Nakama again voted best Japanese/sushi restaurant in Pittsburgh by people who don't know Japanese/sushi restaurants in Pittsburgh.

Nakama Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar was again voted the best Japanese/sushi restaurant by readers of Pittsburgh Magazine, according to poll results released today. Nakama has been voted #1 each year by readers since 2009, and is also perennial winner of the Pittsburgh City-Paper readers' poll.

Also of relevance to this site: Sesame Inn was voted Best Chinese, Nicky's Thai Kitchen was voted Best Thai, and Pusadee's Garden was voted best Al Fresco (open air). Those poll results are identical to last year's.

1969's Funeral Parade of Roses (薔薇の葬列) at Row House Cinema, June 23 - 29.

The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville will show the 1969 Japanese movie 1969's Funeral Parade of Roses (薔薇の葬列), "Japan's Queer Underground Cinema Classic," from June 23 to 29 as part of its Row House's Drag Race series. A June 8 New York Times review provides a summay:

A hodgepodge of themes and techniques, it transposes the Oedipus story to the intersection of Tokyo’s hippie and “gay boy” subcultures, opening with a Baudelaire quotation and incorporating street rituals by the Zero Jigen performance group. The title, taken from one performance, is a pun: Bara, Japanese for “rose,” is a slang term akin to the English “pansy.”

The protagonist, Eddie (played by the androgynous entertainer Peter, later featured in Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 “Ran”), is a sweet hustler with a dark past. As polished a looker as the Warhol Factory’s reigning drag queens Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn, Eddie parlays an affair with a local drug dealer into becoming the madam of the Club Genet, an actual gay bar in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

Tickets and showtimes are available online at the theater's website. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

POSCO CEO Kwon, Sinochem Group Chair Ning among those named to Pitt's Global Advisory Council.

Via POSCO; via The Paper.

The University of Pittsburgh's Chancellor Patrick Gallagher has named 19 people to his Global Advisory Council to "advise the chancellor and academic and administrative leaders on research, education and outreach activities." The group includes POSCO CEO Ohjoon Kwon and Sinochem Group Chair Gaoning "Frank" Ning, both of whom earned advanced degrees at Pitt in 1985 (PhD and MBA, respectively).

IUP still hiring Japanese teacher (preferably someone who can also teach Korean).

Indiana University of Pennsylvania is still hiring a teacher for elementary- and intermediate-level Japanese, with a preference for someone who can also teach Korean (as in the case of there current faculty there, Dr. Yongtaek Kim). An excerpt from the job posting:

Duties
Teach elementary and intermediate Japanese. Preference given to candidates either possessing a literature or cultures specialty or having the ability to also teach Korean language.

Position Qualifications
Fluency in Japanese and a master's degree in Foreign Languages, Education, or a related field are required. Ph.D. is preferred. Ongoing research and publications appropriate to one's area of specialty are expected, and teaching or field experience is preferred.

The department seeks candidates whose teaching, research, or services has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Candidates must communicate effectively and perform well during the interview(s).

IUP is located roughly 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Host families needed in Pittsburgh for visiting Yasuda Women's University students from August to January.

Via Yasuda Women's University.

The University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute will once again welcome a cohort of students from Hiroshima's Yasuda Women's University (安田女子大学), and GlobalPittsburgh is recruiting host families ahead of their stay.

- The students are all females of 19-20 years old; most of them have "fair" level of English. They will be learning English at the English Language Institute at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland.
- There will be monthly compensation for hosting.
- The approximate dates of the program are between August 29, 2017 and January 21, 2018.
- The student will need a separate furnished bedroom with a bed, dresser or closet, desk (optional), adequate lighting to study, and heat/air.
- The students cannot be placed in the same home with other Japanese students, Japanese natives or male students.
- Host families are requested to include the student in their family meals with an option for the student to pack their lunch.
- The host should be located conveniently on a direct bus line to Oakland and/or with a max of 40 minute commute.
- The students will be attending the University on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and have a decent amount of homework daily. They will be engaged in many activities provided by University and GlobalPittsburgh.

If your family is willing and able to host, please contact Nadya Kessler at nkessler at globalpittsburgh.org.

2016 Japanese film After the Storm (海よりもまだ深く) at Hollywood Theater, June 16 - 22.

The 2016 Japanese film After the Storm (海よりもまだ深く) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont from June 16 through June 22. A summary from a March San Francisco Chronicle review:

Ryoto (Hiroshi Abe) has lost his mojo. Fifteen years earlier, his novel won a prestigious award, but he has yet to follow up on that success. He is divorced from Kyoko (Yoko Maki) and is behind on his child support — he is limited by the divorce settlement to visiting his son Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa) once a month.

