BAB September 2009

Being A Broad September 2009 #48

The monthly magazine for international women living in Japan

our cover girl: Janette Dillerstone preparing to LEAVE JAPAN ENVISIONING the future with THE 17s PROJECT

settling in with WELCOME FUROSHIKI pre- and post-natal YOGA with FURLA

helping to CLEAN KUGANUMA beach

help do your bit to FIND LINDSAY ANN HAWKER’S KILLER with our pullout poster

how to buy a BRA in JAPAN...and ENJOY IT! Gabbi Bradshaw RUNS FOR THE CURE

www.being-a-broad.com

IN THIS

ISS U E 4

6 We’ve just started to put the magazines online so please do check out the back issues at www. being-a-broad.com and let us know what you think!

In this issue Gabbi Bradshaw is preparing for Breast Cancer Awareness Month next month by participating in the Run for the Cure on page ten, and check out the ‘lettuce ladies’ on page 12! Caroline Parsons writes about her fascinating project with teenagers, and after many years of seeing Traci Consoli’s creative endeavours it’s great to read her profile in this issue. Plus there’s lots more!

And on page 19, our very own Amy Dose, a truly special member of our BAB family, talks about her activities and feelings as she prepares to leave Japan. We will really miss you Amy, and wish you all the very best!

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being a broad news

image: Kerry Raftis/www.keyshots.com

image: David Stetson

message from the founder BAB events, Welcome Furoshiki

our cover girl Wakabayashi LLC’s Janette Dillerstone

women of the world news from around the globe

things we love small but significant—things we love in Japan

beauty

Boudoir’s tips for beautiful skin

running for the cure...and a cousin

10 Tokyo girl

image: Shana Graves

6 our cover girl

11 arts

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create your own yachimun

food and dining tips for living as a vegetarian in Japan

13 fashion

Enjoy!

Caroline Pover BAB Founder

finding lingerie—that fits—in Japan

14 working

we profile Traci Consoli of The Pink Cow

15 pullout poster

the broads (and boys!)

13 fashion

BAB supports Lindsay Ann Hawker’s family

19 real-life story

preparing to leave Japan

looking to the future with The 17s Project

image provided by Malinda and Kenji.

Publishers Caroline Pover & Emily Downey Editor & Designer Danielle Tate-Stratton Marketing Consultant Amy Dose Marketing, Sales & Distribution Consultant Sarah Baker Advertisement Designer Chris May BAB reps Kelsey Aguirre (Shonan) kelsey@being-a-broad.com Shaney Crawford (Tsukuba) shaney@being-a-broad.com Aiko Miyagi (Okinawa) aiko@being-a-broad.com Aurora Bonaiuto-Davi (Shizuoka) aurora@being-a-broad.com Contributors Gabbi Bradshaw, Marilyn Klein, Michelle May, Ulara Nakagawa, Shana Graves, Caroline Parsons, Saradia Hunnisett, Poppy Calvert, Dana Levy, Malinda Caudle Saito, Traci Consoli Cover Model Janette Dillerstone Cover Photographer Kerry Raftis, www.keyshots.com Cover Makeup Naomi Saito, Sin Den Proofreader Jane Farries Printing Mojo Print Opinions expressed by BAB contributors are not necessarily those of the Publishers.

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community • a Kugenuma beach clean up • supporting the Tyler Foundation’s therapy dogs

learning having your keitai help you learn Japanese

25 mothers

prenatal yoga with FURLA

the perfectly goofy couple

26 she found love in Japan

26 she found love in Japan

Being A Broad magazine, editor@being-a-broad.com www.being-a-broad.com tel. 03-5879-6825, fax: 03-6368-6191 Being A Broad September 2009

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BAB NEWS

BAB supports Lindsay Ann Hawker A quote from the BAB book: My name is Lindsay Ann Hawker

Finding a job: Before you get to Japan

I was murdered in March 2007 and buried in a bath of sand on the balcony of Tatsuya Ichihashi’s apartment in Tokyo.

Ichihashi escaped from the police and still has not been found. If you have any information that may lead to his arrest, please call the Japanese police on 047-397-0110.

Please help my family find peace.

Subscriptions

Being A Broad July 2009 #46

The monthly magazine for international women living in Japan

our cover girl: NUA JAPAN’s ErikA GilBErti rEis DE AqUiNo

s.z. cairney on the triAls of sUMMEr hot weather MAkEUP tiPs trailwalking for oXFAM JAPAN what it’s like to Work WitH sHriMP a broad in the boonies: tsUkUBA CitY tina burrett on JAPAN’s new lAY JUDGEs

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getting MArriED JAPAN-stYlE help do your bit to FiND liNDsAY ANN HAWkEr’s killEr with our pullout poster

www.being-a-broad.com Thanks for picking up this issue of Being A Broad. Like what you see? Then why not subscribe today? For just ¥4,500 you’ll get one year (12 issues) of Being A Broad delivered to your door. Email: editor@being-a-broad. com to subscribe today!

Plus, we now have the past six issues of BAB on our website and will be adding more soon. Check them out at www.being-abroad.com, and let us know what you think!

In March 2007, Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-yearold English teacher from the UK, was found buried in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Tatsuya Ichihashi’s apartment, after giving him a private lesson in a nearby coffee shop. Ichihashi escaped when police visited his apartment to investigate and has not been seen since.

As part of a recent effort to catch Ichihashi, the National Police Agency has introduced a new award of ¥10 million (previously only ¥1 million) for information concerning his whereabouts.

Based in the UK, it is so difficult for Lindsay’s family to maintain public awareness of the fact that Ichihashi is still missing—let those of us who live here do our best to help them.

Please help the Hawker family find Lindsay Ann’s killer with our pullout poster on pages 15–18.

Surgical and Medical Clinic • National Azabu • Segafredo

Kichijoji: • Shinzen Yoga Koto-ku: • Toho Women’s Clinic Chofu-shi: • American School in Japan Tsukuba: Through BAB Rep Shaney Shonan: Through BAB Rep Kelsey Okinawa: Through BAB Rep Aiko Shizuoka: Through BAB Rep Aurora

• Tokyo American Club • Nissin World Delicatessen

(To contact your local BAB Rep for a copy, simply send them

• Crown Relocations • Temple University • Hulabootie

an email, all contact details are on page three.)

You can pick BAB up at the following locations: Shibuya-ku: • British School Tokyo • Boudoir • Tower Records • Sin Den • Furla Yoga

Minato-ku: • Suji’s • Nakashima Dentist • TELL • Nishimachi International School • Gymboree • Global Kids Academy • Mitsubishi UFJ Azabujuban • Tokyo

If the company that you work for at home has connections with Japan—a branch, subsidiary company, or ‘sister’ company—ensure that your superiors know that you are keen to go to Japan. Many of your colleagues would also probably like the opportunity to go to Japan, so the competition will be high and you may need to be patient. It’s even possible that you will be sent elsewhere overseas. Alternatively, you can search for a job yourself; many Japanese and foreign companies operating in Japan recruit overseas. Recruiting overseas attracts more applicants than recruiting in Japan, so again the competition will be high. Check out magazines, newspapers, and the internet. The great advantage to securing your job before you get to Japan is that your employer will organise practically everything: visa, flight, accommodation, insurance, Japanese lessons (probably), a relocation allowance, child care/education arrangements if applicable, and a car, too.

After arriving in Japan

If you rather enjoy taking financial and emotional risks, then you can turn up in Japan and look for a job whilst on a tourist visa. This option is not for the faint-hearted; it’s stressful, but incredibly exciting and challenging! You need stamina, a constant positive mental attitude, persistence, and money.

You need enough stamina to look for a job while you are looking for accommodation, rushing around on trains, and getting over jet lag. You need a constant positive mental attitude to be friendly to all the people you are meeting who may well lead you to the perfect job. You need persistence because you will spend a lot of time on the phone following up job leads. You need money for your flight, accommodation, food, and expenses until you get paid, which may be about a month after you start your job. Remember that in most cases you will be unable to start working until you have the right visa. You need enough money to keep yourself going for about three months, but bring as much as you can.

Please note: the BAB book is currently being reprinted. To reserve your copy, please email info@ being-a-broad.com. They will be released soon.

FEATURED COMMUNITY GROUP:

WELCOME FUROSHIKI

by Michelle May

Michelle, all ready to welcome new arrivals to Japan. image provided by Welcome Furoshiki

nspired by the ‘welcome wagon’ from the frontier Igreeting days...Welcome Furoshiki offers a warm and friendly to foreign residents living in Japan.

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nationalities and language capabilities who understand what it is like to live in a new country; others are Japanese who also have had international experiences that enable them to understand the needs of newcomers. All Welcome Furoshiki representatives have lived in Japan for a minimum of two or more years, so they can answer most questions newcomers may have about Japan and their new community.

As a veteran international traveller, Michelle May, director of Welcome Furoshiki in Tokyo, knows that familiarising yourself with your surroundings is key to a successful transition. “We all remember what it’s like to be new and if we can give a sense of belonging and a warm welcome to those just arriving, we can make the adjustment to a new home just a little bit easier.” After four international moves with kids, spanning the globe from Europe to the Middle East, May offers the following advice to newcomers: “Get involved!

The more activities, clubs, and organisations you jump into, the more people you will meet and very quickly you will find out where you want to direct your time and talents. You will quickly make friends who share those common interests.

By reaching out, joining others, and sharing feelings about your new home, you can connect with people and start to feel like you belong in your new surroundings.”

Welcome Furoshiki was founded 25 years ago by Charlotte Kennedy Takahashi, the president of Oak Associates, when she moved to Japan and was dismayed that there was no wel-

coming service to help newcomers. Since that time, this free, nonprofit program has helped some 15,000 foreign residents and their families. “The needs change from visit to visit,” says Michelle, “but what doesn’t change is that newcomers need to connect and feel comfortable in their fresh surroundings and need tips for surviving in their new home. We look forward to welcoming our newest neighbours and their families to our community.”

Karen Pond, a recent representative for Welcome Furoshiki, remembers well her visit when she first arrived. “I was very grateful to receive the Welcome Furoshiki pack and happy to know that even in a huge metropolis like Tokyo you can still have the warm, small town feel where your neighbours genuinely care about your well-being and reach out with a helping hand.”

Welcome Furoshiki makes about 400 house calls per year in the Tokyo/Yokohama and Osaka/Kobe metropolitan areas. To request a free visit, please contact 03-5472-7074 in Kanto or 06BAB 6441-2584 in Kansai.

Featured event: BAB does Hakuba, September 26 and 27: Day One: 7:30am: Super Azusa from Shinjuku to Minami Otari (get off at Hakuba, second to last stop). 11:30am: Pick up at Hakuba station, shuttle to Evergreen Outdoor Center.

Canyoning sign in. Noon: Lunch at Roots Cafe.

12:30pm: Ready for canyoning. 1pm: Shuttle to canyon. 4pm: Finish canyoning. 4:30pm: Onsen. 5:30pm: Check in at hotel. 6:30pm: Dinner. 8pm: Wine party or massage or spa options (costs separate to package price).

Day Two: 7am: Wake up to fresh mountain

air and crystal water. 7:30am: Breakfast (Power foods smoothie). 8am: Walk to Matsukawa River. 8:30am: Yoga and meditation workshop at Matsukawa. 10:30am: Shuttle to Lake Aokiko.

