Ishikawa Art Journal: Call for Submissions!

This guest post is from Creighton Hofeditz, ALT:

Hi everyone,

Over my two years in Ishikawa, I have continually been impressed at the secret reserves of creativity and artistry present in the JET and larger expat community.  Whether from a professional or an amateur background, the level of art I’ve seen from different sources is pretty astounding, and it’s been cool to see the degree to which that artistry has reflected the experience of living in Japan.

Inspired by the tsunami fundraising ideas of a couple other people in the local and national community, I would like to announce that I’m opening submissions for an Ishikawa Art Journal (working title).  The idea is to produce a collection of poems, drawings, essays, paintings, photos, fiction, and whatever else you can come up with that best represents your reaction to and relationship with Japan.  It can be about the Tohoku disaster, but it doesn’t have to be.  The collection will then be put up for sale to ourselves and to any interested friends and family at a reasonable price but one that allows us to donate all proceeds to the relief efforts.

AJET Haiku and Photo Competition 2011

Winner of 2010 AJET Photo Contest, shot by Tim Harding (Ehime-ken)

This info comes to us via our stalwart AJET president, Sarah Kelly:

Every year, AJET encourages poets and photographers from the JET community to exercise their creative talents with out annual AJET Haiku and Photo Competitions.

Haiku Competition – Opens immediately. Closes 31st May.
Haikus can be in reference to life on JET or in the traditional style. We’re not fussy! Humorous Haikus are always welcome too.

The competition will be split into two categories, English and Japanese, so get creative with your Nihongo skills too.

Submissions should be:

1. accompanied by the name, address and JET number of the poet
2. original works
3. written in English and/or Japanese
4. if written in Japanese, accompanied by furigana and an English translation

There is a limit of two (2) haiku per entrant total. Current National AJET Council members are not eligible to enter.

Entries and inquiries should be sent to Avalyn at contest[AT]ajet[DOT]net.

Judging will be conducted by members of the AJET council. We are also hoping an outside Haiku poet will be able to judge this year.

Ownership/ Use Rights: Haiku authors retain the copyright of their haiku. By entering the contest authors agree to have their submitted haiku displayed on the AJET website (ajet.net), displayed on the National AJET fan page (facebook), and used in AJET publications without any fee or other compensation. Haiku will be credited to the author named in the entry form. Please make copies of poetry you want to keep on record. Entries will never be used by AJET in any manner for advertising or sale. In the even that ownership of any haiku is contested in any manner, AJET retains the discretion to disqualify that haiku and discontinue use.

Two first place winners, one in English and one Japanese will win a 3000 yen Amazon online gift voucher. Second place (in English and Japanese) will win a 1000 yen voucher.

Photo Competition – Open immediately. Closing date 31st May.

AJET wants to encourage all professional and budding photographers to send in their photos of Japan and life on JET.

We are interested in ‘human’ or humorous photos of your life on JET. Landscape photos are unlikely to get much attention.

Judging will be conducted by the AJET council. The winner on the competition will win a 3000 yen Amazon online gift voucher and will feature in the Tokyo Orientation Guide Book for the incoming JETs (often the front page).

Submissions should be:

1. accompanied by a caption describing the scene
2. accompanied by the name, address and JET number of the photographer
3. original images
4. high quality JPG files; for example, a single image should be at least 400kb in size

There is a limit of two (2) images per entrant. Current National AJET Council members are not eligible to enter. In the case that you submit photographs including people’s faces, please receive permission from those featured before submission.

Entries and enquiries should be sent to Avalyn at contest[AT]ajet[DOT]net.

Ownership/Rights: Photographers retain the copyright of their photos. By entering the contest photographers agree to have their submitted photo displayed on the AJET website (ajet.net), displayed on the National AJET fan page (facebook), and used in AJET publications without any fee or other compensation. The photo will be credited to the photographer named in the entry form. Please make copies of the photo that you want to keep on record. Entries will never be used by AJET in any manner for advertising or sale. In the even that ownership of any photo is contested in any manner, AJET retains the discretion to disqualify that haiku and discontinue use.

Good luck!

Winter Photo Contest 2010

Photo: Wide Island View

The folks behind the Hiroshima JET blog, Wide Island View, have decided to team up with the Ishikawa JET blog and do a little cross-prefectural promotion.  As part of that, we’d like to help advertise the Winter Photo Contest — with prizes — over at the Wide Island View website.

Send in your best winter photo of Japan, and get a chance to win some fun prizes, sponsored by NetPrice Japan.

Your photo must:

• be set in Japan.
• have a winter theme.
• have been taken during the past six months.
• have been taken by you.
• be at least 1,200 pixels on any side (most cameras do this…)

Interested?  You’re competing against fellow foreigners, not professionals here.

Submit your photos to: wivcontests (at) gmail (dot) com and include

• your name
• your JET placement
• photo title
• location and short description of photo

Winners will get their choice of 3 prizes (see their site for pics!) and will have their photos displayed on the Englipedia website — whee, bragging rights!  Other photo submissions may also featured in the Shashin Spotlight on the Wide Island View website.

The deadline is April 1st, 2010.  Winners will be announced on April 5th on the Wide Island View website!

Check it out and help represent Ishikawa in a faraway prefecture!