HCL Technologies hiring Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst for position onsite at Google.

HCL Technologies is hiring a Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst for a position working onsite at Google in Larimer. The posting, via Monster.com:
Summary:

Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst is a full-time job through HCL America, Inc. onsite at Google Pittsburgh. You will work to enhance users’ online shopping experience by performing in-depth product research, analyzing the user query stream, and improving query classifier performance using highly technical internal tools and processes. It is part of a fast-paced environment, partnering closely with operations and engineering teams. Native or near-native Japanese reading/writing fluency is preferred and spending significant time living/working in the Japanese culture is a plus.

"HOW: Hands-On Workshop Series — Obon Lanterns with Shannon", August 1 in Oakland.

Via Toronogashi.
The Carnegie Library in Oakland will host an Obon Lantern workshop on Tuesday, August 1 as part of its Hands-On Workshop series.

Join us for HOW, a series of hands-on workshops for adults and teens. Learn from skilled craftspeople. Dig in and try things out in a creative, supportive environment. Join us for one or all of these free programs. Materials provided.

Make floating paper lanterns traditionally used during Obon in Japan. Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom honoring the spirits of one’s ancestors.

No registration is necessary for these sessions. Seating for all workshops is available to 20 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. You’ll want to come early to be sure you MAKE it on time!

The event runs from 6:00 to 7:30 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.

Documentary The Day the Sun Fell at Harris Theater, August 5.

The 2015 documentary The Day the Sun Fell, on the legacy of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, will play at the Harris Theater on August 5.

Pittsburgh Magazine: You should know Jasmine Cho.

Pittsburgh Magazine profiles Jasmine Cho of Yummyholic in the August issue's "You Should Know" section.

113 Industries hiring Chinese-language Consultant, Consumer Insights.

113 Industries, a market research consulting firm headquartered in Station Square, is hiring a Chinese-language "Consultant, Consumer Insights". An excerpt of the job posting, via Indeed.com:

113 Industries is seeking a detail-oriented and self-motivated Consultant to join the Consumer Insights team on projects related to Chinese consumers. The Consultant’s primary contributions will include configuring and analyzing data collection campaigns in Chinese language.

This is a temporary assignment but could lead to a full-time role as an Associate with highly variable day-to-day activities, a highly collaborative team, and great exposure to industry-leading organizations. In that Associate role, the candidate will create strategies, presentations and deliverables and interact with the clients directly. In that role, the candidate will also contribute to ongoing development of 113’s services to continually enhance the analysis of consumer data and insights.

Excellent knowledge of Chinese languages, both written and verbal, and Chinese culture is a must. Good knowledge of English is also required.

China to Pittsburgh direct flights delayed until summer 2018.

The direct flights from China to Pittsburgh that were in the works this year will be delayed until summer 2018, according to Pittsburgh International Airport officials on Friday. From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The delay will give Chinese tourism company Caissa Touristic more time to promote and sell tickets for the flight, said Bob Kerlik, an airport spokesman. The company hasn't started to sell tickets.

The airport announced the flight in March after Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Allegheny Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis and other officials traveled to China to meet with airlines and tour operators.

The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie: The Girl Who Calls the Stars (劇場版 魔法科高校の劣等生 星を呼ぶ少女) at Hollywood Theater, July 29.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show the Japanese animated movie The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie: The Girl Who Calls the Stars (劇場版 魔法科高校の劣等生 星を呼ぶ少女) on July 29.

2017 Singaporean-Thai film Pop Aye in Pittsburgh, July 28 - August 3.

The 2017 Singaporean-Thai film Pop Aye will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont from July 28. A summary from a recent A.V. Club review:

Some men buy a Ferrari when they’re in the throes of a midlife crisis. Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh), the successful architect who’s at the center of writer-director Kirsten Tan’s wistful feature debut Pop Aye, buys an elephant. And although at first this appears to be an act of portentous quirkiness, it turns out that the elephant, Pop Aye—played by an elephant named Bong, one of three actors listed in the film’s credits—is the same one Thana grew up with on his uncle’s farm in the Thai countryside, and the duo’s long walk back to Thana’s hometown is not just a homecoming; it’s an act of penance.

Dissatisfied and feeling as though life is leaving him behind, Thana longs for a simpler time, one less beholden to modern conveniences and consumerist luxuries. The film takes a similarly leisurely tack, ambling along at an unhurried pace for a road trip story that doubles as a travelogue of rural Thailand. Much of the film is split between this odd-couple pilgrimage and scenes of Thana’s life back in Bangkok, where his younger co-workers are squeezing him out of his own firm and his relationship with his wife, Bo (Penpak Sirikul), long ago soured into resentment.

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.

"Not Safe For Life" Japanese horror movie Audition (オーディション) at Row House Cinema, August 12.

The 1999 Japanese horror movie Audition (オーディション) will play at Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville on August 12. Film critic Robin Wood wrote of the Miike Takashi film:

In general, his reputation (or ‘cult’ status) appears to rest on his readiness to push further and further the boundaries of portrayable violence, ‘grossout’ cinema, which doubtless has its sociological interest within a civilization (and I don’t mean only Japanese) that seems to be in the process of accepting (and rather enjoying, even celebrating) its headlong race towards extinction: a kind of Japanese Tarantino, perhaps marginally less complacent and self-congratulatory [. . .].

To put it concisely: The other Miike films are disturbing for what they have to tell us about the state of contemporary civilization; they are not in the least disturbing in themselves, operating on some fantasy level of annihilation, with ‘comic-book’ violence. Audition, on the other hand, is authentically disturbing, and infinitely more horrifying: the first time I watched it – on DVD, at home, after warnings I had received – I was repeatedly tempted, through the last half hour, to turn it off. It is one of those few films, like Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, 1975) that are almost as unwatchable as the newsreels – of Auschwitz, of the innocent victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Vietnam, victims of Nazi or American dehumanization, which today, under President Bush, seem not so far apart.

Tickets and showtime information has not been announced yet. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Western Pennsylvania welcomes Japanese baseball players to the Freeport International Baseball Invitational.

by Jack Fordyce of the Tribune-Review.

With only four players from overseas, this year's Freeport International Baseball Invitational isn't very international this year. Nevertheless the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review profiles today the two Japanese collegiate athletes who make up half of the international contingent:

Outside of the noisy bus, Ito is enjoying his trip, taking in new experiences big and small surrounding him.

Even the insects.

“It is the first time I've ever seen lightning bugs,” Ito said. “They are pretty cool to see.”