The Kadokawa Culture Museum 80 | the “Ideal” Woman: Defying Beauty Standards in Japanese Sports
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28 | Pretty Hurts: “Manly Men” are Not the Norm in Japan 52 | A Day of Chocolate 58 | The Kadokawa Culture Museum 80 | The “Ideal” Woman: Defying Beauty Standards in Japanese Sports AJET Issue No. 101 February 2020 Business & Language, Arts & Culture, Lifestyle, Community Business & Language, Arts Culture, 08 An Interview with WaniKani and Tofugu Founder, “Koichi” | Jaered Koichi Croes interviewed by Sarah Baughn 12 A Look Into the Mind of Nathanial Reed: Founder of ALT CREDITS & Training Online by Nathanial Reed 20 Leaping in at the Top by Derek Hurst 22 On Being a Renaissance Man in Japan, Canadian-Punk Style | Laurier Tiernan interviewed by Derek Hurst 28 Pretty Hurts: "Manly Men" are Not the Norm in Japan CONTENT by Brett Borthwick HEAD EDITOR HEAD WEB EDITOR 36 February Reviews & Recommendations | Multiple Alice Ridley Jessica Craven Rhema Baquero Contributors Alexa Fisher Lisa Paper 38 PlayStation 5: This is My Stop! by Nathan Post ASSITANT EDITOR SOCIAL MEDIA Damien Levi Hoong Shao Ting Clarissa Combe Hoong Shao Ting 42 February Releases by Rachel Fagundes Richard Pearce SECTION EDITORS 44 What’s That You Say? It’s Hatsumōde: Three Experiences Alice French COPY EDITORS Derek Hurst of “The First Shrine Visit” | Multiple Contributors Haroon Hussain Day Bulger Clarissa Combe Chelanna White Dianne Yett Shannon Stocker 52 A Day of Chocolate: Valentine’s Day Traditions in Japan Ryon Morrin Natalie Andrews Cameron Peagler by Haruka Matsuzaki Sheila Mulherin Jessica Craven Alice French GENERAL SECTION 54 Creative Writing Interview with Kahlan Dunn | Kahlan Clare Braganza HEAD OF DESIGN & EDITORS Dunn interviewed by Jessica Craven Lara Yi LAYOUT Ashley De La Haye 58 The Kadokawa Culture Museum: A Fusion of Words, Rachel Fagundes Meg Luedtke Sarah Baughn Pictures, and Curiosities by Jessica Craven Kayla Francis ASSISTANT DESIGNERS TABLE OF CONTENTS 66 My Raw Vegan Journey Continued by Sheila Mulherin CONTRIBUTORS Nate Ryman PHOTO Sarah Baughn Rhiannon Haseltine 72 New Orleans' Style Cooking by Jessica Craven Meg Luedtke Nathanial Reed Lily Berthon Laurier Tiernan 76 Empty Hands, Full Hearts by Alexa Fisher Brett Borthwick ART & PHOTOGRAPHY COVER PHOTO 80 The "Ideal" Woman: Defying Beauty Standards in Nathan Post Ahmet Yalçınkaya Kumiko Shimizu Japanese Sports by Lisa Paper Haruka Matsuzaki Federico de Iorio Kahlan Dunn Priscilla du Preez Zach Betten 88 Aoni Onsen: Escape to a Winter Wonderland by Clarissa Combe 94 Treading on Ice by Hoong Shao Ting 100 A Community Affair by Richard Pearce This magazine contains original photos used with permission, as well as free-use images. All included photos are property of the author unless otherwise specified. If you are the owner of an image featured in this publication believed 104 Countryside Community Revitalization: Richi-Yado to be used without permission, please contact the Head of Graphic Design and Layout, Meg Luedtke, at visualmedia. Guesthouse by Richard Pearce connect@ajet.net. This edition, and all past editions of AJET CONNECT, can be found online at http://ajet.net/ajet- connect/magazine-issues/ or on our website. Read CONNECT online and follow us on ISSUU. 3 2 LETTER FROM HEAD EDITOR connect.editor@ajet.net HEAD WEBSITE EDITOR THE EDITOR connect.homepage@ajet.net Alice Ridley Hey hennns, how ya diddly doin’? How's everyone holdin’ up? “Spotify Wrapped is like wow girl u a pioneer, a trailblazer, no single genre can contain you, Rhema Baquero Warning: This side effect may occur if you’ve watched way too manyPlumbella Youtube videos. the essence of you cannot be defined by the “You are much stronger than you think you are. Read in a Northern English accent. language u speak... anyway your top artist Trust me.” — Superman is Ariana Grande again.” — Twitter user @ After completing my two years on the JET Programme, I have finally made it home to New Zealand. sheshecummings This was an almost four month process of stress, cold feet, and cancelled flights, so I can really empathise with folks' decision to leave Japan because saying goodbye is not the easiest thing to SOCIAL MEDIA do. Moving home is a huge step, even if it is to a COVID-19 free country. As we’ve seen before in connect.socialmedia@ajet.net the past, alert levels can change quickly, and I am very grateful for our frontline workers for keeping us safe. They have been nothing but lovely and the food has been a huge highlight to this two week ASSISTANT HEAD EDITOR Hoong Shao Ting hotel stay. An unpopular opinion, but Japanese food is kinda average, sorry Nippon. connect.assistanteditor@ajet.net “Happy Lunar New Year!” If you have to complete a two-week quarantine period