The Rocky Mountain JET Alumni Association is an organization composed of former Japan Exchange & Teaching Program participants and people who have shown a vital interest in the JET Program. It was established to promote mutual understanding and international exchanges between Japan and the United States through the members'' experiences of living, working and carrying out local activities in Japan and to promote fellowship among JET Programme alumni.

Currently, RMJETAA events center around the Denver and Front Range area, but we are working to establish sub-chapters in the Colorado Springs and Fort Collins areas. Please see the staff page for the representatives in those areas.

RMJETAA not only supports the Consulate in JET related activities including recruitment, candidate selection, and orientation, but also organizes activities that provide JET alumni with opportunities for entertainment, friendship and employment.

Celebrate Spring!

Come enjoy a lovely Japanese dinner* with your friends at Rocky Mountain JETAA, and then join us for KARAOKE!

Feel free to join us for dinner, karaoke, or both!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Dinner at 7:00 p.m. at Sushi Katsu in Aurora (menu & map HERE)

Karaoke around 9:00 p.m. at D.J. Music Studio (map & info HERE)

*All you can eat sushi for one low price of $23.95! Check the website for menu details...

Karaoke is FREE for those who RSVP!

Click HERE to RSVP

***RSVP BY MAY 5** so we can save you a seat!

Date: Monday, May 7, 2012   NEW day!

Time:  6:30 p.m.    NEW time!

Place:  Caribou Coffee in the Westminster Promenade

If you are in the area, you're welcome to join us!

April P.U.B. Night

Come join us for food, fun, and friends!

We're extending a special welcome to our NEW JETs!

Thursday, April 19

6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

BJ's in Westminster, CO

Don't forget - we're picking up part of the tab!

It's time for JETAA Rocky Mountain's monthly board meeting.

This month our meeting will be held at the beautiful Denver Botanical Gardens!

April Monthly Meeting

When: 10am-12pm, Sunday, April 15th

Where: Waring House, Denver Botanical Gardens

1007 York Street, Denver, CO 80206 (map)

Please come by if you're in town!

It's time for JETAA Rocky Mountain's monthly meeting.

We'll be holding the elections for the 2012-2013 JETAA Rocky Mountain Board!

March Monthly Meeting

Sunday, March 18, 2012

10am to 12pm

Common Grounds

17th and Wazee in Downtown Denver

Please come by if you're in town!

Just click on the names to see the platforms for this year's candidates.

• President - John McMillen
• Treasurer - Jared Hayes
• Secretary - Tracey Petruff
• Board Member (Webmaster) - Lauren Maso

Paul Yoo, hailing from Colorado, is now in Akita-ken as a JET. Paul established volunteerAKITA which serves as the hub for many JETs to improve the quality of life of those in need through volunteer, service, and lots of LOVE. They do this through developing relationships, providing strength and encouragement for communities that need it most.

Paul Yoo (left in picture below) recently made national news with the below article, printed in the Asahi Shinbun on June 7th, 2011:

Akita ALT Delivers Fruit to the Affected Area

An assistant language teacher (ALT) who teaches English in Akita prefecture delivers fruit such as bananas and oranges to victims of the earthquake. He started this delivery after he visited the affected area for volunteer work and discovered that the diet people had wasn’t nutritious. He has delivered more than 15,000 pieces of fruit to Kesennuma-shi in Miyagi and Rikuzentakata-shi in Iwate.

The name of the organization is the “Fruit Tree Project”. Paul Yoo, a 26 year-old from the USA who teaches English in junior high and elementary schools in Yurihonjo-shi started doing this in early April. He heard many victims complain at the Kesennuma shelter that they “have enough food but miss having fresh fruit”. Rice and miso soup are provided, however, vegetables and fruits are in short supply and rarely handed out. Yoo says “Your stomach may get filled but the good isn’t nutritious, it’s no good.”

He started promoting the project on the Volunteer Akita website which was established after the earthquake. He asked for donations to purchase fruit. Paul Yoo talked to manufactures in Miyagi and Yurihonjo, establishing connections and finding ways to purchase fruit at discounted prices. Yoo along with over 10 ALTs visited shelters with a car full of fruit on April 29^th. When they handed out the fruit to victims, they got huge smiles in response. He recalls that everyone liked bananas because you just peel and they are ready to eat since it’s almost impossible to cook at shelter.

