From Urasoe City Hall International Relations Section:

 

I would like to exchange with the citizens of Urasoe!

Hello everyone in Urasoe City! My name is Jason! Nice to meet everybody.

Like my predecessor, Mr. Braden, this is my first time in Urasoe City, but my second time in Okinawa. I had visited the main island of Okinawa a year ago and was particularly impressed by the sweetness of Okinawan pineapples, the intensity of typhoons, and the unique Okinawan culture.

 

I studied abroad at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto for a year and traveled all over Japan, but Okinawa, especially, make me realized I was in a "foreign country." It is not Japan, not the U.S., not the former Ryukyu Kingdom, but a place that has been influenced by many various countries and this placed called Okinawa is built upon the accumulation of those histories. Therefore, I am looking forward to interacting with the people of Urasoe City and learning more about Okinawa and Urasoe City!

 

You may see me at Coordinator of International Relations (CIR) activities, so please feel free to talk to me then! I don't have any family over here, so I sometimes go for a walk or bike rides, so please feel free to reach out to me! My hobbies are food (both eating and cooking), watching anime and YouTube, badminton, learning new languages and cultures, and traveling.

For Everyone's SAKE

I am from New Jersey, USA. It is a state next to New York City and a little smaller than the island of Kyushu. Since Japanese food was not common growing up in New Jersey, I was impressed as a child when I tried “Sushi” for the first time. It was back then that I noticed, when an item with the same name appeared in the beverage section and the nigiri section of the menu at the newly opened Japanese restaurant. I read “Sake”* over and over in my head, but no matter how many times I read it, I could not picture it as “sake-topped nigiri.” This experience deepened my interest in Japan. Incidentally, sushi became my favorite food from that day on.

 

*The word “salmon” and “sake (Japanese rice wine)” are both written in romaji as “sake,” and apart from that, the English word “sake” has the meaning of “for” (the Japanese word for "for" is tame (tah-meh))!

 

From there, I got hooked on Japanese food, anime, and Japanese travel videos, and ended up studying Japanese at university, studied abroad in Kyoto, visited 11 prefectures, and came to the Urasoe City International Relations Section right after graduating with my bachelor's degree!

 

In the future, I aspire to become a Foreign Service Officer in the US. If possible, I would like to return to Japan again, for Japan's "sake" too, I would like to preserve US-Japan's friendly relations, and contribute to expansion of peace and culture as well. Furthermore, I wish for a future where the world multiculturizes and internationalize even more so that more kids could have "sake (salmon)" like I did when I was a child.

 

I look forward to continuing to make new experiences, memories, and friends in Japan and now in Urasoe!

Job Description

- Translation and interpretation

- Visiting Urasoe City kindergartens and children's centers

- English storytelling sessions at the city library

- Publishing the Monthly Public Relations Urasoe Column “Jason's J Cafe"

- Participation and planning of events

- Collaborations with Urasoe International Relations Association (UIRA)  and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Okinawa

日本語バージョン (Japanese Version): https://www.city.urasoe.lg.jp/doc/2024083000229/