11am: Begin canoeing on Lake Aokiko. Noon: Organic picnic lunch at the lake. 1:30pm: Finish canoeing. 2pm: Onsen. 2:50pm: Board Super Azusa back to Tokyo. 6:30pm: Arrive in Tokyo.

The package costs ¥31,500 for all shuttles in Hakuba, one night accommodation at the Phoenix Hotel, four meals, two onsen, one morning yoga/ meditation workshop, one half day canoe, one half day canyoning tour, sports insurance, sales tax, and

a whole lot of fun! Direct train access to Hakuba and return to Tokyo costs an approximate ¥13,000 on top of the price of the Hakuba package. You can sign up directly with Dave at Evergreen via tours@evergreen-outdoors. com or through Amy at amy@being-abroad.com. For more information, visit www. evergreen-hakuba.com.

Being A Broad September 2009

image: provided by Evergreen Outdoor Center

or a newcomer to Tokyo, the city is full of amazing sights, exciting sounds, delicious smells, and endless questions. Where do I buy food? How can I communicate? How do I meet friends? How do I get there from here?

Certainly, a sense of adventure is necessary to get started with life in a foreign city when just buying milk seems like an impossible feat. Also, as we foreigners quickly discover, a sense of humour is quite helpful, especially if you try to speak in Japanese and mistakenly introduce your husband (shujin) as your prisoner (shuujin). However, as foreign residents will attest, it is a sense of belonging that is the key to finding your way, becoming acclimated to your new community, and feeling welcome. This community connection is the goal of Welcome Furoshiki.

Inspired by the ‘welcome wagon’ from the frontier days, when settlers would greet and welcome passing pioneers with food and water, Welcome Furoshiki offers a warm and friendly greeting to foreign residents living in Japan. During a Welcome Furoshiki visit, representatives personally deliver the signature blue and white furoshiki (traditional Japanese wrapping cloth) filled with invaluable newcomer essentials such as maps, earthquake preparedness information, newspapers, English magazines, houses of worship information, medical and dental brochures, special offers, and a variety of flyers provided by sponsors. The volunteer representatives spend an hour explaining the items and answering questions. Representatives are expats of various

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our cover girl

JANETTE DILLERSTONE of Wakabayashi Fund, LLC, cover photography by Kerry Raftis

Full name: Janette Dillerstone Age: 44 Nationality: American Grew up in: Taiwan and Hong Kong Time in Japan: four years Japanese level: fluent Works at: Wakabayashi Fund LLC (CEO/ director/co-founder) and Wakabayashi Real Estate K.K. (CEO/co-founder/director) Why did you come to Japan?

My mother was Japanese; she passed away and, slowly, it helps me heal by reliving wonderful childhood memories.

Why do you stay in Japan?

I couldn’t find a more wonderful place to raise my daughter and to be with family members than here.

image: Kerry Raftis/www.keyshots.com

How do you manage to balance everything in your life?

An awful lot of coffee.

What do you do to relax?

Paint, draw, sculpt, write, read, fish, and, most of all, relax when spending time with my family. There is always sandalwood or frankincense incense lit, as well as diffusers around the office and home to make me relax. I work best with a lot of work around me and although hectic, it is my adrenaline. Every now and then I come out of the water for air and the smells from old Buddhist temples of sandalwood and the smells from Catholic churches of the frankincense relax me during work and at home.

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Best thing about being a foreign woman in Japan?

Although I am a foreign woman, I don’t feel it as I am partly Japanese. I love the culture, traditions, etiquette, and mannerisms of Japan and the Japanese. There is an innocence, decency, kindness, graciousness, pride, and respect for each other that we don’t see too often in other countries.

A Day in the Life: • Wake up around 5:30–6am.

•Take dogs out for a walk with Madeleine.

• Madeleine and I go up to the top floor for a cup of coffee and breakfast.

• Madeleine and I shower and she gets ready for school; I get ready for work.

• Work from around 9am to nearly 8pm.

• Prepare dinner for my family.

• After dinner relax for a bit with the family and go to bed.

• Work on the laptop until I am drowsy…

couldn’t find a more wonderful place to raise my daughter and to be with family Imembers than here.

WOMEN OF THE WORLD

compiled by Danielle Tate-Stratton

image: iStockphoto.com/ Birgitte Magnus

The controversial Shia personal status law in Afghanistan has been made official following a three-month review of the initial—controversial— law. The law apply only to the 10–20 percent of the population that is Shia, and includes allowances for men to withhold food and other basics from their wives if they refuse to have sex, requires a man’s permission for wives to work, and gives guardianship to fathers and grandfathers only.

Taiwan’s Organic Laws and Statutes Bureau has released a report detailing suggested changes to the country’s abortion laws, which would give women more control over their bodies. Currently, with very few exceptions, women must get spousal permission (or parental permission if under 20) to get an abortion. The new rules would allow adults to get an abortion without spousal permission, as well as allowing girls 18 and 19 to have an abortion without parental permission.

image: World Economic Forum

A recently released report in Asia showed that approximately 50 million women are at risk of becoming infected with HIV/AIDS as a result of risky behaviour by their partners. The same study showed that of the women infected with HIV in Asia, some 90 percent were in committed, supposedly monogamous relationships, and had partners who participated in intravenous drug use or other high-risk behaviours, eventually passing the virus on to their partners.

Forbes, which recently released its annual list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, has listed German Chancellor Angela Merkel in top spot, for the fourth year in a row. The list ranks women according to career accomplishments, economic influence, and public profile. American women made up 63 percent of the list, which included Oprah (ranked 41st) and Hillary Clinton (36th), as well as the pictured Queen Rania of Jordan (75th).

image: CharlesFred

Women’s boxing will become an Olympic sport in London 2012, a decision that means that for the first time, every sport in the summer Olympics will have both a male and female division, although there are still far more medals for men than women.

The Danish Conservative Party is proposing a ban on both the burqa and niqab, both conservative head-to-toe styles of dress worn by Muslim women. Some politicians criticised the styles of attire as being oppressive to women and unDanish. In a poll, 56 percent of Danes supported the ban, while 30 percent were against it.

image: Janet Munson

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently announced that he will be appointing three women to Iran’s cabinet, including a new health minister and minister of social welfare, as well as one as yet undecided position. They will be the first women appointed to cabinet since Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Muriel Duckworth, the founder of Canada’s first women’s peace organisation, died recently at age 100. She was known for saying: “WAR IS STUPID! Only love can save the world,” as well as for being a founding member of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.

New York Governor David Paterson has promised to sign a bill that would prohibit incarcerated women from being shackled while giving birth in prison, stating that he was hoping to stop inhumane behaviour and ensure the safety of the newborn babies.

A first of its kind adventure in Orissa, India has ended after seven days, with four adventuresome girls travelling over 290 kilometres downriver, on a raft. The all-girls adventure was organised to encourage women to raft, as well as increase the number of foreign tourists to the area.

A study done by the Kellogg School of Management in the US suggests that women with higher levels of testosterone may be more likely to choose high-risk careers in the financial sector.

The study was conducted with 500 Chicagobased MBA students and looked at both risk aversion and testosterone levels, and found that women were more risk-averse than men, though those with similar levels of testosterone were similarly risk-averse, regardless of gender.

Japan’s late-August elections saw women win a record number of seats in the Diet: 54. However, despite that encouraging news, women still rank below most other developed countries in terms of political representation, at just 11 percent. The victorious party was the Opposition Democratic Party, which beat the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a historic defeat.

Police in the area of Naples, Italy are reporting an increase in the number of females holding highlevel positions in the mob. Often, they are wives or mothers of mobsters either killed or jailed, and end up holding the reins of the operation.

The police have been quoted as saying they are sharper than the men in terms of strategy—and just as ruthless.

A judge in Oklahoma struck down a bill related to abortions that would have forced women to have both an ultrasound and description of the fetus from a doctor before being allowed to undergo the procedure. The law had several ambiguous sections, and fear of unknowingly breaking a law was also tipped to cause the closure of the state’s three abortion clinics, had it passed.

A court in the Netherlands has ruled that 13-year-old Laura Dekker will not be allowed to attempt a solo sail around the world on her 26-foot boat, Guppy. The girl, who was born on a boat and has been sailing for her entire life, planned to take the boat around the world in 2011. Her parents supported her decision, but the courts have ruled against her being able to sail, and taken her into BAB temporary custody as well.

Being A Broad September 2009

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THE LITTLE THINGS

WE LOVE IN JAPAN

d. BAB Rep Kelsey shares: I’ve had a lot of good curry here in Japan, but my favourite place by far is SurfGeek in Kinugasa, Kanagawa-ken.

About an eight-minute walk from the JR Kinugasa train station, Surfgeek has perfectly-sized portions of Chicken, Teximexi Keema, and Beef Curry with arroz rice and salad. A filling meal is about ¥850 and afterwards you can check out their surfing goods in the adjacent shop. Magazines, wax, and even boards are available for sale. The shop staff are super friendly and everything is cooked to order.—KA

a.

c.

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e. I love the sound of Ritz’n, the vegetarian restaurant mentioned in the ‘broad in the boonies’ section of the July 2009 issue of BAB. Run entirely by women, the store follows macrobiotic principles and avoids the use of eggs, butter, milk, processed sugar, meat, or fish. There is also a natural foods shop alongside the store, and they also host regular workshops on a variety of topics from shiatsu massage to art therapy, encouraging even non-Japanese speakers to join in the fun and learning. For more information about the restaurant, shop, and classes, visit www.ritzn.jp/eg-index.html.—LW Do you have a ‘little thing you love in Japan?’ If the answer is yes, email 50– 150 words about it, and a picture, to: editor@being-a-broad.com so we can share it with all the other broads reading BAB.

image: Ritz’n

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image: Shaney Crawford

c. BAB Rep Shaney suggests: Think you have to go all the way to one of the IKEA shops in Tokyo to get your fix of Swedish things? Think again!

Tsukuba has Blomster Anna (www.blomsteranna.com), a cute little shop where you can buy beautiful cut flower bouquets, stunning potted arrangements, and Swedish knickknacks for your house and garden. The owners are Setsuji and his Swedish wife Anna and the shop has been open for about a year now. I love going there to see the latest offerings and to ask Setsuji for advice about my long-suffering plants. (I always over-water my succulents!) If you go, be sure to say hi to Momo-chan, the wire-haired dachshund who is the real boss of the place. (She even has a name tag.)

Blomster Anna is located on Higashi Odori, just south of Minami Odori. Tell them Shaney sent you! Plus, you don’t even need to come to Tsukuba to get your Sweden fix, since Blomster Anna has started an online shop (www. rakuten.co.jp/blomsteranna), though unfortunately only in Japanese so far.—SC

image: Kelsey Aguirre

b. Newcomers to Japan will be happy to hear about the Tokyo American Club Women’s Group’s Tokyo Here and How seminar coming October 6–8 from 8:30am–2:30pm daily. The three-day seminar teaches newcomers all about life in Tokyo, from its arts, natural beauty, history, and cuisine, to its language. The event also includes breakfast and lunch and an evening party, to which one guest is also welcome. Childcare is available at the club for an additional fee. Registration for the event (¥28,000 members, ¥30,000 non-members) is open through October 1. For more information, tel. 03-4588-0691. To register, do so in person via the Member Services Desk (1F) or online at wg@tac-club.org.

image: Aiko Miyagi

a. BAB Rep Aiko suggests: I love taro pies! Some of my American friends have been squeamish about trying purple food, but let me tell you, Okinawan taro pies are worth being a little adventurous for. You can get the most common brand, Porushe, in underground Yokohama Station at the little Okinawan shop near Sogo, or if you come to Okinawa you can try all of the other delectable variations made by local bakeries. (I’ll be happy to provide recommendations!)—AM

e.

