Author Archives: Daniel

Drink for Japan Results

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Saturday, April 2, Avenue Pub hosted Jetaa NOLA and our guests who all came to Drink for Japan!

Polly at Avenue got in touch with me in March after I tweeted that I was going to meet with Jetaa about putting together a New Orleans-based earthquake relief fund. The NOLA Japan Quake Fund was established, and two weeks later we had an event thanks to her help and Jetaa volunteers.

Jetaa NOLA and Japan Club members helped man the doors and take tickets:

We also had great sponsors. Taqueria Corona donated guacamole, pico de gallo, and chips:

Santa Fe also donated food and people to help serve it. One of the guys from Santa Fe could speak some Japanese and was curious about JET.

People started to show up right on time at 3pm, and pretty soon we had a nice crowd up in Avenue’s balcony bar. Altogether we had over 100 people attend.

Together For Japan was in the house selling their T-shirts for the cause:

We sold raffle tickets and gave away some great prize packages thanks to Dirty Coast, Creole Creamery, Taqueria Corona, Bonerama, and Papa Grows Funk. And I can’t forget to thank all our beer geeks: The prize packages all included some rare beer donated by Vasu, Dylan Lintern, Jeremy BeerBuddha Labadie, and myself. Vasu gave a quick rundown of the beers included in the prize packages:

Doug Tassin (Fukushima ’07-’10) was the MC for the raffle. Here are some of our winners:

Altogether, we raised over $4743 plus some online donations!

I can’t say enough about Polly and the staff at Avenue Pub. Polly was extremely generous and helpful – she volunteered to donate all sales during the event and the sales of Japanese beer for a full day. She also helped arrange donations from all of the local liquor/beer distributors – Crescent Crown, Glazer’s, Shelton Brothers, Southern Eagle, and Abita – as well as food from Santa Fe, which just opened a new location across the street. The staff donated back $108 in tips that they made during the event, and they were very welcoming as always.

Talking with Polly and the staff, I got the sense that they felt the same way as Jetaa NOLA did: We did this not only because we have a connection to Japan, but also because it was the right thing to do. It goes beyond some philanthropic obligation to something greater.

The NOLA Japan Quake Fund has not chosen where the money will go yet, but I will be following the decision closely. I will share any information here, and I’m even hoping I can somehow follow the money trail and see exactly how we help.

If you have any photos from the event, please send them to me and I’ll add them to this post. Thanks for drinking for Japan!

Jammin’ for Japan

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I’ve been working madly the past month on two fundraising efforts here in New Orleans. I mentioned Drink for Japan in a previous post. We raised about $4000 in three hours! The next event is even bigger.

While planning Drink for Japan, I contacted John Gros of Papa Grows Funk, a local funk band featuring Japanese guitarist June Yamagishi, to see if they would donate to the event. John not only wanted to donate CDs and T-shirts, he wanted to organize a benefit concert with several A-list New Orleans bands. He has contacts in the Japanese community, and marketing guru/PR person/writer Carrie Williamson had gotten in touch with him about doing something. We all sat down with some members of the Japan Club and Jetaa NOLA, and the NOLA Japan Quake Fund made a lot of sense as the target of the concert proceeds: it’s being administered by the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the city has endorsed it, and all the Japan-affiliated organizations in town are involved. Donations alone have raised over $100,000, and that doesn’t include these two events.

The result has been amazing. John quickly lined up the musicians. His friend Yumi Mano helped gather donations and get restaurants involved. Michelle Hansen of the Japan Club has spearheaded the silent auction. Carrie really pushed the corporate aspect, which has resulted in some very impressive donations from big companies. I’ve been working the social media aspect and helping out with logistics, and Jetaa NOLA members have helped volunteer and solicit donations. The result is Jammin’ for Japan which will be this Sunday (tomorrow!), April 10 from 7:30-11:00pm at Rock ‘N Bowl:

The great thing is that local radio station WWOZ will be broadcasting the concert LIVE. They stream on the Internet, which means that anyone with an Internet connection can listen. When I did the calculation for the time in Japan, I realized that this concert will take place almost exactly a month after the earthquake and tsunami: it will run from Monday, April 11 09:30-13:00 Japan Standard Time.

I hope that you all tune in. Below I’ve pasted the Japanese press release along with an explanation of how to listen live. Please forward this widely to Japanese friends! Let them know that New Orleans is thinking about them.