He is also broke — probably because of the cost of the divorce and his gambling habit. With no follow-up novel in the works, he has taken a job with a private detective agency. As he gets the goods on his clients’ cheating significant others, he also examines his only life, which he is gradually realizing is a failure.

“I’m the ‘great talents bloom late’ kind,” Ryoto tells his mother, Yashiko (Kirin Kiki, who is excellent).

Not buying it for a second, Mom responds, “You’re taking too long to bloom.”

Unable to move on, Ryoto uses his private eye skills to spy on his ex-wife and her new boyfriend, who seems to be everything he is not — and a nice guy to boot. What could be a creepy sort of plot twist is, in Kore-eda’s hands, more of a sad desperation.

As with many of Kore-eda’s best films — “Maborosi” and “Still Walking,” among others — “After the Storm” has what the Japanese call mono no aware, which translates as “the pathos of things.” It is a film that is aware of the transient, impermanent nature of life.

Tickets and showtime information is now available online. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.

Snacks and sweets at Asian Food Market Bobae in Monroeville.

Happened across a large selection of Korean and Japanese snacks and sweets---including mochi, Japanese Kit-Kat flavors (like matcha and sake), and Ramune drinks---at Asian Food Market Bobae the other day. The Korean-owned store (bobae / 보배 is treasure in Korean) is located in a small strip mall at 4027 William Penn Highway in Monroeville, across from the Miracle Mile Shopping Center (map).

Korean movie The Way Home (집으로) in Oakland, July 2.

The 2002 Korean film The Way Home (집으로) will play at the Carnegie Library's Main Branch in Oakland on July 2 as that month's installment of the International Cinema Sunday series. A 2002 San Francisco Chronicle review provides a summary:

Dumped by his mother at the rural home of his ancient grandmother, a 7-year- old boy turns surly and depressed. His Game Boy batteries die, Grandma's food tastes strange, and the countryside lacks the vivid distractions of urban life.

Gradually, the spoiled brat (Seung-Ho Yoo) and the deaf, exquisitely patient grandmother (Eul-Boon Kim) grow to love and understand each other. By the time his mother returns to claim him, the boy has learned more from the old woman's gestures of kindness than his mother ever taught him

The movie runs from 2:00 to 5:00 pm and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map) and is accessible by buses 28X, 54, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, and 93.

Dr. Angela Stanzel and "German-Chinese Economic Relations" talk, June 12 downtown.

Dr. Angela Stanzel of the European Council on Foreign Relations will speak on June 12 on "German-Chinese Economic Relations". From the Pittsburgh Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany:

While German-Chinese trade and investment relations are still expanding, 2016 was also a year of strong reappraisal by Germany. Germany’s economic circles have become wary as enthusiasm in China for economic reform is tapering off; opportunities for foreign firms have been removed one by one. The lack of reciprocity and the risk of seeing Germany’s technology siphoned off by China have already had an impact on the thinking in government and large companies in Germany. This has triggered a change in Berlin’s tone and dealings with China. The quality of this change is remarkable because for many years German-Chinese economic relations were thought to have no way to go but further upward. Today, this relationship has seemed to enter a period of unknown stormy waters precisely when the Trump factor adds volatility to China’s relationship with the United States, its most important political and economic partner.

Registration is requested by June 9. The event runs from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown (map) and is $5 for those not members of the American Council on Germany or the German American Chamber of Commerce.

Pitt hiring for temp bilingual Chinese-English Social Media Education Coordinator position.

The University of Pittsburgh has an opening for a bilingual Mandarin-English Social Media Education Coordinator temp position. From the Pittsource posting:

The Social Media Education Coordinator will play a key roll in developing on-line educational content for the University’s international alumni. They will be responsible for working with the Asian Studies Center and the UCIS Director of Constituent Relations to develop a new on-line educational and outreach materials platform for alumni in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Content will be bilingual (Mandarin and English). SMEC will need to develop a social media strategy to push content.

Job Requirements
Understanding of on-line education;
background in education;
fluency in Chinese and English;
Excellent communication skills;
Attention to detail;
Basic understanding of Web design;
Microsoft Office in English and Mandarin;
Background in Chinese social media