FACE

by Marilyn Klein

With summer winding to a close, Boudoir Day Spa’s Marilyn Klein offers tips for keeping your skin healthy and your face looking its best amidst the busy lifestyle that often comes with living in Japan.

eyebrow frames the eyes and can also give them an instant lift!

Awell-groomed

W

hether you wish to treat acne blemishes or to restore natural beauty to your skin, glycolic acid peels provide a safe and effective opportunity to smooth, beautify, and rejuvenate.

Concentrations of glycolic acid can reach up to 50 percent, which gives you a chance to decide the strength of the glycolic acid peel you use. Typical glycolic acid peel procedures involve weekly facial peels for up to six weeks. When used in skin care products, glycolic acid is a natural exfoliant and moisturiser. It is the high acidity of glycolic acid that results in its excellent exfoliant properties.

When applied to the skin, glycolic acid penetrates below the superficial layers of skin and breaks up the ‘glue’ that holds these dead skin cells together. Once the superficial skin layers have been broken up, they can be removed, leaving a softer, smoother layer of skin beneath. Glycolic acid also draws moisturisers into the skin. Many cosmetics product lines offer a complete skin care system. Skin care systems ensure that the effects of

image: istockphoto.com/Kateryna Govorushchenko

glycolic acid reach their full potential, as well as neutralising the corrosive potential of glycolic acid on the skin.

Glycolic Acid for Acne: When using glycolic acid for daily skin care routines, it is often combined with salicylic acid.

While glycolic acid breaks up dead skin cells, salicylic acid encourages their removal from your skin’s surface, opening pores, and leaving skin feeling smooth and revitalised. Glycolic acid makes skin more sensitive to sunburn, so application of glycolic acid should always be followed up with sunscreen. If you are concerned about acne, make sure you choose a sunscreen that is ‘noncomedogenic’ and oil-free.

At Boudoir Day Spa, the glycolic acid peels contain glycolic acid in a concentration of 20 percent. Immediately following a glycolic acid peel, your skin will look radiant and fresh. All facial treatments commence with a glycolic acid peel by Mayerling Skin Renewal Systems.

• When grooming your brows, fill in colour with a pencil or powder. It’s best to choose a colour that is slightly darker than your natural hair colour and feather it in the direction of your growth. Then brush over with a clean, dry toothbrush, and you’re ready to go!

What to do if…

• Your brows are unruly, then you should never clip or trim your brows; leave that job to a professional.

To keep them in place, use an eyebrow gel or hair gel. Don’t over use the product. One coat is enough.

• If you have over-plucked your brows, the best thing to do is to just let them grow back.

Sometimes brows never grow back, in which case Boudoir suggests permanent makeup. Make sure you find a reputable artist and ask to see photos of his or her work. If you don’t do your research, you may regret it, as tattoos last forever.

image: istockphoto.com/Neustockimages

How to get a WOW brow: A shaped eyebrow can transform your face from plain to fabulous! A well-groomed eyebrow frames the eyes and can also give them an instant lift! The perfect shape is the one you were born with. Basically, most people suit a thick, full brow. Never follow trends, but always keep your brows natural and groomed.

Thinner brows look harsh. The inner part of the brow should begin at the top of the nose; the arch should start at the outer edge of your cornea and then taper off, finishing at the end of your eyes.

Three steps to a perfect brow: • Come into Boudoir and have one of our professionals give you the perfect arch. You can then follow this shape at home. If you have a paler brow or any gaps, we suggest getting a brow tint, which works as a perfect base to groom and perfect your arches.

• Pluck away re-growth weekly. You’ll need to make sure you pluck in a bright light. Be sure to pluck the hair underneath, that’s the re-growth. If you’re not sure about a hair, then leave it there. Always use a good set of tweezers and follow the shape given by your Boudoir brow artist.

beauty

ABOUT

Book any of Boudoir’s wonderful facial treatments and receive ¥12,390 worth of beauty treatments and products, FREE. Treat your skin to a Deep Cleansing Mayerling Facial (¥18,270), two-hour Guinot Hydradermie Lift Facial (¥20,800), or the Rescue Remedy Booster Facial (¥14,910), and you’ll receive a free shape and paint of fingernails and toenails, and a therapist will shape and arch your eyebrows to perfection!

Boudoir Day Spa facials are a fabulous solution to maintaining a radiant complexion and fabulous skin.

You will also receive, for free: • Shape and paint of fingernails (¥2,205).

• Shape and paint toenails (¥2,835).

• Eye brow shape (¥3,675).

Plus, the first 20 people will receive a complimentary bottle of Guinot Gommage Facile. This wonderful body scrub, valued at ¥3,675, will freshen the skin while removing impurities and smoothing the surface.

For more information about any of the techniques mentioned above, or to book a beauty service with a bilingual technician, tel. 03-3478-5898 or visit www. boudoirtokyo.com.

Being A Broad September 2009

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Tokyo girl image: iStockphoto/Christopher Nuzzaco

by Gabbi Bradshaw

S

weat drips between my boobs. I fold over at the waist, take deep breaths that fill my lungs, and concentrate on not passing out. My body glistens with the hard work of an August run.

Why am I doing this to myself? It is so hot the children are silenced. It is so hot the swimming pool at the bottom of the slide is empty. It is so hot there are no other runners.

I glance up and see an oasis in the shape of a green mermaid in the distance. I wipe the sweat from under my eyes, but there is nothing but the dirt path through Hanegi Park.

Do I have enough energy to run the stairs today? At the bottom, I look at the six flights of stairs with contempt. I should not have had that second glass of pinot noir last night. I feel deflated. Defeated.

But then I remember the message my cousin Tonia posted on her blog.

“Wow! Really? Cancer, again? It doesn’t seem real at all. Life has once again changed and the realisation of just how vulnerable we all are is once again upon us.”

It’s back. Breast cancer. First diagnosed at 29, she is now 32 and in her second round of cancer.

I feel guilty. My double Ds are heavy and obnoxious, but healthy. I used to think that I wanted to ‘chop chop,’ but now I think about my young cousin and how she didn’t have a choice.

And neither do many others.

Tonia was originally diagnosed with breast cancer just before her 30th birthday in October 2006. She created a CaringBridge site (www. caringbridge.org) to keep us all close to her regardless of where we were. I was in Nepal. She was in Colorado.

November 6, 2006. “I should have guessed that today was going to be a bad day when I cried in the shower trying to wash my hair. For the first time since my diagnosis, I’m very, very angry. I have always been independent and now I

Runners in a previous Run for the Cure around the Imperial Palace. image: Gen Kanai

10

PINK

am having to ask for help and it’s just very hard.”

November 12, 2006. “I’m nervous about how sick I may get. I have been able to laugh and joke about losing my hair, but honestly, I’m pissed about that.”

December 26, 2006. “We are halfway done!

Yippee…what a great feeling.”

August 24, 2007. “It’s official…my path report came back benign—I am 100 percent CANCER FREE!” Last year when I ran the Run for the Cure 5k around the Imperial Palace, Tonia was cancer free. This year, I am training for a 10k in honour of Round Two. April 28, 2009. “I have grown so much since the last time I went down this path. I was blind, scared, and didn’t know what to expect, but this time I am armed with the knowledge of what lies ahead and the anger I feel is frightening. But that is good. I’m ready for the fight.” It is a global fight. As reported on www.runforthecure.org, a case of breast cancer is diagnosed every 29 seconds and a woman dies from breast cancer every 75 seconds

Today, I run the stairs. For Tonia.

worldwide. In my 45-minute run, 36 women will have died from breast cancer. Thirty-six mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, wives, and cousins.

“This will be my second time around fighting this evil disease, but my desire, strength, and determination is even greater than before and I will fight!

I am stronger, have more knowledge, and I know what it takes. It may think that it will win this time, but I never back down from a challenge and I will be declared the winner once again!”

Winning is everything. Six flights. I take a deep breath, hold my hand weights tightly, and think of Tonia. Of her battle. Of her words.

“Don’t live the rest of your life, live for today— because what we may think is the rest of our lives to do something might only be tomorrow.”

BAB Today, I run the stairs. For Tonia.

Get involved: You can run or walk the sixth Run for the Cure®/Walk for Life around the Imperial Palace on Saturday October 17 at 9am.

Register online at www.runforthecure. org/events/index_en.html or on the morning of the race.

Last year, over 1,000 participants raised over ¥6,700,000 and supported over 4,000 mammograms for under-served Japanese women.

If you register and pay the ¥5,000 donation by midnight on October 7, you may be eligible for one of 30 free mammogram screenings.

If dancing is more your thing, save a seat for the Pink Ball 2009 held on Friday, October 30.

Lastly, check out www.caringbridge.org for “free, personalised websites that support and connect loved ones during critical illness, treatment, and recovery.” It has kept me close to Tonia while living in Tokyo.

POTTERY

arts

CREATING

by Aiko Miyagi

all images provided by Aiko Miyagi.

One of Aiko’s creations: Kimi wo mamoru kame.

C

alling all art lovers: next time you’re in Okinawa, skip the shiisa making and try your hand at some real yachimun (pottery) for a fraction of the price.

I’ve been sculpting since my mom gave me my first set of oven-bake clay for my ninth birthday.

In hopes of learning a few techniques from the masters here in Japan, I visited Seto and Okayama, towns famous for yakimono (also pottery), where my host families kindly arranged for me to take part in several taiken (experimental) sessions.

They were fun, for sure, but I was always a little disappointed at the amount of clay being so small or so expensive, or at being given a limited amount of time to work, or at not getting to choose how I wanted my piece fired or glazed. Ironically, the supposed yakimono hub towns seemed to cater mainly to one-time tourists, and I found that the foreigner-friendly Jindaiji Temple near Kichijoji was far closer to what I expected from a sculptor’s workshop: the clay was still expensive, so you were generally limited to a fist-sized amount, but they let you spend as much time as you needed playing with it and perfecting your piece and then called you when your piece was ready to be glazed so you could go back and at least choose the colours yourself. After my initial visit on a field trip with a group of fellow exchange students from California, Jindaiji became my main pottery outlet while I lived in Tokyo. But when I moved to Okinawa, it was back to the drawing board.

Okinawa is also renowned for yakimono, or yachimun as we call it here—anyone who has read a guidebook or tourist magazine on Okinawa probably knows that making a shiisa, the lion-dog guardian of Okinawan homes, is a popular tourist attraction. My husband Rody took me to several more taiken lessons where we paid top yen to share a tiny lump of clay between us and leave the finishing to the shops, who never bothered to teach us anything about the firing or glazing processes. I asked if they knew a place where people who were interested in making pottery

Nick, Aiko, and Rody at the kiln site.

on a regular basis could afford to frequent on a local salary, but they were always very vague and rather condescending, saying you generally had to be a professional to be accepted at a real pottery workshop (and being from another country probably didn’t make me look any more ‘professional’ to them). I had given up on making pottery for nearly a year when Global Village, a cultural school promoting international friendship, introduced me to Sentorayaki.

