Picnic with visiting Saitama delegation, July 25.

"15 yr Sister City dedication w/ Saitama Mayor Shizmu & Chairman Hagiwara in Pittsburgh Council Chambers" - @billpeduto in 2013.

The Pittsburgh Saitama Sister City Committee is holding a picnic for a visiting delegation from Saitama on July 25 at North Park.

Saitama City, Pittsburgh's sister city in Japan, will be sending a delegation including the Mayor, his staff, and city council members to renew their friendship with us this month!
今月の２３日から２７日までピッツバーグの姉妹都市である埼玉市から、市長、市議会議員を含めた代表団が姉妹都市の友好関係を深めるために訪問する予定です。

Since sister cities are about people-to-people ties, please join us for an informal picnic at the Point Shelter in North Park, from 5:30 to 8:00 PM on Wednesday, July 25th to welcome them.
姉妹都市は人と人のつながりが大切ですので、7月25日水曜日の午後5時30分から午後8時までノースパークのPoint Shelterでピクニックを行います。是非ご参加ください！

The Pittsburgh Saitama Sister City Committee will provide hamburgers, chicken, cutlery, and soft drinks. Please bring a dish (approximately 20 servings) to share!
ピッツバーグ埼玉姉妹都市委員会は、ハンバーガー、チキン、ソフトドリンク等を提供致します。 他のシェアーできるおかず類（約20人分）などを持って来てください！

Registration is required and can be completed online.

Tomoko Omura’s Post Bop Gypsies, August 14 at City of Asylum.

via @tomokoomura

The City of Asylum will host Tomoko Omura’s Post Bop Gypsies, a jazz trio out of New York City fronted by violinist Tomoko Omura, on August 14.

Tomoko Omura’s Post Bop Gypsies are a modern take on the classic, violin, guitar and bass instrumentation.

The New York City based trio also features Alex Goodman on guitar and George DeLancey on bass. The band is on the road celebrating their self titled 2017 debut release (Inner Circle Music 2017).

The show runs from 8:00 to 10:00 pm; it's free, but online RSVP is required. The City of Asylum's Alphabet City is located at 40 N. West Ave. on the North Side (map).

Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) around Pittsburgh for Studio Ghibli Fest, July 22, 23, and 25.

The 1997 film Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) will play at Pittsburgh-area Cinemark theaters on July 22, 23, and 25 as part of this year's Studio Ghibli Fest. A 1999 Roger Ebert four-star review summarizes:

Hayao Miyazaki is a great animator, and his "Princess Mononoke" is a great film. Do not allow conventional thoughts about animation to prevent you from seeing it. It tells an epic story set in medieval Japan, at the dawn of the Iron Age, when some men still lived in harmony with nature and others were trying to tame and defeat it. It is not a simplistic tale of good and evil, but the story of how humans, forest animals and nature gods all fight for their share of the new emerging order. It is one of the most visually inventive films I have ever seen.

The July 22 and 25 screenings will be dubbed in English, and the July 23 screening will have English subtitles. It will play at the Cinemark theaters in Monaca, Monroeville, Pittsburgh Mills, and Robinson. Tickets are available online.

"Storytime: Japanese and English" at Carnegie Library in East Liberty, July 17.

The next installment of the monthly program "Storytime: Japanese and English" will take place on July 17 at the Carnegie Library in East Liberty.

Celebrate our city’s diverse culture as we explore new words through songs, action rhymes and stories in both English and Japanese for children and their parents or caregivers. For children age birth – 5 and their caregivers.

It runs from 11:00 to 11:30 am. The library is located at 130 S. Whitfield St. (map).

Michael Kors at Tanger Outlets hiring Mandarin-speaking sales associate.

The Michael Kors store at Tanger Outlets, an outlet mall roughly 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, is hiring a Mandarin-speaking sales associate.

Hiossen Implant hiring bilingual Korean-English sales trainee.

Hiossen Implant, a subsidiary of a Korean dental implant company, has an opening for a bilingual Korean-English Branch Manager Sales Trainee. The job posting, via Indeed and a staffing agency:

2001's Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉) at Southside Works, August 15 and 16.

Funimation Films announced today that Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉) will play in Pittsburgh on August 15 and 16.

Caught up in a world of dreams, lost in the cruelty of reality.

What should have been an easy bounty turns into biological war after a terrorist gets ahold of a deadly virus. Drawn in by the pretty price on the mastermind’s head, Spike and the Bebop crew are ready to collect a much-needed reward. Unfortunately, the gang’s about to find themselves in more trouble than money when the terrorist threatens to unleash the virus on Halloween—effectively killing everyone on Mars. With little time and leads that seem more dreamy than helpful, they’ll have to use their own bag of tricks to stop a dangerous plot.

The August 15 show will be in Japanese with English subtitles, and the August 16 show will be dubbed in English. Tickets are not yet available for purchase at the time of this post. Southside Works Cinema is located at 425 Cinema Drive in the Southside, one block from the Hot Metal Bridge (map).