Now over 100 people have donated money to this project and the Fruit Tree Project has raised about 800,000 yen within 2 months. According to Margaret Cocker who also helps out with the Fruit Tree Project, “Fruit is a symbol of connection between victims and ALTs”.

In affected areas, the members of the Fruit Tree Project help clean up residential areas. It’s been nearly 3 months since the earthquake, however, things are far from recovered. Yoo plans to continue volunteering on weekends saying, “We need to continue delivering fruit until the victims have reached the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Denver JETs in Shimane-ken, Leonard Large, Kyle Opitz and Lauren Hale, along with other JETs from Shimane, Hiroshima, Tottori and local residents of Japan took part in a Charity Hike up Shimane's Mount Sanbe to benefit the Japanese Red Cross and other charities supporting those affected by the Tohoku Disaster.

Lauren Hale, a Shimane JET from Denver said “Japan has been such a great home to us all and we were so glad that we could be a part of the relief effort.  We raised over twice the amount that we had originally hoped for!”

On May 15th over 60 ALTs and CIRs and 50 Japanese people took part in a sponsored ‘Charity Hike’. The hike took place on Shimane’s highest mountain: Mt. Sanbe in Oda City, Shimane. It was attended by people from 14 countries: America, Ireland, France, England, Jamaica, Canada, Scotland, Kenya, China, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In the weeks leading up the event particpants raised $21,023 USD (¥1,715,338) from local and international donations (via the internet). At the summit of Mt. Sanbe, the participants held a photo opportunity and called out a strong message of support for the people of Tohoku and Japan from the international community. Please see the photograph below. In the week after the event, the money was transferred to the Japanese Red Cross (70%) and ‘SMILE and Dreams; Tohoku Kids Project’ (30%).

Check out the project website for video coverage and photos: www.sanbehike.com

This is a link to the Japan Meteorological Society website for the earthquake that occured at 2:53pm JST on March 11th, 2011. If you scroll down the page, you can see the affected towns and the magnitude at each location.

As of COB on March 14th after many hours of emailing and calling parents, all in-country JETs who either processed or departed through Denver have been accounted for. We had several people in the Tohoku region, some of whom have been displaced due to the current situation, but they are all doing OK.

If you are looking for an in-country JET, CLAIR NY has a list of US and Canadian JETs who have thus far been accounted for. The list continues to grow, so please keep checking back if you don't see the name of the person you're looking for.

Other online resources that have come into play with connecting people are Facebook and Twitter. There are several Facebook pages set up to connect people- some general and some broken down by prefecture.

We all looked on as the disastrous events of March 11^th unfolded in the Tohoku region of Japan, and collectively our hearts sank.  For those of us who have family and friends in Japan, it was a time of great sorrow and worry.  But, in the aftermath of great tragedy can and has come great good.  Little time has passed since the earthquake and tsunami shook the Tohoku region, but the world has responded with overwhelming support for the people of Japan.  RMJETAA, being a member organization comprised of professionals who lived and worked in Japan, will be joining in the effort to help those people and towns most affected by this disaster.  As the dust settles, there will be many opportunities for you to offer your support to organizations sending relief to Japan, and I would like to personally invite you to join with us in these efforts.  JETAA is currently collecting donations on a national level, and if you would like to be a part of the JET Alumni response to the earthquake and tsunami, please go to the following website for details on how you can donate:

http://www.jetaausa.com/fund/

Also, RMJETAA is planning to hold a benefit event that highlights the music of Japan in late April or early May.  The proceeds of this event will go directly to the relief effort.  There are many other local and national ongoing efforts happening, so please give your full support to Japan in this time of great need.  Thank you, and may Japan and its people have a speedy recovery!

~John McMillen

President – JETAA Rocky Mountain Chapter

If you are looking for information on the safety of US or Canadian in-country JETs, please visit the CLAIR NY website. They are posting official information on the current status as they find time. They also have a list of all US and Canadian JETs that have been accounted for (pdf document).