Nick, who moved to mainland Japan from California ten years ago and has lived in Okinawa for the past three, was an artist who had the same frustration as I did with high-priced, cookie-cutter, touristy yakimono workshops until he created Sentorayaki. “There was nowhere that people, especially foreigners, who wanted to make pottery on a regular basis could go and make things just the way they wanted them— you made things the way the workers at the shop told you to make them. That’s craft, not art,” he recalls. “So I made a place where people could just come and make pottery or hang out or whatever, at their own pace.” To do so, he had to move to a lodge up on a hill deep in the jungles of northern Okinawa, with no internet and limited cell phone reception—but he’s free to do what he loves every day. He earns a living by teaching classes in both English and Japanese in addition to selling and exhibiting his own work, and among his main customers are military wives who are interested in Japanese pottery, but don’t speak enough Japanese to take the taiken lessons at the local workshops.

Nick charges a fee to first-time customers comparable to that of the yakimono workshops in town but gives them a good-sized block of clay (one kilogram, or enough to make several dishes and an animal sculpture or two) and lets them remain in the workshop for as long as they wish. After that, customers have the option of purchasing a hobby membership, where they pay for space in the kiln each firing period and buy

clay at cost (¥100 per kilogram, or nearly 1/60th of the price they would pay anywhere else).

Another unique thing about Sentorayaki is that artists are allowed to be involved in every part of the ceramic-making process, including firing their own pieces. Since pieces may take on an ashy or glossy look depending on where they are in the kiln, it’s important for artists to have a say in where their pieces go. Nick is happy to share his knowledge on firing and glazing methods, showing samples and pictures in the many yakimono books he has on hand to help artists decide what techniques to use to get a piece to look exactly as they envisioned it when it is finished. The second time Rody and I visited, Nick drove us to another artist’s house to see the kiln where some of the pieces from the Global Village group were being fired. It was an amazing experience—in 15 years of calling myself a sculptor, I had never witnessed a kiln firing before.

In fact, I hadn’t even realised there were different kinds of kilns: gas, electric, and woodburning. Most of Nick’s work (and his students’ work) is fired in a wood-burning kiln because it provides the most natural-looking finish. Until now, he has been using space in the kilns of other artists who live nearby, but this year he is in the process of building his own, and has asked Rody and me to help. We’ll be spending the long weekend in September camping in Nago with others (a diverse group of Japanese and foreign men and women) who have volunteered to take part in the building.

Sentorayaki provides the most unique, relaxed, and authentic environment I have found in Japan for learning everything one could want to know about yakimono. It has become my favourite place in the world to go when I feel the need to create. Anyone who is interested in Japanese pottery, art in general, or making new friends and chatting over barbecue and brownies in the jungle should stop by.

For more information, visit www.

BAB sentorayaki.com.

Being A Broad September 2009

11

by Ulara Nakagawa

I

n early August, three young women clad only in skimpy lettuce bikini dresses took to the streets of Tokyo to promote vegetarianism in Japan. At Shibuya crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the city, the trio posed for local media while holding signs bearing messages such as “Save the Planet. Go Vegetarian.” The name of the USbased animal rights organisation behind the event, PETA (The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), was also prominently displayed. The entire affair lasted only about 30 minutes, due to the quick wilting of their green produce attire in the summer heat.

Of the three sexy lettuce women, Ashley Fruno was the only non-Japanese participant and was the primary organiser of the demonstration.

with me, not sure what I should eat to make sure I was healthy.” Much later, during university, Ashley began interning with PETA in the US over summer holidays. She funded almost all of her own transportation costs and other expenses through part-time jobs and penny-pinching. Eventually, her efforts paid off and she found herself working for PETA full-time as campaign manager at their AsiaPacific offices in the Philippines.

Living in the Philippines, Ashley is all too familiar with the obstacles presented by introducing vegetarianism successfully to a foreign country. Here in Japan, despite the strong Buddhist influence on culture, vegetarianism is still not widely practiced. It remains generally regarded that a moderate dose of animal-based

here is much to be lost in translation for vegetarians trying to adhere to their moral- or health-based T dietary habits in Japan.

In her mid-twenties, the Canadian native is surprisingly mild-mannered despite her prominent role and visibility during demonstrations such as this one. In a calm and unwavering voice, she tells me how she started thinking about animal rights when she was just seven years old. Ashley was at McDonald’s and found a vein in her Chicken McNugget. When she asked her mom what it was and discovered the truth, she remembers thinking, “I had no idea…I was outraged…I felt like I was their [the chickens’] friend.” By the time she was 12, Ashley was a complete vegetarian. It was not a quick and easy transition for her at such a young age, as her parents, “were always fighting

image: Sifu Renka.

12

Even in conbenis, there can be tasty, vegetarian dishes.

protein is essential to a healthy lifestyle. So while many Japanese women do not consume large portions of meat with their meals, they tend to eat smaller amounts of it on a regular basis. Recently, pork has become a favourite with the women here, for its supposed skinbeautifying collagen content. It seems irrelevant whether this has even been scientifically proven.

While there are vegetarian-friendly restaurants speckled throughout Tokyo, they are mostly lost in the sea of yakiniku (grilled meat), kaitenzushi (rotating sushi), ramen (with mainly porkbased soups), and other such eateries. I have heard one too many stories of people asking for vegetarian options in a Japanese restaurant, only to be met with confusion and puzzlement.

An “OK, this one is vegetarian” dish will come out with ground chicken in it or the dreaded katsuobushi (fish flakes), an edible topping that Japanese love to throw on anything from salad to fried noodles.

There is much to be lost in translation for vegetarians trying to adhere to their moral- or health-based dietary habits in Japan.

Combined with the formidable language barrier, it can become frustrating to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle here. Here are a few tips that may help make the veggie culture clash a bit easier to reconcile: Ashley recommends visiting the websites Happycow.net: The Compassionate Eating Guide (www.happycow.net) and Vegdining.com: “Your online guide to vegetarian restaurants around the world.” (www.vegdining.com) “I would really recommend checking out those two for vegetarian options in Tokyo. They not only have information on the restaurants, such as

These lettuce-clad women hope to increase the word about vegetarianism in Japan. image: Ulara Nakagawa.

food and dining

LETTUCE LADY TIPS ON BEING VEGGIE ABROAD

opening hours, addresses, and phone numbers, but they also have other travellers’ reviews. So people will post directions for example—they’ll tell you exactly how to get to a place, say from the subway station. It’s also a great way to include yourself in the vegetarian community by posting your own reviews and helping other vegetarian travellers.”

She also suggests a simple carry-around list: “I think that it’s helpful, if you don’t speak Japanese, to have somebody who writes it make a list of “I do not eat” foods on a piece of paper that you can quickly show any server or cook at a restaurant so that they can easily identify your dietary habits.”

Another tip when dining out: skip the titles: “I think that it would be successful not to say outright that ‘I am a vegan/vegetarian,’ but rather explain what you don’t eat. I find people get confused when you say that—they tend to get hung up on it.”

A convenient last resort can be found plentifully in Japan, as Ashley has discovered from personal experience: “7-11 can be a sort of haven for people who can’t find anything cheap. They have salad, edamame (soy beans), and a noodle dish that is vegetarian as well. They’re not great options, but when you’re starving and really badly need food…”

Finding available nutrients for a balanced diet is the key: “Finding protein is not an issue. It’s just so easy to come by. There is tofu in convenience stores. And it’s a very vegetable-friendly country. I jog, and I find that I run a lot better when I’m eating more raw fruits and vegetables and whole foods like tempeh (fermented soy meat-alternative) and tofu, and not over-processed things.”

Finally, there are possible benefits with delivery pizza. Says Ashley: “I heard that pizza chains here are also good. If you want pizza that is vegan, you can just ask for it without cheese or, BAB apparently, mayonnaise.”

T H AT F ITS

by Shana Graves

W

Some of the fun options available to foreign women looking for lingerie.

images: Shana Graves

omen like to shop. OK, maybe not all women, but many of us do, and one common complaint among many of us is that shopping for bras is more of a pain in the neck than maintaining unruly hair. We’ve each developed our own unique coping mechanisms to deal with the stress of bra shopping and one of the most common solutions is to simply procrastinate.

Women, myself included, have been known to wear the same bra for years, not because it’s necessarily one that provides great support or looks incredibly sexy, but because we don’t want to go bra shopping. Send us shopping for tennis balls, but please, not bras.

Living in a foreign country makes bra shopping even more challenging, as general body size and shape are distinct and, not to mention, bra sizing is usually much different than what most of us are used to. A few resources are available to help women find the right size when living or travelling abroad. For instance, www.85b.org is an international bra and dress size converter and also provides instruction on how to figure out your specific size if you’re not quite sure. However, the only way to truly know which foreign size is going to fit is actually to try it on. Although most lingerie stores in Tokyo do provide fitting rooms, be sure to ask if it’s OK first. Places like Body Focus do not allow you to try on anything priced under ¥1,500, which excludes most of their sale items.

I probably don’t have to tell you that finding bras larger than a D cup in Japan is nearly impossible, but they do exist and you don’t have to forgo style or sexiness to find them. Online shopping is always an option, but shopping in an actual store where you can feel the actual material and possibly try the bra on will yield more satisfying results. One of the better places to find larger bras is Isetan. Isetan has many locations throughout Tokyo and Japan, but the Shinjuku location is where you’re going to have the most luck. The second floor of this sevenfloor department store is devoted to ladies’ wear, but more specifically, plus-sized ladies’ wear, including plus-sized lingerie. Isetan Shinjuku also has a foreign customer service department to help with your shopping needs.

Having below average North American-sized breasts has its fair share of challenges at home as well. Finding a bra that you can actually fill out is sometimes difficult, and one often has to settle for a size bigger, which makes for an unflattering and uncomfortable piece of lingerie to add to the collection. Needless to say, when you purchase a bra that is too big, it also makes it difficult to create any cleavage, unless of course you want to stuff or invest in bra inserts. These challenges often disappear when living in or visiting a country

fashion

FINDING LINGERIE

where the average breast size is smaller than that of western countries. A smaller average breast size equals less media focus on breasts as being sexy; this means you don’t feel pressure for having A cup breasts. In fact, you can even find bras that provide maximum cleavage to even the smallest of breasts, something that western lingerie brands claim, but rarely follow through with. For those of us with smaller breasts, Japan easily allows us to fake having larger breasts by offering an abundance of padding not only in bras but swimwear as well.

Lingerie stores can be found at any department store, but my personal favourites are stand-alone stores located throughout the millions of shopping streets in Tokyo. Body Focus carries various sizes and even more colours, styles, and patterns: everything from patriotic American flag bras to cute Hello Kitty thongs.