Seminal Japanese pop punk band Shonen Knife back in Pittsburgh, September 4.

The Japanese pop punk band Shonen Knife (少年ナイフ) will return to Pittsburgh on September 4 as part of their 2018 US tour, the band announced today. According to a press release:

Boasting a nearly 40 year career, these three luminaries of rock & roll have wielded fun and food-centered bops that earned them the love and respect of music goliaths like Nirvana andSonic Youth. They’ve made their way from their home of Osaka, Japan to the United States many times, but this year they’re putting their personal affection for each and every city on display. Following the release of their tenacious live DVD/CD ALIVE! In Osaka (Released onRobby Takac of THE GOO GOO DOLLS’ Good Charamel Records), Shonen Knife have prepared to deliver that same hometown energy from Buffalo on August 28th to Brooklyn on August 31st, Chicago on September 9th, Los Angeles on October 5th, and so much more. Each city will have its own personalized and limited edition artwork available at the show, because for Shonen Knife, home is where the fans are.

Shonen Knife frontwoman Naoko comments, “Our first live album Live in Osaka was released in 2006, and was recorded at the same venue as this new one. After the first live album, we toured, released music constantly, grew as a band and improved. This year we would like to bring the fever from ALIVE! in Osaka on our US tour. Not only will we play songs from the record, but we are also preparing special rarely played songs from earlier albums to the present. Let’s have a fun time together!”

Tickets for the show at Spirit Lounge are not yet available. The band played in Pittsburgh previously in 2016 and 2011.

SAP Ariba hiring for bilingual Mandarin-English Procurement Operations Specialist positions in Pittsburgh.

SAP Ariba, "the world’s business commerce network," is again hiring for bilingual Mandarin-English Procurement Operations Specialist positions in Pittsburgh. The job posting, via a staffing agency:

The Big Picture – Top Skills You Should Possess:

• Full Mandarin and English Bilingual must be able to write and speak both fluently
• Superior communication and telephone skills.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Provides inbound application and functional support for all relevant Company applications, both internally and externally, by way of chat, web form and phone.
• Resolves 80% of issues without escalation.
• Respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner and within service level objectives.
• Help our customers maximize the benefits of solutions to facilitate a global exchange of goods and services in the world’s largest business to business trading community.

What You Need to Bring to the Table:

• Full Mandarin and English Bilingual must be able to write and speak both fluently
• Bachelor’s degree or 2-year Technical school degree preferred.
• Minimum of 1 year work experience preferred

2017 documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda at Southside Works, July 31.

The 2017 documentary on composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, will play in Pittsburgh on July 31 at the Southside Works Cinema. A July 6 Variety review provides a summary:

Admirers of the highly respected Japanese musician (and occasional actor) will enjoy “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda,” a leisurely look at a multi-talent best known in the west for composing memorable original scores for directors from Bertolucci and Oshima to Inarritu and Miike. Stephen Nomura Schible shot this documentary over a five-year span, during which Sakamoto survived a serious cancer scare. That lends some drama to a tastefully elegiac portrait that otherwise demurs from any discussion of its protagonist’s personal life or background.

Tickets for the 7:30 pm show are now available online. The theater is located at 425 Cinema Drive in the Southside, one block from the Hot Metal Bridge (map).

Pittsburgh Korean School now enrolling for the fall semester.

The Pittsburgh Korean School (피츠버그 중앙한국학교) is now enrolling students ages 3 to 14 for the fall semester. The school meets every Saturday at the Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh in Shadyside from 12:30 to 3:30 pm from September 1 through December 1 (no class on November 24). The cost is $200 and payment is made by check to PKS. Volunteer instructors are being sought as well. Registration closes on August 26.

Lisa Ko's The Leavers at Smithfield Critics Book Discussion Group, July 18 downtown.

Lisa Ko's The Leavers will be the topic of discussion with the Smithfield Critics Book Discussion Group at the downtown branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

One morning, Deming’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon and never comes home. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. Far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind.

The group meets from 12:00 to 1:00 pm, and the library is located at 612 Smithfield St. (map).

Pipa soloist Yang Jin in Oakland, September 23.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's branch in Oakland will host pipa soloist Yang Jin on September 23 as part of its World Kaleidoscope series.

2016 Stephen Chow movie The Mermaid (美人鱼) at Oakland's Carnegie Library in October.

The October installment of International Cinema Sunday will feature the 2016 Stephen Chow movie The Mermaid (美人鱼), the highest-grossing movie in China that year.

Shutaro Noguchi playing at Howlers, July 12.