Other good sources of information are the US Embassy in Tokyo website and AJET (to see how JETs in Japan are responding). You can also access the prefectural AJET chapter websites/ forums through the main AJET website.   Facebook has been an online resource many JETs and families of JETs have turned to as well as Twitter (although the information tends to be less official on both those.)

1. The biggest threat to JET (and JETAA) now is attrition at the local government level as prefectural governments increasingly choose to reduce costs by getting ALTs from dispatch companies rather than hiring JETs.
2. The most effective way to counter this trend is to demonstrate a positive ROJ (“Return on JET-vestment”) at the local government level.
3. Local governments have expressed a strong interest in being able to connect and communicate with JET alumni who worked in their prefectures.
4. JET Alumni have never been organized by prefecture….

……until now.  So please do your part and sign up for your respective JET Alumni LinkedIn Group below.  It’s one small act of giving back to your prefecture that can make a big difference over time.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

-Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, Kariya-shi, 1992-94)
jetwit [at] jetwit.com

• FYI:  All groups below were created in connection with JetWit and not by the prefectural governments.  They’re just intended to help facilitate future communications.
• Current JETs and Monbusho English Fellows (MEFs) welcome too, as always.  Additionally, prefectural and other government employees as well as residents of each prefecture are welcome to join the groups.
  
• If anyone would like to be a “Manager” for their respective LinkedIn group, that would be very helpful.  Just get in touch.  Primary role will be approving requests to join the group.
  
• You may of course join other groups in addition to your own prefecture’s group if it’s helpful to you.

1. Aichi JET Alumni

2. Akita JET Alumni

3. Aomori JET Alumni

4. Chiba JET Alumni

5. Ehime JET Alumni

6. Fukui JET Alumni

7. Fukuoka JET Alumni

8. Fukushima JET Alumni

9. Gifu JET Alumni

10. Gunma JET Alumni

11. Hiroshima JET Alumni

12. Hokkaido JET Alumni

13. Hyogo JET Alumni

14. Ibaraki JET Alumni

15. Ishikawa JET Alumni

16. Iwate JET Alumni

17. Kagawa JET Alumni

18. Kagoshima JET Alumni

19. Kanagawa JET Alumni

20. Kochi JET Alumni

21. Kumamoto JET Alumni

22. Kyoto JET Alumni

23. Mie JET Alumni

24. Miyagi JET Alumni

25. Miyazaki JET Alumni

26. Nagano JET Alumni

27. Nagasaki JET Alumni

28. Nara JET Alumni

29. Niigata JET Alumni

30. Oita JET Alumni

31. Okayama JET Alumni

32. Okinawa JET Alumni

33. Osaka JET Alumni

34. Saga JET Alumni

35. Saitama JET Alumni

36. Shiga JET Alumni

37. Shimane JET Alumni

38. Shizuoka JET Alumni

39. Tochigi JET Alumni

40. Tokushima JET Alumni

41. Tokyo JET Alumni

42. Tottori JET Alumni

43. Toyama JET Alumni

44. Wakayama JET Alumni

45. Yamagata JET Alumni

46. Yamaguchi JET Alumni

47. Yamanashi JET Alumni

In conjunction with JetWit, RMJETAA is helping to show the value of having JETs placed throughout Japan.

The Goal

To create a list of Japanese cities (and prefectures) where JETs lived that have a sister city relationship with another country. If you're not sure if your town had a sister-city relationship, you can check here. We hope to use this information to lay some groundwork to help Japanese cities/prefectures that have JETs increase their “return on investment” from their initial investment.

Your Role

Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your

• name
• prefecture, city/town
• years on JET
• the sister city relationships that your town had

If you already see your city listed on the JET-Sister City List Project, please email your name anyway so we can include you! The more names on our list, the stronger our project is!

This information is particularly important amidst ongoing discussions of costs associated with the JET Programme and the JET Alumni Association.  Many of the short and long term benefits have simply not been included.

The survey will only takes about three minutes and can help show some of the economic benefits that JET brings to the Japanese economy.  moments of your time, and jetwit.com provides you with some very useful guidelines, which will make filling out the survey that much easier.

Visit the JET Tourist Tally Project page to read more information. Click here to fill out the survey.