The biggest challenge of shopping here is knowing when to stop. Body Focus offers bra and panty sets for as little as ¥1,000, which, as I mentioned previously, customers are not permitted to try on. Regardless of this rule, the inexpensiveness of Body Focus makes bra shopping less of a chore and more of a pleasurable experience; it certainly helped me look at bra shopping differently. Going back to the issue of size, this store is excellent at being consistent across the board, which helps to eliminate the need to try on bras every time you want to buy a new one. Once you have your size figured out, all you have to do is choose your favourite style and colour.

Most lingerie stores (Body Focus included) sell most of their bras as a set with a pair of matching panties. Although they also sell thongs, the majority of the sets come with bikini or boy-cut panties and it’s very difficult to find thongs to match the set. I had never understood the appeal of matching one’s undergarments, but now that I have no choice I

am beginning to understand and buy nothing but matching sets. If you’re into something a little naughtier, Body Focus also sells Hustler brand lingerie and a variety of risqué role play costumes including the infamous nurse’s uniform.

Bra shopping doesn’t necessarily have to be a difficult task. Knowing how to find your size and having access to endless styles and colours gives this once menial errand new life and makes it an exciting experience. Most importantly, the sexier the better—wearing sexy underwear when you’re the only one who knows is one of the sexiest feelings you can experience. So get out there and shop and let your inner devil loose BAB in the lingerie section.

• To access Isetan Shinjuku from Shinjukusanchome station use exit B3, B4, or B5 and you can’t miss it.

• Body Focus has stores in Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and has recently opened one along Takeshita Dori in Harajuku. www.bodyfocus.jp Size chart: US

UK

Japan

32A

32B

70B

34A

34B

75B

36A

36B

80B

32B

32C

70C

34B

34C

75C

36B

36C

80C

32C

32D

70D

34C

34D

75D

36C

36D

80D

32D

32DD

75E

34D

34DD

75E

36D

36DD

80E

Being A Broad September 2009

13

working

WE PROFILE:

TRACI CONSOLI of The Pink Cow Restaurant and Art Bar

Traci hanging out at The Pink Cow. working environment, there’s always fun stuff going on: poker and game nights, concerts, language and culture exchange parties…we make it easy for people to book their own event and to meet others to collaborate with.

The space itself is kind of retro and eclectic. I call it ‘garage sale chic’ (furry curtains, mismatched sofa cushions, Christmas lights). When we opened the restaurant, we decided to do up the interior like a giant version of my living room, since people seemed to like spending time in my house. The people who come here are looking for a certain kind of vibe. I like to think of it as an energetic Californian vibe.

How she found this job: When I was a studio artist, I was frustrated by the lack of a creative community centre in Tokyo. A place to be around other interesting people to share ideas and build things. I chose to do something about it, which was to create the Pink Cow. My business partner and I didn’t really know what we were doing, but I had done a lot of entertaining in my house, throwing barbeque parties for around a hundred people on my roof-top terrace. We took what we learned from that experience when we ran a test place in Shimokitazawa. We knew some guys who had a bar and would let us use it until 8 o’clock on Saturdays and Sundays. After six months we finally found our own place and were able to run the business full time.

Best thing: Definitely the people. Something happens when you bring folks together…the energy grows exponentially. You get creative ideas bouncing off the walls and all these projects happening. It gets people excited, gets them wanting to take part.

And when you get down to it, isn’t that what life is really all about?

Worst thing: Money concerns. If I had the money, I wouldn’t have to work 100 hours a week. The last day I had off was May 2nd, 2008 when I went 24 hours without being on my computer.

Interesting stories: Interesting and crazy stuff happen all the time, but few people know that it can get even weirder after hours. Some of the members of the Pink Cow family are from a stick and knife fighting club. They’re a bunch of tattooed martial artists and sometimes they get so drunk that they start singing all the songs from The Sound of Music and Grease. I don’t let them do it before midnight because they would scare people away. One time, a retired couple from Sweden was still here and the 60-year old man went up on stage and started singing along with them.

image: Karin Ling

14

Name: Traci Consoli Nationality: American Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree with a double focus in Studio Art and Religious Studies.

Job title: Chief Executive Cow Herd (AKA owner of The Pink Cow Restaurant and Art Bar) Employer: Self-employed Time in this job: nine years Job description: At the restaurant, it’s my job to make sure everything’s running smoothly with the support of the great staff I work with, from getting the tables ready for the weekly buffets to setting the stage for guest presenters. I also hang out with customers, make introductions, and ensure everyone is having a good time. My vision had always been to create a community centre where creative, intelligent people could get together over a glass of wine and good food to build projects and ideas.

To run a restaurant, you have to be a jack of all trades. I have, on occasion, done almost every job at the restaurant, from cooking when the chef is not available to cleaning the bathroom. I do not, however, take out the garbage or do bartending. I prefer to be on the other side of the bar!

In addition to being at the restaurant, I spend at least six hours a day on the computer, dealing with reservations, booking artists for events, updating the website...

General requirements: Insanity! Seriously though, the most important part of this job for me is hospitality—being a real people person. I try to take care of my customers the best that I can.

My business partner, Naoya, is the one who cleans up behind me. He runs The Pink Cow from behind the scenes, doing the bar ordering and the bookkeeping. He’s patient and steady and tempers my out-of-the-box, strong-willed personality. I am able to get things done and he smoothes out the wrinkles.

Japanese requirement: To run a business in Japan, you would need to have partner or a manager who speaks Japanese and can handle the business documents (that is, if you can’t speak, read, or write Japanese yourself ). I had almost no language skills when we first started out. Early on, my partner was shy about approaching customers, so I had to go and do my best to welcome them in Japanese. Behind me, I could hear him laughing. Later I asked, “Did I accidentally say something rude?” “No. Not enough skill for rude,” he said. Luckily, my Japanese is a lot better now.

General conditions: Inside my brain, it’s chaotic. I’m always multitasking between a million things. As for the

Issues affecting her as a woman: I own my own business so I get to make my own rules. Nobody can give me a hard time except for me…and an occasional unruly customer patting my bottom.

Advice: To open and run a business like this, be one hundred percent sure it’s what you want to do, because it will become your life, 24 hours a day.

It will even follow you on vacation, so know that going into it.

When starting your own business, start small.

You can always expand later. If you get yourself in over your head from the beginning, you aren’t likely to survive.

I’ve found that language and communication styles can be both challenging and rewarding in a culturally mixed environment. My business partner and I feel that our strengths combined outweigh what we would be able to do individually.

Recommended resources: The Pink Cow website (www.thepinkcow.com): Our monthly “Cowlander” is packed with a great mix of events.

Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo: This association promotes and supports entrepreneurship in Japan. Members can attend seminars, develop their business pursuits, and network with other entrepreneurs and like-minded individuals. www.ea-tokyo.com/about.php Pink Cow Connections: The PCC brings together creative business people in Tokyo in a casual atmosphere that facilitates intelligent conversation and business connections. http:// tinyurl.com/mmn5qp Other jobs done in Japan: I’ve worked as a freelance artist, designer, and BAB also a caterer.

Please help my family find peace.

My name is Lindsay Ann Hawker

I was murdered in March 2007 and buried in a bath of sand on the balcony of Tatsuya Ichihashi’s apartment in Tokyo. Ichihashi escaped from the police and still has not been found. If you have any information that may lead to his arrest, please call the Japanese police on 047-397-0110.

There is now a ¥10 milllion reward for information leading to Ichihashi’s arrest. If you know anything, please share it!

LEAVE JAPAN

by Amy Dose

I

“We’ve gone off and climbed Mt. Fuji...soaked in onsen at Hakone....”

image: provided by Amy Dose

t practically seems like yesterday that we landed at Yokota Air Force base; we’d arrived…Japan! It was December 13, 2006; it was cold, grey, and gloomy, and we had been travelling for more than 13 hours. The bus ride to Yokosuka base took forever as we crawled through rush hour traffic. As exhausted as we were, we couldn’t stop taking in our new environment. Everything looked so strange and not being able to read any of the billboards or store signs furthered our curiosity. The cars were so compact and narrow, the traffic signal sideways, the buildings looked squished together with no spaces in between, yet oh look—a McDonalds and a 7-Eleven—something familiar! The next few days after arriving were a blur and without a home to go to yet, we couldn’t really relax and settle in. Our small hotel room felt more and more cramped as the days passed. Christmas and New Year’s Eve came and went and nothing memorable comes to mind; it just wasn’t the same without family and friends around. We finally got accepted into housing about a month after arriving in Japan and opted to live off the main base in Yokosuka in a more rural housing detachment community in Zushi. Ahhhh, home sweet home!

We settled in quickly and for the first few months everything was an adventure and a

almost every Saturday we’ve been here and not only has their English vastly improved, but they’ve become our closest friends. One gentleman is 76 and the most studious student you could ever ask for. He’s the kindest, sweetest, and most funny man I have ever met, almost grandfather-like minus the English ability. He can drive a golf ball

excited to experience a new culture and embrace, atleast try, to understand all of its nuances.

I orcame novelty. Things like strolling down the endless aisles of strange food at the grocery store and trying to figure things out. Then there was catching a train to Yokohama, or to Tokyo for that matter, and getting on the right express train, which took a couple of tries; learning which side of the escalator was OK to stand on, discovering that they really will chase you down if you tip at a restaurant, buying bread at a bakery using a tray and tongs, and seeing that when an empty train arrives and the doors open it’s butts on seats right away or you’re the one left standing. I was taken back to childhood memories of musical chairs: when the music stopped, scrambling for a chair and ultimately being the sad-faced and stillstanding girl.

It’s been more challenging making friends in Japan than I thought it would be. I consider myself to be pretty outgoing and easy to get along with, but as I get ready to leave I can only count my closest friends on one hand and two of them have already left the country. People tend to cycle through Japan, which makes getting close and forming close friendships few and far between.

It’s been the hardest telling my Japanese students that we’re moving. I’ve met with them

real-life story

PREPARING TO

farther than I have ever seen and he’s coached both myself and husband at the driving range, adjusting our arms, hips, and yelling “so so so” when we do it right. The other two students are a married couple our age and it’s been so wonderful to see how similar and yet how different our lives are. They have a four-year-old son who we’ve literally seen grow up before our eyes. Lessons are held at their apartment and we’ve spent many Saturday afternoons exchanging language lessons, learning to cook their favourite Japanese fare, and often just hanging out really getting to know them.

It will be very hard saying goodbye to them.

I’m excited yet anxious to be going back.

We’re going back to my home town, Sacramento, and my husband has never lived there, so he’s got a lot to look forward to. As do I, now that I get to share everything I love about Northern California with him—the beautiful Sierra Nevadas, snowboarding in Tahoe, wandering aimlessly in the streets of San Francisco, floating down the American River, wine tasting in Napa—the list goes on. Most of my immediate family lives in Sacramento and I look forward to seeing them more often. Plus, our two closest ‘couple’ friends live there as well.

I’m a little anxious, though, because so much has changed in the past three years. We’ve gone off and climbed Mt. Fuji, snowboarded the best powder in Niseko, soaked in onsen at Hakone, and explored the temples and shrines in Kamakura. They, on the other hand, have started having children, bought houses, and taken on mortgages. Will we still have the things in common we did three years ago? No doubt our conversations and get togethers will be different. They won’t be able to relate to Japan and we won’t be able to relate to mother and fatherhood. Casual weekend BBQs, impromptu nights out, football Sunday, and adult costume Halloween parties won’t be like they used to be. Instead, they’ll be centred around Johnny’s third or fourth birthday, kindergarten graduations, school performances, or soccer games, and kid-friendly Halloween parties.