ニューオリンズのジャズと伝統文化を伝えるラジオステーションの WWOZ 90.7 FM が、4 月 10 日（日）に市内のライブハウス Rock ‘N’ Bowl で開催されるコンサート NOLA Japan Quake Fund」をライブ中継

ジャズやブルース、ファンクなど、さまざまなジャンルで今のニューオリンズを代表するミュージ シャン、カーミット・ラフィンズ、パパグロウズファンク、ジェレミー・デイブンポート、ボネラマ、そして ジョージ・ポーターJr&ランニングパードナーズがサポート

2011 年 3 月 31 日（木）於ニューオリンズ ––– ニューオリンズのジャズと伝統文化を伝えるラジ オステーションの WWOZ 90.7 FM が、来る 4 月 10 日（日）に市内のライブハウス Rock ‘N’ Bowl で午後 7 時半から 11 時まで開催されるコンサート NOLA Japan Quake Fund」をライ ブ中継されます。ジャズやブルース、ファンクなど、さまざまなジャンルで今のニューオリンズを代 表するミュージシャンたち、カーミット・ラフィンズ、パパグロウズファンク、ジェレミー・デイブンポート、 ボネラマ、サンパイ・バーンズ、そしてジョージ・ポーターJr&ランニングパードナーズがサポートに かけつけてくれます。このうち、4 つのバンドには、それぞれ日本人ミュージシャンがメンバーとして 参加しており、当日はスペシャルゲストのサンパイ・バーンズも加わって、できるだけ多くの人に このイベントへ来てもらって、少しでも多くのお金を募金してもらい、3 月 11 日に発生した大規 模地震と津波、そしてそれに続いて起きた原発事故による放射能問題の被害に苦しんでいる 日本のみなさんのお役に立てたいと演奏や募金の呼び掛けを行ってくれます。当日は、日本の 文化にも触れてもらおうという目的で、地元のニューオリンズジャズ太鼓ドラマーズも演奏してく れる他、日本食レストランの NINJA が人気の高いメニューからいくつかのアイテムを販売します。

WWOZ ラジオはオンラインでも聴けるため、地元ニューオリンズだけでなく、全米、および世界中 で愛聴されています。そこでライブ中継するということは、世界中の人たち、そしてもちろん日 本の人たちがこのイベントをライブで聴いてくれるということです。イベントを主催する私たちは、こ れによって少しでも多くの方が NOLA 日本地震基金（NOLA Japan Quake Fund）を通して、 日本で被害に遭われた方々に支援の手が届けばいいと願っています。

パパグロウズファンクのリーダーであり、ハモンド B3 オルガン奏者兼ボーカル担当のジョン・グロス 氏がこの Jammin’ for Japan イベントの発起人です。彼は、次のように語っています。

「今まで、日本へ何度もツアーで訪れて、多くの日本人の友人ができましたが、みな温かい人 柄の素晴らしい人たちばかりです。ニューオリンズとその音楽を心から愛してくださっていて、いつ も応援してくださっています。特にうちのバンドのギタリストである山岸潤史氏を通して、一生を 通じて友人と呼べるような出会いもいくつかありましたが、私たちがカトリーナの被害で苦しんで いるときに暖かい支援の手を差し伸べてくれました。」
「最後に日本に行ったとき、宮城県の仙台と石巻へ行く機会がありました。演奏するお店の オーナーの方は、僕たちが到着したときに赤いカーペットを敷いて出迎えてくれて、一生忘れられないような素晴らしい思い出を作ってくださいました。今回の震災で、その町の方たちが本 当にひどい被害を受け、何もかも失くしてしまわれました。その方たちの気持ちを思うと、いても たってもいられず、また明るい笑顔を取り戻してもらえる手助けを何とかしたい、そう思ったの です。彼らの必要なお金や支援に比べれば、僕たちがここで渡せるものは微々たるものでしょう。 でも、僕たちがカトリーナの経験を通して学んだのは、とにかく第一歩を踏み出すこと。どんなに 困難に思えることでもまずはじめてみることです。その第一歩の手助けをしたいと思っているの です。」

今回の Jammin’ for Japan イベントでは、入場料の代わりに一人最低 10 ドルを寄付しても らいます。これはすべてそのまま NOLA 日本地震基金（NOLA Japan Quake Fund）へ寄付さ れます。さらに、ローカルセレブとのボーリングトーナメント参加費、T-シャツや食べ物の売上金、 サイレントオークション、50/50 ラッフルなどの催しを行い、現場にコンピューターもセットしてクレ ジットカードを使った追加寄付もできるようにする予定です。