in the future, I can suggest some things which made my own stay a bit more bearable. I highly recommend a daily sweat session, which has Damien Levi been very helpful for my mood and energy. I am currently completing Chloe Ting’s two week 2020 “I can't do this face-to-face, but I'll admit that I'm summer shred challenge. Sticking to a routine of waking up and getting out of bed has also been afraid. Let these moments go to waste—excuse COPY EDITORS essential. Check your country’s subreddit forums, as I learned a lot of useful information about me for my plastic taste.” — Joji, “Plastic Taste” connect.homepage@ajet.net people's quarantine experiences such as poor cutlery quality (thankful for chopsticks), laundry availability, free phone SIMs offered, and general encouragement to get you through. Luckily I have Dianne Yett CONNECT to still keep me busy throughout! “I haven’t eaten in weeks!” — says the doodle of a HEAD DESIGNER hand making the peace sign on the back of a 6th My top picks for the February issue are: it’s widely known that Japan lacks when it comes to grader’s jacket gender equality, but how does this manifest in the sporting world? Read about it in “The “Ideal” visualmedia.connect@ajet.net Woman: Defying Beauty Standards in Japanese Sports”; How has Valentine's Day changed since it was introduced to Japan through a marketing campaign in the 1930s? Read about it in “A Day of Meg Luedtke Day Bulger Chocolate”; A UK JET reflects on how his fashion has changed while living in Japan and offers his “Man suffers only because he takes seriously “Keep the change, ya filthy animal.” — Gangster take on how Japanese fashion has been influenced by queer culture in “Pretty Hurts: ‘Manly Men’ what the gods made for fun.” — Alan Watts Johnny, “Home Alone” are Not the Norm in Japan”; and Jessica, our own Arts Section Editor, takes us through the recently opened art museum of Japan’s largest publishing company that has the COVID-19 pandemic at the Natalie Andrews forefront of its current exhibition—read about it in “The Kadokawa Culture Museum.” “Klaus became more and more tired as the night GENERAL SECTION EDITORS wore on. Occasionally his eyes would close. He That’s all from me for now! As always, I can be contacted at connect.editor@ajet.net if you are keen found himself reading the same sentence over and to be a contributor for CONNECT or have anything else to share with me. over. He found himself reading the same sentence Sarah Baughn over and over. He found himself reading the same generaleditor1@ajet.net sentence over and over.” — Lemony Snicket, “All according to Keikaku. *Keikaku means plan.” The Bad Beginning Ashely De La Haye generaleditor2@ajet.net Alice Ridley Head Editor Photo: Meg Luedtke LANGUAGE & BUSINESS LANGUAGE EDITOR BUSINESS EDITOR connect.language@ajet.net connect.business@ajet.net Lara Yi Derek Hurst “Great, I’d like your eight dollar-est bottle of wine, please.” — Jake Peralta, “Brooklyn Nine- Nine” LANGUAGE & BUSINESS DESIGNER Lily Berthon 6 7 Photo: Federico De Iorio (Unsplash.com) Jaered Koichi Croes interviewed by Sarah Baughn (Ishikawa) As a long-time user of WaniKani, I’ve always been Tofugu has a wide variety of articles How did Tofugu evolve from its start to the but the difference between that and “perfect” curious about the process behind the service. It’s ranging from Japanese learning creation of WaniKani? is quite small for a huge amount of work. The one of the most often recommended resources resources to cool Japanese places to for learning Japanese, kanji in particular. Tofugu, biggest difference-makers of WaniKani are travel, as well as ALT resources. I’m constantly unhappy (and usually embarr- the blog about more general Japanese topics of the mnemonics, which help you to keep more What was the initial focus of Tofugu assed) with everything we’ve done in the interest, also has a large following. So, I reached information in your short-term memory, for longer. and how has it evolved over the years? past. So most of the evolution is driven out to the founder of both, Jaered Koichi Croes— That way you can recall that information when we by that dissatisfaction. WaniKani came about who goes by “Koichi” online—to ask about these At first Tofugu was just sort of about anything ask you to recall it—another important feature. as something I wish I had when I was younger, things and he was kind enough to reply to my Japan or Japanese related. Now it’s a lot more We don’t have multiple choice, or any kind of and we were lucky that we weren’t the only ones questions. focused on language, as well as some of the passive learning. We actually make you retrieve who wanted it. things that might help one to better use the it. We also include several other inconveniences language they’re learning.