Group get-togethers will turn into separate girls’ and guys’ nights out so someone can watch the kids…I know, I know, I’m sounding a bit extreme, but it’s true.

I came excited to experience a new culture and embrace, or at least try to understand all of its nuances. I’ve learned to enjoy the smallest of details that the Japanese take pride in, from the perfectly tied present, or the flower-shaped carrots in my nabe, to the perfectly square ice cubes in my cocktail. I’ve learned not to take communication for granted, especially when not speaking or reading the national language.

It’s been an amazing three years and looking back I have no regrets about my experiences here. It’s been an amazing chapter of my life and I look eagerly forward to the new challenges that BAB await us.

Being A Broad September 2009

19

feature

DOCUMENTING THE FUTURE

THE 17s PROJECT

by Caroline Parsons

Nick Fonseca and Mick Bowering (Sydney, Australia).

all images provided by Caroline Parsons/The 17s Project

Naoko Terada, Japan.

I

20

f someone told you that you could create your absolutely perfect, no-holds-barred, idyllic future simply by doodling the essence of it on a sketch pad and sticking this image into your subconscious self, would you give it a go?

When I met Lisa Morgan in 1997, she wanted to write a book about how one can do just that. About the major role that people’s fundamental beliefs about

I did go to Switzerland soon after that, where a very nice instructor actually taught me to ski—in more than a tank top. It was great fun, though I notice I have not been back since. Maybe I’ll go again one day, I don’t know. I think I did what I needed to do with that dream.

And five years later, Lisa wrote her book. As fate would have it, it was I who helped her do it.

o is creating your ideal future simply a matter of sticking (or re-sticking) a page in your unconscious S book? Maybe it is. their world have in shaping the future they create.

And how you can better understand, manage, and even change the beliefs you have. Or some such thing.

To be honest, I couldn’t really concentrate on what she was saying, because she was wearing really short trousers, which I thought was a big mistake.

We had both been invited to participate in a workshop that mixed art with healing and future visioning. Very touchy feely. There’s even more of this kind of work around now than there was then, and I think it can be a great tool for those ‘stuck’ times in life. I drew myself in a tiny black tank top, which I thought was very fetching, with a fierce sun beaming behind me as I was about to set off skiing. (I had a thing about wanting to be able to ski, back then.)

Some months after our first meeting, I attended a seminar she was giving on creativity and how the brain works. That time she was wearing proper long trousers, and I listened. I found her theories fascinating. We became friends.

Up to that point, my career as a Tokyo-based photographer had centred around portraying Japan’s business leaders for the foreign media. But I was feeling somewhat limited by the corporate focus. So when Lisa suggested we collaborate on a project in which she guided young people to explore their inner visions of the future, imagining their perfect worlds, while I documented these participants in photographs and video interviews, I had to say ‘yes, yes, yes.’

And so we did it, we produced our very

own independent documentary of the world in creation and called it The 17s Project (because the young people who took part were all aged around 17). From 1998 to 2001, we ran workshops in as many countries around the world as we could get to, tagging them on to other jobs we were doing, using up air miles to get places, or simply forking out the necessary expenses ourselves.

Of course it was fun. Fascinating. Exhilarating.

And the results are still very relevant. It was also the most expensive thing either of us had ever done. But, hey, sometimes you just have to do your thing in life—we figured.

Some of the results were published in the form of a bilingual book (VOICE in their own words, Teenagers Predict the Future by Japanese publisher Kawade Shobo Shinsha) in 2002. You can still order a copy from Amazon, I believe. (See link below—or you can email me for one.)

Of the 132 young people who took part in The 17s Project, about two-thirds were female.

That was partly because at the beginning we were only working with girls, thinking we were documenting the future of women. (We evolved!)

It was also always easier to find girls who wanted to take part. Boys tend to be more shy about the risk of exposing themselves.

People often ask about the differences between Japanese kids and foreign kids, and it throws me a bit because we worked with so many different types of kids across the world. Often I felt that their socioeconomic background was a bigger factor for difference than their nationality.

But for sure the Japanese are happy to draw.

Manga and so many other strong visual influences in the Japanese culture really come through in a project like this. The Japanese kids tended to get over their hesitation to commit a mark to paper much quicker than kids in other countries, and when they did could express themselves quite easily that way. They were asked to draw what they had seen and so they did, without a fuss.

We still have a lot of material in boxes in my

feature

Maki Fujii (Japan).

Hearing the 17s talk about their visions was such a trip in itself. Here’s what Pum Sirikun in Thailand (below) said about her drawing (below right):

office—all the video interviews of what these kids saw when they journeyed to the future. So many intriguing visions of the world to come.

Nish in Sydney, for example, had a vision in 1999 of urban warfare in a Western city. It seemed an unlikely scenario back then, and at the time we thought maybe it was inspired by his own life, much of which was spent on the streets. But after September 11 only two years later, his vision seemed to have been somehow prescient.

There is so much more we could do with the material we have from this project and I hope with time we will. We did make a 30-minute documentary of it in 2003, which we entered in festivals like Sundance. But sadly it was not picked up. Looking on the bright side, maybe all that means is that the documentary is still in our future.

After we had published the book, as much as we could have happily continued to spend months— years(!)—talking about our project, we would have driven everyone around us completely crazy. And besides, we had badly run out of funds.

Tiger Harris (UK).

Both Lisa and I had to get down to the more practical business of attending to our lives.

She moved back to her native UK, where she opened a workshop centre in the Lake District.

And I have since expanded my work to include TV reporting, narrating, writing, and all kinds of portraits. But Lisa misses Japan and comes back to run workshops here from time to time. See her link below for details. Her workshops are always fresh and inspired.

So, is creating your ideal future simply a matter of sticking (or re-sticking) a page in your unconscious book? Maybe it is. I recall an image I doodled when I was working with Lisa. The figure was a juggler, and around her were kids, books, computers, forests, and all sorts. As I look at the scene before me that stretches from my fab new laptop across the toys in the living room to the forest opposite, I’d say it is a pretty accurate picture of my life now. I do seem to remember a whole lot of gold pouring in, too. Maybe that page needs re-sticking a bit!

I know we would both love to do a re-visit with a handful of the 17s kids one day, when we can really see what they are making of their lives.

It would be so satisfying to produce the video documentary we always had in mind.

When you work on a project all about people’s dreams for the future, I guess it’s not so surprising BAB if your own are all wrapped up in it.

“This is me—a girl. (On the left) is the world today—you can see space. Space is empty in today’s world. On the other side you can see the future and the colours represent the technology, which is coming into our lives. The colourful side of the drawing is the world in twenty years. The colour of space changes from black to grey because there will be some kind of communication or transportation in space. Space will be a place where we will travel around. I think everything, including myself and other human beings will be half human, half robot in the future. This is evolution. This is not like changing car parts. This is evolution of humans.”

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Cheryl Simmonds, UK VOICE (¥1,260) is available from Amazon at this link: http://tinyurl.com/knfpbd. Or email me and I can send you a copy: photos@ carolineparsons.com.

For more information, you can also visit our websites: Lisa: www.futureseeing.com and Caroline: http://carolineparsons.com.

Being A Broad September 2009

community

CLEAN UP

image: Christopher Domitter

22

KUGENUMA BEACH

Alana and Michel work together to bring French— and a clean beach—to the Shonan area.

by Kelsey Aguirre

S

ome people only dream of the day they can visit Southern France. But in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, it is a daily reality for anyone who visits Soleil Provence.

When I asked Alana Bonzi, Head of Marketing and Press for Soleil Provence, how she would describe the company, she called it: “a place to experience Southern France in a personal way, the whole package.”

Alana, partly from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean and also Canada, originally came to Japan in 1996 as a part of the JET Program in Kagoshima.

In 2001, a job at Keio University SFC brought her to the Fujisawa area, which was a great opportunity for her to do the McGill MBA program.

In 2004, she and her husband, Michel, bought a home in the Kugenuma Matsugaoka area of Fujisawa, with plans of opening a French school.

Both being deeply rooted in French language and culture (Michel is from Nice, France) and sharing the same passion as teachers, they wanted a specific classroom experience for students.

To really understand a language you have to live it, Alana explains. She continues by stating that a student cannot really understand a language without fully encompassing everything from the cooking to the lifestyle and being a part of the culture. From the minute someone steps into Soleil Provence, they are essentially stepping into Southern France.

Soleil Provence even communicates with contacts and students in France (Nice in particular) for home stays, apprenticeships, or learning holidays.

“One of the services that we offer at Soleil Provence is to help people with their visit or stay— for that Michel has visited host families, language school, hotels, and pastry chefs to make sure of who and where he is sending or recommending [his] students.”

The transition from being a teacher employed at a school to being an employer is not an easy one.

As Alana describes it, you have to put yourself in the mindset that you are “not yet business owners, but self-employed, with the goal to be a business owner.” You are fully in charge of what happens and also what doesn’t happen.

While her husband Michel runs Soleil Provence on a daily basis, they both jointly discuss major decisions. Alana’s role is mostly marketing, press, and community relations, trying to anticipate what they may need to do next, and once they discuss the direction, creating the steps to move forward.

She describes the hardest part as an “attitude shift,” moving from self-employed to actually being a business owner. Knowing how and when to delegate is also a task. She also looks for possible partners and ways to get their ‘story’ out—Alana is very interested in ‘cooperative’ or ‘collaborative’

marketing—“meaning I promote you and you promote me.” She is also taking the time to meet and learn from people who are more experienced and listen to their wise advice.

Very busy indeed, Alana’s day isn’t limited to Soleil Provence. She also lectures part-time at Keio University and is working on building her own writing/consulting practice. She is interim general manager for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan, a contributing writer for the American Chamber of Commerce Journal, and contributing editor for WIFM, a lifestyle magazine.

All of this, plus Alana’s personal goal, which is “to further the cultural bridge, to extend it between Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Japan.”

Alana explains: Soleil Provence is connecting with the community, while offering quality services related to French language and culture.

To that end, on Sunday, October 4, Alana and Soleil Provence will host ‘An Aperitif ’ and a beachcleaning event in Fujisawa. (Rain date: October 18).

“With the beach cleaning, we want to do a fun, tangible activity that brings together expats and locals while doing good things for the local community. We’ll do a survey of the debris collected on the day and the data will be included in a national survey on Japan’s beaches as well as in Ocean Conservancy’s global survey.”

Volunteers are welcome to meet at Soleil Provence, about a two-minute walk from Kugenumakaigan station, on the Enoden line. The beach cleaning will take place at Kugenuma Beach in front of the skate park from 10:30am–12:30pm.

Directly afterwards, there will be an aperitif-buffet party at Soleil Provence.

The October 4 beach clean up will not only help to raise awareness about this issue, but also support the local community effort to ensure cleaner oceans and beaches.

This event was partly inspired by the International Coast Day (a Mediterranean area event) and the International Coastal Clean up (an Ocean Conservancy initiative). The data collected from the volunteer clean up will be included in the Japan Environment Action Network [JEAN] (www. jean.jp) national survey on coastline debris.