NOLA 日本地震基金（NOLA Japan Quake Fund）について

NOLA 日本地震基金（NOLA Japan Quake Fund）は、ニューオリンズで活動しているジャ パンクラブ、ジャパンソサエティ、JetaaNOLA、および日本庭園基金が、ニューオリンズ日本名 誉総領事を相談役に迎えて合同で設立しました。大ニューオリンズ基金（Greater New Orleans Foundation:GNOF）は、連邦政府の認めた 501 条(c)項(3)号団体で、この NOLA 日本地震基金（NOLA Japan Quake Fund）の管理役を務めています。この基金への寄付 金は、被害に遭われた地域のみなさんの復興と再建を支援する日本の NGO’非政府団 体(を慎重に選んで直接そこへ寄付されます。ニューオリンズ市民はカトリーナで経験したように、 どんなひどい災害も時間と共にメディアには乗らなくなり、実際には復興には程遠い状態でし かなくても、義援金を募ることはどんどん難しくなってきます。この基金の一般費用は最低限に 抑え、寄付総額の 98%を直接日本の NGO へ寄付します。この基金はニューオリンズ市長 ミッチ・ランドリュー氏によって是認されています。

ライブを聞くために

まず、ブラウザーでwww.wwoz.orgのサイトを見てください。

左上にある「LISTEN NOW」をクリックしてください。

プレイヤーが開いてきて、生放送が流れる。エンジョイしてね！

Cool 擬態語 – べたべた

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I work at a university writing center helping students (mostly first years) with their essays, and back in February a Japanese couple came on a grant to study writing centers in the U.S. Apparently they run the writing center for exchange students studying Japanese at a university in Shizuoka. The writing center is young, so they were looking for ways to improve their tutoring approaches. (They have some of the same problems – the same kids come in, they make the same mistakes – but I feel like Japanese composition is in a very different place, so I don’t think all of our suggestions made sense to them. Anyone have any thoughts?)

I reported for work earlier than normal so I could interpret if need be, but she was actually quite proficient in English. She also seemed to be ハーフ, but I never asked, so I’m not certain. They brought their kids with them (all four of them, two of them toddlers and one an infant), and the husband took them off for a walk in the morning, but they came back for lunch. My boss had the tutors who were free sit in her office and answer the couple’s questions while we snacked on pasta and king cake, the seasonal New Orleans cake that is served from Twelfth Night to Mardi Gras Day.

King cake is short, ring-shaped cinnamon cake that is covered with sticky icing and sugar. The kids ate some, too, and when one of the toddlers finished, she started smacking her fingers together and saying べたべた. I laughed; the kid was so damn cute, and even though I hadn’t heard the word for a while, I knew exactly what she was saying – the King Cake was sticky.

That’s all I’ve got today. I’ve been meaning to write up this story because I don’t think I’ll ever forget べたべた again. Blue Shoe’s post about じょりじょり reminded me that I’d been meaning to write about べたべた. He wrote that じょりじょり is the sound of “a scratchy surface.” The word was vaguely familiar, and I had to really work my memory banks to figure out where I’d heard it. I realized that I was shaving my head when I studied abroad in Tokyo. Once, shortly after I shaved my head, I went to teach an English class, and my students were all like ああ、ダニエル、じょりじょり！

I wanted to know where it came from, so I plugged it into Yahoo Dictionary, which gives this definition:

［副］髪やひげなどを剃(そ)る音を表す語。「―（と）襟足を剃る」

So Blue Shoe is close – it’s actually the sound of shaving (or perhaps cutting) hair or facial hair. Kind of like “buzz” in English. My students were saying “Daniel, you buzzed your head!” じょりじょり, most excellent.

(The Yahoo example sentence uses a cool word I was unfamiliar with: 襟足 (えりあし), the nape of the neck.)

Katrina and the Quake

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A month after I arrived in Japan on the JET Program, Hurricane Katrina hit my hometown New Orleans. I had been placed in Nishiaizu, Fukushima Prefecture, a small town of 8000 people nestled in the mountains on the northwestern edge of the prefecture. My supervisor told me it would probably be okay to go back to the U.S. and help out if I needed to, but what could I do? A good portion of the city was under water, and my family had already evacuated to Memphis. I stayed and watched from afar.