Japanese musician Shutaro Noguchi (currently based in Louisville, Kentucky) will play at Howlers on July 12. A Forced Exposure review describes his forthcoming LP thus:

[T]he sound is wonderfully hybridized. At times its merger of prog, pop, fusionism and complexity make me think of a collision between the Glenn Phillips Band and Todd Rundgren's Utopia with Terje Rypdal sittin' in. I know I'm making it sound like a crazy quilt, and I suppose if sort of is, but only in the sense that it avoids the monochromaticism of so much contemporary music. Shutaro does not grab a single schtick and just shake it until his arm is tired. He mixes up of ballads and thunder (sometimes in a single song) in a way that strikes me as somehow very Japanese. But mostly it just strikes me about the head. In the most pleasant of ways. Take off your helmet and give it a try. You'll never know what hit you.

The show starts at 8:00 pm and tickets are $10. Howlers is located at 4509 Liberty Ave. in Bloomfield (map).

Manila Killa at Spirit Hall, September 28.

via @manilakilla.

EDM artist Manila Killa will play at Spirit Hall on September 28, opening for Whethan. Ones to Watch profiled him back in January:

[Chris] Gavino is known around the world as future bass producer Manila Killa, half of indie-dance and house duo Hotel Garuda, and founding member of the internet-born music collective Moving Castle. All things considered, these notable achievements would prove impressive for anyone in the world of electronic music and are even more astounding when viewed in context.

Gavino managed to achieve these monumental feats all while still attending college full-time, where he was studying business management. Balancing both college and an ever-growing music career where he was asked to play shows across the country, Gavino chose the path most artists rarely do. The rising producer fully committed himself to both worlds, succeeding in further honing and developing his craft without sacrificing his academic pursuits.

Tickets are $23 in advance or $25 at the door. The all-ages show starts at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:00). Spirit is located at 242 51st Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Pitt's GSPIA hiring bilingual Mandarin-English student for "math camp" support.

Dr. Sera Lenardi in Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs is hiring a bilingual Mandarin-English student for its preparatory math camp for incoming students this summer.

Applicants must also be proficient in IT setup including helping new students set up their internet access and install software in both English and Chinese language operating systems.

The Student Assistant must be proficient in working with mathematical equations in LaTeX, programming Qualtrics survey, and good in explaining introductory statistical concepts. Must have participated both days in either the 2016 or 2017 GSPIA Math Camp.

Japanese-English Reading Circle in Shadyside continues from July 7.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania's Japanese-English Reading Circle will begin again with a new series of four meetings from July 7 at Kenmawr Apartments in Shadyside.

Join us for the Japanese-English Reading Circle.

Mission: to promote language learning through reading and language exchange. We aim to keep positivity and motivation high while developing reading fluency, vocabulary, content discussion, and reading strategies in a fun, collaborative environment.

Meetings: will consist of icebreaker language games, discussions about book topics, questions about language, formation of reading goals, and reading strategy sharing/reflection

Who can join: Japanese learners of English or English-speaking learners of Japanese. Any proficiency level is okay, although it would help to have at least beginner level knowledge of the second language you are studying. You can also sign up for the Facebook group or Google group for reminders.

The meetings are held every other Saturday in July and August (and at many other times throughout the year) from 5:00 to 6:30 pm. The apartment complex at 401 Shady Ave. (map) has a large number of Japanese residents who work and study in the city, and often hosts cultural events for its international residents.

He Xiangyu part of "River Separates Water" exhibition at Wood Street Galleries, July 6 through August 26.

Chinese artist He Xiangyu will be one of three artists whose work comprises a "River Separates Water" exhibition at the Wood Street Galleries downtown from July 6 through August 26. He's 2017 film The Swim documents his attempt to swim across the Yalu River from China to North Korea. From a February Elephant profile:

What gave him the idea for The Swim? “I married my wife in 2012,” he says, “and we moved from Beijing to Pittsburgh. When I revisited my hometown (Kuandian) for the first time in two years, I asked my parents what was going on, what the people were doing, and I got a very strange, distant feeling like I didn’t know it anymore. I had been creating a series of drawings called the Palate Project in America and I was interested in the feeling of being in a foreign place and also more general feelings of the body. After I got that strange feeling at home I wanted to explore what was going on here in a very personal, physical way, in touch with the elements of the town: the water. That river is very familiar to me from childhood. Though as a child I wasn’t quite aware of the North Koreans, my parents are doctors and know the local people, as well as some of the defectors. Most of them weren’t happy to talk about their experience because they are trying to remain hidden. But my parents helped me get in touch.”

The gallery is open four days a week at 601 Wood Street downtown (map).

"Let's Learn Chinese," July 5 (and every Thursday) at Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's main branch in Oakland hosts "Let's Learn Chinese" each Thursday evening.

Experience Chinese language and culture through books, storytelling, songs, games and more!

It runs from 6:30 to 7:30 pm each Thursday in the Children's Department. 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.

Attack on Titan Season 2 the Movie: The Roar of Awakening (進撃の巨人 ～覚醒の咆哮~) in Pittsburgh, July 10 and 11.

The 2018 movie Attack on Titan Season 2 the Movie: The Roar of Awakening (進撃の巨人 ～覚醒の咆哮~) will play at the Southside Works Cinema on July 10 and 11.