These other coastal cleanup efforts around the world play a large role in the Fujisawa event. Michel and Alana want to help the local community and promote awareness in the value of Shonan coast, a popular tourist area about an hour from Tokyo.

Soleil Provence is located just a short walk from the Kugenuma beach, so the connection to the ocean and coastline is natural. According to Soleil Provence, “When we heard about the International Coast Day in the Mediterranean Basin, we realised that this is exactly what we

wanted to do here in Shonan.”

Alana and Soleil Provence are approaching companies for sponsorship and in-kind donations for the clean up and aperitif-buffet. Companies can also sponsor small groups of employees and their families for the event.

All of the donations will go to beach clean up equipment, fees, and honorariums for local NPO partners, an event t-shirt for each volunteer, light refreshments and food. Any funds that remain will go to next year’s beach cleanup project.

I asked Alana what advice she would give to other foreign women interested in starting a business here in Japan. Similar to Nike’s slogan, she simply stated: “Just do it. Get over the ‘can I do it?’ thinking and have some sort of plan. Building a business is kind of like building a house, you always find something later that you can add to and improve upon.”

It’s also a bit lonely, like teaching, in a way.

Sometimes a little overwhelming, but in the end you learn to communicate your own passion. And the end result is, no doubt, rewarding. Being a woman in business has its challenges—first deciding what you’re really worth charging and getting paid that; being taken seriously enough to get investors or credit, and then having access to the right information that’s business-related (perhaps being foreign exacerbates this), finding a social safety net, etc. And sometimes, a more masculine kind of leadership is more acceptable in Japan...

However, the highlights are definitely beneficial for Alana. She details bringing a concept or idea to life—whether it’s Soleil Provence itself—or an event or the feeling that they’ve made their students happy and that the staff understands what they are trying to achieve and how their input is important. A great feeling is when they all share a meal together. She says: “Michel and I have learnt that we work a lot—that we have the capacity to work very hard.”

As an ocean lover and a resident of the Shonan area myself, I realise that the coastline and beach debris is a major problem. I’ve seen small kids pick up beer cans and cigarette butts, thinking they are toys. The trash is not supposed to be here and is only taking away from the natural beauty this area provides. Michel and Alana’s effort with Soleil Provence has inspired me to help volunteer and hopefully other Shonan ladies can join our effort. If you’re interested, email me at kelsey@being-abroad.com to join the October event.

Sponsors interested in the Kugenuma Beach can contact Alana at: info@soleilprovence.com and for more information on Soleil Provence, please visit their website at: www.soleilprovence.com. BAB

TYLER FOUNDATION

by Saradia Hunnisett

F

Tyler Foundation was established. Since 2005, the Foundation has progressed to help hundreds of children and their families through counselling, education, club activities, and sibling support, along with providing additional medical staff and supporting targeted research. Not surprisingly, the work of the Foundation has also attracted a great deal of positive media attention, both in Japan and overseas.

A recent initiative of the Tyler Foundation is the introduction of a groundbreaking therapy program involving dogs. The Shine On! Therapy Dog Program will place a full-time assisted therapy dog into a children’s hospital in Japan, with the goal of improving the approach and response to treatment of children with cancer and other serious illnesses and to reduce stress associated with long hospital stays. There is a similar scheme currently in place in Japan involving brief (around one hour) hospital visits

his program seeks to make the dog a member of hospital staff, having it visit kids on a daily basis T to cheer them up, distract them, and even help participate in rehabilitation exercises.

image provided by the Tyler Foundation.

his family and all who knew him. Despite two years of hospitalisation and, of course, incessant and frequently painful medical treatments, Tyler was an incredibly happy baby and toddler, and it was his perseverance, determination, and celestial smile that led to the creation of the Tyler Foundation in 2005, after Tyler finally succumbed to his illness at just 23 months old.

While the couple felt that the medical care their son received in Japan was superlative, they recognised that there was still so much more that could be done to make life better for the children receiving treatment as well as the people supporting them. It is to this end that the

Therapy dogs such as Tucker can make a huge difference in the lives of children in hospital.

by dogs on a monthly basis, but the Shine On! Therapy Dog Program will be based more on therapy than on socialisation (the goal of the current short-term visitation projects). The dogs will be used by a therapist and handler to facilitate optimal patient outcomes, as well as bringing smiles and happiness to children and medical staff alike. This program seeks to make the dog a member of hospital staff, having it visit kids on a daily basis to cheer them up, distract them, and even help participate in rehabilitation exercises. This will be one of the first programs of its kind in Japan, and also one of the first internationally! Judging from the reactions of the children undergoing similar animal therapy programs in other hospital that are captured in youtube videos, medicine may heal the body, but the unconditional love offered by man’s best friend is an anodyne for the soul. Of course, setting up such a fantastic project is not without costs, and the Tyler Foundation will be holding its annual fundrasing event to raise money to assist in the development of this program.

So how can you get involved and help the Tyler Foundation? Join them for their annual fundraising event, to be held on October 2, 2009, in the Grand Hyatt, Tokyo. The Shine on! Tyler Foundation’s Vegas Extravaganza theme is Casino & Show (featuring two original songs written and composed by Alan Menken and Sir Tim Rice).

You can buy tickets for this fun-packed evening for the great price of ¥30,000 (including food, wine, and other drinks), with every penny

The Tyler Foundation’s Kim with daughter Natalie.

image: Mori Kohda

or those of you not familiar with the work of the Tyler Foundation, it’s a Japan-based NPO that has been working tirelessly since its inception in 2005 to provide help and support to the families of children afflicted with cancer and other serious illness. It also works to raise awareness of childhood cancer in the community through a number of initiatives involving academic circles, volunteering, and corporate sponsorship. The project is the brainchild of long-term Tokyo residents Kim Forsythe-Ferris and Mark Ferris, and it is thanks to the hard work and devotion of them and their team (not to mention the many supporters of the NPO) that the Tyler Foundation has become as well-known and successful as it is today.

The Foundation was inspired by the couple’s son Tyler’s battle with infant leukemia. Diagnosed at less than a month old, with a prognosis that was very poor from the outset, Tyler’s short life was nevertheless a gift and an inspiration for

community

HELP SUPPORT THE

going to a very worthwhile cause, and you’ll aslo have the chance to win some fantastic prizes (see below). Of course, you’ll be lucky enough to be among the first to hear original music composed by the inimitable Sir Tim Rice, who, despite needing no introduction for 99.9 percent of readers, is responsible for working with Andrew Lloyd Webber on such smash-hit musicals as Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and Evita, to name just a few. Ditto composer Alan Menken, who has written musical scores for everything from the Litttle Shop of Horrors to the Little Mermaid, and Sister Act the Musical and has garnered no fewer than eight Academy Awards in his 30-year career.

There are also several great prizes available through a raffle at the event, including two business class tickets on British Airways to Europe with a four-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Churchill in London, four-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Madeleine in Paris, and overnight accommodations and dinner at Pape Clement Vineyard. There is also a chance to win two business class tickets to Fiji on Continental Airlines in the raffle, as well as many, many more prizes!

Visit www.tylershineon.org/vegas/registerform.do or contact mariko@tylershineon.org BAB for individual or table reservations.

Being A Broad September 2009

23

learning

TANGO TOWN’S LANGUAGE HELP

by Poppy Calvert

I

If you need practical information, there is a phone book for commonly required telephone numbers and English language points of contact, and there is general information and advice on things such as renewing visas or alien registration cards, and even on food and shopping. Or, if you are learning Japanese, a flash card section and quiz games are available for fun and interactive study. “Whether fresh off the boat, or preparing for your Japanese proficiency tests, there are study tools for students at all levels of fluency.”

The US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute ranks Japanese as one of five most ‘exceptionally difficult’ languages (the others are Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean). Even if you are the most avid Japanese language student, you will at some point or another discover that you can’t quite find the words, especially when you really need them.

“If you lose your wallet, you can go to the police station immediately and type in ‘I’ve lost my brown wallet’ into the machine translator. It will translate into Japanese and you can read it out or simply show it to the police officer.

In the phrase book section, there are over 60 categories to help you out in any situation. There’s everything from sushi and ramen, to what to say

Whether fresh off the boat, or preparing for your Japanese Proficiency tests, there are study tools “ for students at all levels of fluency.”

24

completely fluent in Japanese and my husband, who runs a busy Tokyo restaurant, speaks enough to communicate with his staff on a daily basis.” Tracey’s parents used to live in Tokyo, but just for a short period of time so they only knew a little Japanese.

So, coming from a family with varying levels of Japanese, Tracey knows firsthand the benefits of having at least some Japanese language proficiency under your belt.

“Even if it’s just a few phrases that enable you to do something as trivial as getting yourself around in a taxi, you gain a real sense of independence.

You don’t get as frustrated, and I think it stops you feeling so being bewildered and isolated. It really makes Japan a whole lot more fun, too.”

Eight years ago, Enfour recognised the need to break down the barriers of language and culture in order to make the lives of residents in Japan even more convenient, and so Tango Town was created. Today it has grown to be a huge multipurpose database to aid its users with language and day-to-day tasks, which can all be accessed through a mobile phone handset.

If you have an on-the-spot language dilemma, there are extensive phrasebooks, dictionaries, machine translators, and even kanji constructors.

when you’re at the hairdresser or the doctor, and even what to do if you’re meeting a boy or a girl.

All the usual phrase booky stuff, but straight from your handset.”

“I use Tango Town a lot when I’m in the supermarket, I’ll be standing at the vegetable section and I’ll be thinking to myself, “OK I want spinach, and this looks like spinach, but that over there also looks like spinach.” I can grab

Tango Town provides helpful Japanese—on the go!

image: provided by Tango Town

f you are a native English speaker travelling around the world, you are never a far cry from somebody who can speak at least a little bit of English to get you out of strife. We are truly spoilt, so when arriving in a country like Japan, language barriers can be an unnerving shock to the system. With a population of only about one percent foreign residents, one of the lowest in the world, the need for Japanese natives to speak English is very small. Menial tasks, from buying the right kind of milk to getting a taxi, can leave you feeling stressed and isolated.

I met with Tracey Northcott, a Tokyobased business woman from Australia, to learn about her own trials and tribulations with life and language in Tokyo. And to hear about her company’s solution for English speakers in Japan; Tango Town, a convenient, easy-to-use lifestyle tool via mobile phones.

Tracey learnt Japanese in high school and university in Australia before she came to Japan.

Today she modestly describes herself as having “a good school level of Japanese. I have Japanese lessons once a week to keep my conversational skills up to scratch. My brother Richard, (also Tracey’s business partner and CEO of their multi-linguistic solutions company Enfour) is

as trivial as the supermarket, can make a significant difference to your day.

“Don’t be shy, because people want you to succeed with the language. It’s not an aggressive situation, and you don’t have to have perfect Japanese to use it. Using even a little bit of Japanese and being understood isn’t just a comfort to you, but to those who you are trying to communicate with. Once you break the ice, good will and good nature tend to get you the rest of the way—and maybe a little bit of sign language!”

After living in Japan for years, Tracey’s Japanese has grown to a fairly high standard, but she has had her fair share of hurdles to jump over in the process.

