy Umetsu
Jeff Lowther
Lynne Francis
Brianna Hom
Owen Cunningham
Jon Stimmer
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