Tokyo Alumni Podcast

Robin Lewis (ASIJ 2006) ​​

Robin is the Co-founder of mymizu - an award-winning initiative to reduce consumption of single-use plastics.  He is also the Co-founder & Director of Social Innovation Japan - a platform for social good focusing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals - and is a Consultant at the World Bank (Climate Change Group).  He has 10 years’ experience working with inter-governmental organisations, social enterprises and NGOs, and has managed humanitarian operations in countries such as Haiti, Nepal, Vanuatu and Mozambique.  ​In 2017, he took on a sponsored expedition, walking 600+km along Japan’s disaster-affected coastline to document the recovery from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. Robin is a Board Member of the Shibuya QWS Innovation Council and graduated with an M.A. in International Business from the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Timestamps

Websites MyMizu - https://www.mymizu.co/home-en

Episode 46 (Episode 45 delayed to next week)

Anna Novic (St. Maur 2008)

International Educator / Writer / Runner

Anna was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1989 to a US Navy family.  After spending the first 18-months of her life between Seoul and Vermont, her family moved (back) to Japan (her family had lived there before she was born) in 1992.

Following in her two older brothers’ footsteps, Anna attended local Japanese public school from Kindergarten through ninth grade. After finishing junior high, Anna’s mother, a professor at Keisen Women’s University in Machida, took a sabbatical to North Wales, where Anna experienced her first school with English instruction. By the time she got over the culture shock a year later, it was time to return to Japan. She attended Saint Maur International school from 2005-2008.  She attended Harvard (C’2013), where she studied Sociology and Psychology. She completed the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program and has a Massachusetts teaching license in Biology.

In high school, Anna was best known for her academic and running career. She broke the Tama Hills Girls’ cross country record 2007 (it has since been broken, and rebroken…). At Harvard, Anna competed for the Greater Boston Track Club, setting personal bests in the 5k (17:53), 10k (37:30), half marathon (1:23:05) and the marathon (2:56:23).

Anna returned to Japan in 2013 and has been teaching IB Biology and General Science at Saint Maur ever since. She is also a member of the college guidance team and coaches cross country. She has been a bilingual IB examiner since 2016.

Outside of education, Anna works as a translator, researcher, and writer. She is working on a novel, which she hopes to finish before she is 80.

She lives in Hayama with her two cats, dog, and partner. She continues to train and race competitively with the hope of running an Olympic Trials Qualifier (2:45:00).

Episode Summary

0:43 - Introduction

2:50 - Annas Book

5:27 - Maintaining a high level of writing in both English and Japanese

13:35 - Attending a Japanese public school and being the only "Yankee" at a school in Wales

24:50 - How Anna as an educator sees her experience as a student affect her management of a heterogeneous classroom

34:35 - Tama Hills, Olympic Trials Time and  Kanto Plains Cross Country with the St. Maur Cross Country Team

51:44 - The IB program

1:04:40 - Anna and St. Maur

1:10:30 - What is to come in Annas life in the next few years

DJ Taku Takahashi (member of M-Flo) (St. Marys 1993)

Time Stamps

Steven Lobianco (Former ASIJ Faculty 1998-2013)

Time Stamps

Kari Kohl (ASIJ 1986) ​​

Kari Kohl was raised by an IBM family in and around Westchester County, NY and Paris, France.  She came to Tokyo in 1984. She then stayed in Tokyo for a year and enrolled in Sophia University’s Intensive Japanese Language program.  Kari then returned to the US where she graduated from Princeton University in 1992 with a BA in Modern East Asian History with minors in Women’s Studies and Teacher Preparation.   She taught third grade in public New Jersey schools for 4 years, and then enrolled in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and married David Kohl.  While earning her Masters Degree, she started her family, and quickly realized that she would not be able to devote herself 100% to both her family and a new career, and she decided to stay home with her children. During the next 13 years, she tutored, wrote curriculum for the New York Times, and became a volunteer breastfeeding counselor with La Leche League International.   It was during this time that she found her calling, wanting to empower women to know and feel comfortable with their bodies, and she started her journey to becoming a midwife. She graduated from Westchester Community College with her RN license in 2012, worked in Labor and Delivery for several years, and then earned her Masters in Midwifery and her CNM license from Frontier Nursing University in 2017. Since 2018, she has been working for Planned Parenthood in New Rochelle, NY, caring for women at all stages of life.  Her daughter, Alexandra, graduated from Brown University via Zoom this past May, and her son Ben begins college at Northeastern University this Fall.  

Summary Timestamps

Ahmad Shiina (St. Marys 2005) CTO and Head of Products at Timers inc  

Summary

Taka Kaneko - MC

Takas Youtube Channel

Takas Tik Tok Link

0:00 - Taka on TikTok

Rafai Eddy (ASIJ 2007) Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality Design

Episode Summary

Episode Summary

藤岡先生は渋谷区原宿で生まれ、大学卒業後東洋大学京北中学高等学校で教師 生活をスタートした。６年間後、ASIJの中等部日本語科専任教諭として奉職 することに。在職中は７年生と８年生の担任としてアウトドアエデュケーショナル プログラム（鳩ノ巣、三宅島、北海道・長野・苗場スキー旅行、広島旅行、伊豆旅行） の企画立案及び引率に従事する。また、冬季シーズンのバスケットボール部、春季シーズン のベースボール部のコーチを１７年間務め、数多くのASIJアスリートを育て上げた。 大病を患った母親を看病するためにASIJ を退職後、２年間家業の不動産業を継ぎながら 介護生活をおくる。その後、東洋大学〜東京都教育委員会などに奉職し、現在は 都立一貫校で教鞭を執る。 Riki Fujioka (ASIJ 2018) の父である。  

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ーイントロ 0:05

Raymond Wong (SMIS 1985)

Episode Summary