“For me it was largely a confidence thing. I had my first big sense of achievement when I was actually confident enough to be able to use the phone. I remember I rang up the vet and said: ‘Hi it’s me, can I bring my cat down in five minutes to get her nails clipped?’ For me, to be able to express that and for them to be able to understand me was a huge confidence boost. I mean it was probably grammatically incorrect, but so what? They’ve understood me and I’ve managed to get what I needed done without

when arriving in a country like Japan, language can be an unnerving shock to the system.

Sobarriers my phone out of my bag and search for it pretty quickly. And if worse comes to worst and you’re looking for something like hard tofu for a recipe, but you haven’t got a clue what it actually looks like, you can get it up on your dictionary and show it to a kindly looking Japanese housewife in the the supermarket and point and say ‘is this that?’”

Japan is one of the most heavily populated countries in the world with over 120,000,000 people. However, with just over one percent of residents being foreigners it can seem like one of the loneliest places in the world when you can’t communicate with the other 99 percent. So it’s amazing how that little bit of contact, somewhere

having to rely on someone else. Eventually, I got to the point where I would get a call from my bank and I could actually grasp what they were telling me, and I was able to get my business done.”

“I think being able to do these kinds of things came from a combination of being out there and using the language, and using the mobile application as a backup. The only way to truly learn Japanese is to use it, and if that starts with you looking up a simple phrase in a phrase book and using it, well then that’s fine.”

Tango Town is available on all Japanese mobile platforms. To send the URL to your mobile phone BAB visit: www.tangotown.jp/tangotown.

mothers

PRENATAL YOGA

AT FURLA YOGA

by Dana Levy

“The studio is a beautiful, intimate space...”

image: Lisa Eidt for FURLA yoga

image: iStockphoto/Peter Posthouwer

“Connect with the growing life within!”

P

regnancy is challenging in any culture; pregnancy in a new culture can be downright intimidating. Finding a doctor and hospital, preparing for the newborn, and navigating the ins and outs of life with a baby takes more time and energy, leaving you with little time to focus on yourself.

Joining a prenatal yoga class allows you to prepare for pregnancy, birth, and beyond in a supportive community of moms-to-be. Doing yoga under the care of a trained instructor, you may observe the changes your body is going through, find relief from common prenatal aches and pains, and reduce stress. This creates a positive mental framework for the upcoming birth.

But prenatal yoga classes are not all about relaxing! Yoga poses (asana) prepare the body for birth in many ways. Standing poses strengthen the legs and ‘ground’ us, helping us to feel stable when so much is changing both within and out.

Lengthening the body creates space for the growing baby, as the spine extends and makes space between the ribs and pelvis. This area is really your baby’s ‘room’ during the pregnancy; so make it a nice big one!

This spinal length, in turn, makes space for your breath, your most important ally during childbirth. When the breath is engaged, our consciousness is engaged. When the breath is stopped, we revert to a fight-or-flight response, which often leads to more medical intervention during the birth.

Contractions in labour have a clear pattern of intense activity, followed by rest. Being able to connect with your breath deeply in both active and rest times will support the rhythm and build your strength for the next phase. Connecting to this powerful force can help you through labour and delivery. (This awareness of breath also serves in motherhood; I cannot tell you how often I stopped and took a deep breath before dealing with a toddler trauma or tantrum!) Finally, every breath serves to nourish the growing life within!

Our modern, chair-oriented lifestyle

contributes to several major physical patterns in adults; a weak lower body, a collapsed spine, and hunched, tight shoulders. Add the weight of a baby into the mix and your body will be quite unhappy through the nine-month (or tenmonth, depending on how your doctor counts) pregnancy. A good yoga practice brings balance to your body and teaches you to use it effectively.

So the standing, squatting, and seated yoga poses create stability and flexibility in the lower body. They also open both the hips and the pelvic floor for the birth itself, and build stamina in preparation for childbirth. Then we have the chest- and shoulder-opening poses, a favourite of most prenatal (and non-prenatal) participants.

Opening your heart and letting your chest broaden relieves day-to-day stress. We hold plenty of emotional baggage in this area, and pregnancy is a good time to observe and begin changing your habits. (These poses are also helpful to remember for the postpartum period as well, when you are nursing. No one wants to be a hunched-over mom!)

Finally, reclining poses using blankets and cushions (bolsters) for support allow the entire body to open and release. Deep relaxation affects our mental state, releasing endorphins and creating a sense of calm. We may acknowledge unspoken fears or anxieties and allow them to flow, like a tidal breath, outward and away, as we observe them.

During these relaxation poses, the instructor may ask you to focus on your breath, or an image or sound, to connect the mind and body and concentrate fully. Deepening your ability to concentrate serves in childbirth, like the breath; when the concentration is interrupted, we generally fall into negative patterns. It is easy to be distracted; however, maintaining our focus challenges us to be present, to be in the moment.

Many students come to yoga class for the workout and to feel better about themselves.

Many of them also leave with a new awareness

of who they are, what kind of challenges they are able to face, and how to handle their stress better. During pregnancy, your ups and downs are magnified; doing yoga surrounded by other momsto-be under the direction of a skilled teacher can help you be more comfortable, discover your own strengths, and face your anxieties, feel part of a community, and, most importantly, connect BAB with the growing life within!

Though it can often be harder to find English services in Japan that match or exceed those of your home country, in Tokyo Englishspeaking moms and moms-to-be need not worry. Nestled on the fourth floor of the FURLA Aoyama boutique is FURLA Yoga, offering yoga classes in English, Japanese, and bilingual English/Japanese. Supported

by Italian leather goods brand FURLA, the studio is a beautiful, intimate space with just enough room for ten to twelve yoga mats. One of the specialties of FURLA is Prenatal Yoga, currently offered in both the mornings and evenings, in both bilingual and Japanese-only classes. With experienced, caring instructors and a warm, supportive atmosphere, we welcome you at the studio!

Unless contraindicated by your doctor, you may begin prenatal yoga after your 14th week. Although you may feel fine earlier, for both your and your baby’s safety, we ask that you wait until then to begin your yoga practice. See our website for schedule and online reservations: www.furla.co.jp/yoga.

Dana Levy is currently co-manager of FURLA yoga. She began her yoga practice while pregnant with her son and has been with FURLA yoga since its opening in 2005, teaching prenatal, postnatal, and regular hatha yoga classes. Dana can be reached at yoga@furlajapan.com.

Being A Broad September 2009

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she found love in Japan

by Kelsey Aguirre with Malinda Caudle Saito

“

image provided by Malinda and Kenji.

We are so goofy,” Malinda says. “I always say that if people knew how we acted with each other in private, they would not want to be friends with us because we are so damn ridiculous.”

Malinda Caudle Saito describes her marriage as funny, and maybe from first glance it doesn’t seem like a bubbly American girl from New York and a quiet Japanese guy from Iwate would have so much in common. But the thing is, they do.

They match perfectly.

Watching their Christmas Nabe song video explains their relationship completely. I burst into laughter as I watch Kenji add vegetables to the pot and Malinda in the background pouring her soul into an impromptu Christmas carol about the delicious Japanese stew. It’s pure comedy.

Almost five years ago, she had no idea that she would find the “husband of her dreams,” Kenji Saito, halfway across the world in Chiba, Japan. She came to Japan, like many other foreign women, to experience a new culture, travel, and work as a English teacher at Nova. So they met at the language school? She quickly corrects me. No, they met while she was working at Nova, but only had a teacher-student relationship. She thought he was nice, but it wasn’t really the “classic teacherstudent hookup story.”

Being fairly confident and outgoing, Malinda was eager to talk to Kenji, but nothing actually happened until she left Nova. At her farewell party, she approached him and asked for his number and email. She tells me, “I always thought he was a nice guy, but that night I actually noticed how very cute he was. I approached him because I knew he was not going to make a move. He was like a deer caught in the headlights,” she says, thinking back on that night.

Their first date was at an izakaya, which was a perfect atmosphere for them to talk and joke around in. “We had a really nice date and moved

Enjoying the spring sakura.

Laughing their way down the aisle, Malinda and Saito are a very cheerful couple! image: Steve Burns for BellaPictures Wedding Photography

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THE PERFECTLY GOOFY COUPLE

in together after only ten months,” Malinda adds.

She continues: “The funny thing is I would have never done this in the past and I have never lived with anyone, but there was something different about him. I knew he was my husband and all I wanted to do was be with him.”

Kenji proposed four months later after a dinner party with their friends.

Malinda was pretty tired and ready to call it a

reason their marriage works is that they talk all the time. Even though there are sometimes language barriers, it’s all about sitting down with the person you love and communicating how you feel. “That was a big thing that he wanted for us, to communicate,” she adds.

“Communication creates trust, because we don’t pretend with each other. What you see is what you get. It’s pure comfort.”

night when Kenji asked ‘the question.’ She laughs about it now, but at the time she was sleepy— until he brought out the ring—and she instantly changed her mood to say ‘yes.’

Their wedding was very special because they had not one, not two, but three ceremonies. One wedding was for Kenji’s family in his hometown of Iwate. The majority of his family still lives there and participated in a typical Japanese wedding, with the two of them donning full kimonos.

Then they had a wedding party in Ebisu for their Tokyo friends at Zest Cantina, where she wore a wedding dress and he wore a tux. A third wedding topped off the celebrations, and was in New York City, with Malinda’s family. All this may seem over the top, but Malinda explains that they wanted to include both families, as well as respect both cultures. “We also wanted to celebrate with our friends, who we believe are the family you make for yourself.”

When I asked about why she fell in love with him, she says, “well, I guess it was because he was the most wonderful man I had ever met. It was as if he was the culmination of all the great men in my life from my grandfather to my third grade teacher. It’s deeper than words can explain. He just is the love of my life.”

Of course they experience ups and downs like any normal couple, but she adds that the

“We just fit. He’s perfect for me,” she says while strolling with me in Ueno Park. How so? She tells me that she likes to shop. Well, what woman doesn’t? But Kenji keeps her in check, because he’s very good at saving. She sings—and has an amazing voice. Kenji also loves music, playing the guitar in his free time. They both also share a love of travel and photography. This is evident as Malinda pauses to snap a postcard-like picture of an old man cleansing his hands at the entrance to Kiyomizu Temple. She loves her professional Canon camera. “It was a birthday present from Kenji,” she laughs.

Early next year, they plan to welcome a third member to their family, a baby boy. Malinda describes Kenji as incredibly eager for the date.

Kenji, who works in the medical field, jumps at any little movement from the baby. Malinda jokingly explains, “I don’t think he kicked. I think it’s just gas. I don’t think you can feel him yet.” They are both ready to move into the next phase of their life and are excited about parenting.

She didn’t come to Japan looking for love, but Malinda’s face lights up when she talks about “Kenji-kun.”

They are incredibly goofy together and they both know it. To some outsiders, they might seem a little too comical, but Malinda adds: “At the same time, I think that’s the magic that we have.

BAB Every day is a new day with us.”

t was as if he was the culmination of all the great men in my life from my grandfather to my third Igrade teacher.

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DINING:

BUSINESS:

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HEALTH AND BEAUTY:

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GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL

SCHOOLS

IN JAPAN www.internationalschoolsguidebook.com

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FITNESS AND OUTDOORS:

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