Tokyo Alumni Podcast

EPISODE 56

Wookie attended ASIJ from the fifth to the eighth grade (1997-2001) before completing high school at St. Paul's School, a boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire.

Wookie then attended Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Ethics, Politics and Economics in 2009. After two years teaching high school English and journalism in DC Public Schools through Teach For America, Wookie matriculated at Harvard Law School, from which he earned his J.D. in 2014.

Wookie is currently the Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, where he works to defend people’s civil rights and civil liberties through litigation, lobbying, public education, and other forms of advocacy. Among the issues Wookie works on are the criminalization of poverty, bail reform, policing, reproductive freedom, gender equity, and freedom of expression.

Before joining the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, Wookie was an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP in Washington, D.C., where he litigated high-stakes business disputes involving things like advanced high strength steel, table saw safety technology, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. While there, Wookie also maintained an active pro bono practice, including representing undocumented Latino immigrants in challenging a landlord’s discriminatory rental practices under the Fair Housing Act. Wookie also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Wookie and his wife currently live in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. In his free time, Wookie trains for and competes in 100-mile trail races, surfs in Waikiki, and otherwise takes advantage of the many opportunities for outdoor exploration in Hawaiʻi.

Timestamp

1:03 - Introductions

3:07 - American Boarding school vs International schools, deciding to leave the international school scene for America

7:22 - Challenges of settling into American boarding school as an international student

13:34 - Deciding to work for Teach for America after graduating from Yale

18:28 - Interest in equity and civil rights rooted from Yale years when studying Ethics-Politics-Economics (essentially, political philosophy)

22:28 - Harvard v Yale

26:20 - Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP - the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill case

29:12 - Digitization of documents in court cases

32:03 - Deciding to move out "West" a shift to Hawaii and the ACLU - and the effects of a near-death coma experience in Colorado

42:10 - Going from a coma in July to a 100K race in December - a miraculous recovery

45:45 - the logistics of running a 29-hour race

51:28 - the ACLU - the most recent case he is working on in Hawaii

55:41 - the ACLU - prison reform and justice reform

59:43 - What is to come

Natasha Kostek (ASIJ 2004) @ New York,

Natasha joined the ASIJ community in 2000 and spent all four of her formative high school years there. Growing up as a first-generation Brazilian-American in a homogeneous Connecticut suburb, Natasha had often felt stymied. When she moved to Japan, she found home; she learned how to become a scholar and a world citizen. Reflecting back on her education at ASIJ, she feels privileged to have learned from such passionate teachers. Teachers who impacted her greatly are Javier Fernandez and Chaiken of Bio, with whom she is still in contact.  

Natasha’s experience as a third culture kid has guided many of her personal, professional, and academic decisions. It guided her to move to New York, one of the most heterogeneous metropolises in the United States; to jump at the opportunity live in Brazil as a finance headhunter covering the Latin American region, and to apply to her current doctoral program’s bilingual track to receive training in nondiscriminatory assessment and therapeutic practices.  

Natasha is presently a fourth-year doctoral School Psychology student at St. John’s University in Queens, NY, USA. Within this doctor of psychology (Psy.D.) program, her responsibilities have been multifaceted: coursework, teaching, clinical work, research, and leadership. The marriage of her doctoral training and multicultural background has reinforced her commitment to advocacy work and cultural sensitivity in the therapeutic context.  Natasha is passionate about mentoring high school and college-aged students and welcomes contact about pursuing training in the field of mental health. For targeted resources, see the Doctoral Application Resources folder located on her website: www.natashakostek.com/documents ​

Episode Summary

Ben Carr (ASIJ 2007)

Episode Summary

Timestamps

Karuna Shinsho (ASIJ 1986)

Hugh McGuire (ASIJ 2020)

Episode Summary

Nancy Kroonenberg (ASIJ High School Assistant Principal 1996-2013)

Episode Summary

Interlude episode  

Miguel Gen Ortiz-Cañavate Ozeki (St. Mary's 2009)   

Bruno Kenji Ortiz-Cañavate Ozeki (St. Marys 2011)  

Episode Summary

Michael Thornton (ASIJ 2006)

Michael Thornton is a historian of early-modern and modern Japan, with a particular interest in urban history. In his dissertation, “Settling Sapporo: City and State in the Global Nineteenth Century,” he analyzed the planning and construction of Sapporo across the nineteenth century. He argued that the city was built as a settler-colonial capital, playing an instrumental role in the Japanese colonization of Hokkaido. The city was in turn heavily shaped by its colonial position and functions.  ​More broadly, Thornton is interested in the transformation of Japanese cities between the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, including the development of new forms of social and political organization and municipal administration, with an eye to lessons that the rest of the world might learn from one of the planet’s most urbanized societies.  Thornton grew up in Kobe and Tokyo before attending Yale, where he received a BA in History in 2010.

Episode Summary

Frank Streigl (St. Marys 2002)

Frank is the owner at Finom Inc., operating the brands Tokyo Ramen Tours and 5 AM Ramen.  Essentially, he has one of the best jobs in the world. He eats ramen for a living.  After St. Mary's, he majored in Sociology and minored in Law at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. His first job was in Tokyo, where he worked as a Nikkei stockbroker. After finance, he found himself working in tech, chiefly in sales and business development roles. From this point onward he would continue to work in sales, including at the online booking website Agoda.  ​In January of 2018, he started offering ramen tours to inbound tourists, immersing himself in the world of ramen full-time.   

Tokyo Ramen Tours https://www.tokyoramentours.com/

Episode summary

Harukiya - Ogibukubo Station

Taishoken - Eifukucho Station

Tanaka Shouten - Rokucho Station

Santora - Edogawaa Station