At night I drank beer, watched CNN, and wrote angry Livejournal posts wondering why the O’Brien family of journalists had exchanges like these on international television:

Soledad: Clearly something is burning off in the distance.
Miles: It’s still burning. Clearly no sign of it being put out.

Clearly.

And now, nearly six years later, I find myself in the same position. I moved back to New Orleans last summer, so I’ve been forced to watch news from abroad and trace the paths of friends in Japan from Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds. Apparently, the journalists from outside are bad and the government response is slow, just like in New Orleans.

However, I’m confident that Japan will recover because I’ve realized that Japan is, secretly, just like New Orleans. They both pride themselves on the strangeness of their culture, they both eat really weird things, and they both love to drink beer outdoors. More importantly, they are both geographically exceptional; New Orleans was founded on the soft alluvial deposits of the Mississippi River Delta and Japan on the intersection of tectonic plates. If New Orleans can recover (and it has), then surely Japan can. Chin up, Japan.

The other reassuring part about being in New Orleans is that I’m in more of a position to help. Japan has a special place in its heart for New Orleans, as evidenced by the $44 million in aid it provided after Katrina. I don’t think New Orleans will approach that amount, but we can certainly try.

A consortium of Japan groups here in town has banded together to create the NOLA Japan Quake Fund. We raised over $8000 during our first day online, and that was without the assistance of any events. There will be a number of events all over town, so please follow @NOLA4Japan to keep up with the latest information. I’ll probably be broadcasting the information on my own feed as well.

Based on the response we’ve already had, we’re hoping to raise a good chunk of change – something approaching $100,000 if not more. This isn’t an impossibility. We already have many different groups who want to contribute to the fund. I’m involved with two in particular: Saturday, April 2 will be “Drink For Japan” at Avenue Pub, and on Sunday, April 10, Rock n Bowl will be hosting a celebration of prominent local bands that feature Japanese musicians – it’s going to be an all-start lineup, so be on the lookout for more information.

Please spread this info as widely as possible, especially if you are in the New Orleans area.

College Japanese Notes – 2001/06/29 Frequency Adverbials

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Another lesson from my class notes. Don’t confuse degree adverbials with frequency adverbials:

Clearly I was still getting the hang of the kana.

よく行きます                                                         [Subject] often goes
あまり行きません                                                [Subject] doesn’t go much
ほとんど行きません                                            [Subject] hardly goes
全然（ぜんぜん）行きません。                         [Subject] doesn’t ever go / never goes

Two that aren’t listed here and that both express inrequent visits are たまに and めったに:

たまに行きます                                                    [Subject] goes on occasion/every now and then
めったに行きません                                           [Subject] rarely ever goes

Tokyo Station City North Court – 利久

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During my trip to Japan over winter vacation, I was fortunate to experience the mid-December debut of North Court, the newest expansion of Tokyo Station City. I’ve written previously about GranSta (glowing reviews), which is in the basement just beyond the Yaesu Central Underground Entrance. North Court is similar in style and content but much smaller. It’s on the first floor close to the Yaesu Central Exit…right above GranSta, I believe.

One of the highlights is a Kinokuniya with a limited selection of quality beer and bento. For me, the best part was a branch of the famous Sendai-based restaurant Rikyu (利久), which is well known for it’s 牛タン – yup, beef tongue.

Japan introduced me to a wide variety of meats I’d never had the pleasure of enjoying before, and tongue was one of these. I first had thinly sliced cuts at yakiniku restaurants, but when I went to Sendai in 2005 to take the JLPT, a friend and I randomly bumped into a Sendai-based JET while shopping. We asked for a dinner recommendation, and he (she? I can’t remember) told us to go to Rikyu. We were not disappointed.

It became a ritual for me. I had it the night before I took JLPT 2 and the next year the night before I took JLPT 1. Passed both. I went for a job interview in Sendai a few years later, and sure enough I had it before the job interview. Which I subsequently passed.

I picked up a bento to enjoy on the train ride up to Fukushima – it was fantastic. Unlike yakiniku tongue cuts, Sendai tongue is thick and beefy with riveted cuts to help the meat cook. They have that al dente texture that Japanese love (and some foreigners hate…especially when it involves things like tendons and cartilage).

Highly recommended if you’re ever looking to pick up lunch for your shinkansen trip.

Uncool 相槌 – はいはい

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If there were a God, I would ask it to bless the Internet. The Internet is the reason I haven’t lost as much Japanese as I could have over the past six months. When I got back to New Orleans in June, I went on Mixi, the Japanese social networking site, and put up self-introductions on the forum for every Community that was vaguely New Orleans-related. Saints communities, college communities, Jazz communities – if you look closely, you’ll probably find me there.

This effort has yielded results! In July I heard from a Japanese college student who is crazy about the Saints. He was visiting New Orleans to go see training camp. Would I want to meet up? Hell yeah! Thus, I found myself driving out to the Saints practice facility in Metairie at 6AM, speaking Japanese with Shohei. We watched practice, basked in the Yat-ness of the proceedings, and Reggie Bush walked straight up to where we were standing during the autograph session. It was most excellent.

Later, I heard from Aki who was moving to town with her husband, a French public servant who got transferred to the consulate in New Orleans. Would I want to meet up for coffee? Of course! So we started meeting for coffee every few weeks. The luckiest part is that she is the most talkative Japanese person I’ve ever met. She’s constantly losing track of the conversation topic and saying things like, “This is totally unrelated, but…” or “I forgot what I was saying, but…” Not that she’s ditzy; she just has a lot to say. I don’t mind at all. Just keep the Japanese coming.

We met up in November before I took my trip to Japan, and she was telling me a story about a Chinese woman who worked in her office in Japan. The woman’s Japanese was good, but she had a few quirks, one of which was the phrase はいはい, which she used indiscriminately as an 相槌 (あいづち) whether it was with the company president or with Aki. Not only did she double the standard phrase はい, she also added a slightly flippant-sounding tone (which I can’t find an example of online). “HAIhai” is how I would try to express the tone. Aki was telling me the president would get annoyed with the usage but never corrected the woman. Aki was thrown into the role of caretaker and tried to correct the usage, but it never took.

At the time I thought this was nothing more than a funny story, but when I went to Japan a few weeks later, I was having dinner and drinks with a friend –an older businessman, so I was on my best です／ます behavior – and I caught myself はいはいing! Dammit! My tone wasn’t as dismissive as the way Aki was producing, but I think it was still a little casual. Immediately I shifted back to a single はい and kept a close watch on my usage the rest of the trip.

The realization reminded me of this sign I often see in New Orleans:

The goal of learning a foreign language is to be able to use it naturally and smoothly, which means not having to consciously watch yourself all the time. At the same time, if you internalize mistakes, you’ll end up using them without realizing it, and in Japan it often goes uncorrected. Thanks to Aki I caught myself. (Also, I did have one friend correct me on my trip when I was saying 計算する instead of 量る for my weight, so there will be times when they will correct you.)

The moral of the story? Maintain vigilance. And ask folks to correct you. They’ll still hesitate to do so, but every now and then you’ll get a nice bit of help.

The second moral of the story? 敬語 isn’t just being able to say the right honorific or humble words. Sometimes it’s not saying certain words that are casual. Refrain from はいはい, ちょっと, and ハァ？ sez the Japanese Internets. Also, as long as you use です／ます consistently and avoid too many んでs, そうやでs, and other contractions, you’ll be able to schmooze your way into the confidence of most folks in Japan.

(In other news, while writing this post I learned that はいはいする means to crawl from a YouTube search.)

Kyoto Doughnut Plant

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On my recent trip to Japan, I stopped by Kyoto and stayed with some friends I knew from Fukushima. Before I got on the train back to Tokyo, I picked up some doughnuts at the new Doughnut Plant in the Yodobashi Camera a few blocks from Kyoto Station.

As you may or may not know, I’m a big fan of Doughnut Plant in Japan. This time I managed to pick up the super rare 限定 Houji-cha doughnut that is only available in Kyoto.

Unfortunately it was very disappointing, especially after I had a fantastic Houji-cha latte at Starbucks (also only available in Kyoto). The doughnut had very little Houji-cha flavor. I really couldn’t taste the difference between it an a regular glazed doughnut. The carrot cake doughnut, however, was amazing.

Although this feels a little unfair, no? Is it legal to shape carrot cake into a doughnut and call it a doughnut? I guess so. Doughnut Plant shows off their expertise by threading cream cheese icing through the middle. Very nice touch.

And to top everything off, the weather was clear enough to see Mt. Fuji from the train.