The Internationalist
Fall 2019 Vol. 63
Head of School Karen O’Neill ‘78 Director of Development Philippe Eymard Marketing and Communication Manager Kacie Leviton ‘95 Managing editor Mayumi Nakayama ‘90 Editor Anne Papantonio Art design Akira Tomomitsu (Mashup) The Internationalist, Fall 2019 vol. 63, is published by the Development Office for alumni, parents, students, faculty, and friends of Nishimachi International School. Article contributors
Philippe Eymard Nancy Hashima ’83 Justine Hitchcock Carol Koran Terry Morris Kit Pancoast Nagamura Kalpana Rao
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Photography Kiyoshi Endo Philippe Eymard Justine Hitchcock Terry Morris Mayumi Nakayama ‘90 Kit Pancoast Nagamura Benjamin Parks Kalpana Rao Radim Sinkora SchoolPix.me Hi Cheese!
NLE Designs by Juntaro Mori
Nishimachi International School Development Office 2-14-7 Moto Azabu, Minato-ku Tokyo 106-0046 Japan Tel: 03-3451-5520 Fax: 03-3456-0197 E-mail: development@nishimachi.ac.jp alumni@nishimachi.ac.jp URL www.nishimachi.ac.jp 学校法人 西町インターナショナルスクール 〒106-0046 東京都港区元麻布2-14-7 渉外開発室 電話：
03-3451-5520
ファックス： 03-3456-0197 メール：
development@nishimachi.ac.jp
ウェブ：
www.nishimachi.ac.jp
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The Internationalist Fall 2019 Vol. 63
Features 4
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Featured Article
Brilliant Returns; An Interview with Head of School Karen O’Neill ‘78 Community Services
Knowing, Caring, and Taking Action in Grade 4 Teacher Article
Nishimachi Learner Expectations: Framing Our Work, Guiding Our Practice Teacher Article
Nishimachi Walks in Rainbows
News & Notes 9
Welcome Dr. Kalpana Rao
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Outreach Scholarship Announcements
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Message from Nishimachi-Kai
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2016 University/2019 High School Choices
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Postmarks
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Congratulations Class of 2019
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Yokoso, Bon Voyage, Retirement
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Brilliant Returns
An Interview with Head of School Karen O’Neill ‘78 Kit Pancoast Nagamura
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t’s an early fall weekday morning when I enter “command central” of Nishimachi International School, the Head of School’s office in the Matsukata House. I sit down with the new head, Karen O’Neill ’78, to learn how it is that she has returned to her elementary alma mater to fill its leadership role. We exchange a few words about Nishimachi International School’s founder, Tané Matsukata, and I realize that O’Neill, slim and petite, slightly resembles Matsukata, with a simlar sharpeyed focus and easy laugh that Matsukata shows in photos when surrounded by children.
The Visa Vignette O’Neill’s story starts with the travels of her father, Jeffrey Mass. Just out of college, Mass snagged a civilian job on a US military battleship, writing “Life at Sea” clips as the ship plied its way through the South Pacific. Mass, it seems, managed to leave his passport in the Philippines. People kept mailing it to him, port after port, just missing him each time. Luckily for Mass, in those days the influence of a good friend was enough to secure Mass’s entry upon landing in Japan, minus his passport and visa.
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 ..... there was another impetus as well. Mass had been teaching history at a high school in Queens, New York. One of his students, enraged by the bad grade he had received, attempted to attack Mass with a baseball bat, missing only because the bat got caught on an overhead light fixture. Mass didn’t wait around for strike two.
Off-shore Interests The young family lingered in Japan for a year, enjoying family time. During this hiatus, Mass started collecting old Japanese artefacts. “My dad always was a collector—of coins, Indian head pennies, comic books, and stuff,” O’Neill says, “and through my mother, he became interested in the history of Japanese things.” Upon returning to the states, Mass took his exploration into academic high gear. He enrolled at Yale, where he met Professor John Whitney Hall, who was launching a program for graduate studies in pre-modern Japanese history. Mass became one of the program’s first graduates, and his thesis focused on medieval Japanese history.
“It’s hard to remember a story about your parents when you weren’t actually there,” O’Neill says, laughing, “but I’ve heard that my father sent letters to his own parents in 1962, while here in Japan, talking about the ‘ugly American,’ and what it looks like to be an ambassador of good will, but in fact, be someone who takes license. He was astounded by how fellow Americans treated Japanese people with a level of arrogance.”
To further his studies, Mass applied for and won a Fulbright scholarship to return to Japan. “The award paid for one child to attend a private school, and that was me,” O’Neill said. “So this is how I ended up at Nishimachi, when I was five.”
Mass gradually found an affinity for Japan and Japanese people, and landed a job teaching English at the Green School in Tokyo. During this time, he made the acquaintance of a young Japanese woman, Kazuko. One year his junior, Kazuko was studying journalism in college, and had a strong interest in learning English.
Small Capital Gains
Life Savings Kazuko and Jeffrey’s relationship strengthened, and a marriage date was set. The relative rarity of crosscultural unions at the time is underlined by what O’Neill tells me next: “I have a black and white film of their wedding,” she says. “My mother was in a kimono, and my father in tuxedo. There was virtually no communication from either side, just a lot of bowing. It’s an amazing video.” The young couple set sail for the United States, “and my mom’s parents really thought they’d never see her again,” O’Neill says. However, the young couple returned to Japan with two new family members. “I was born a year-and-a-half after the marriage, and my birth created this bridge [between the countries],” O’Neill says. “My sister was born when I was one-and-a-half, and a week after she was born, we got on a Pan Am flight. My parents put my baby sister in a cardboard box that they set by their seats, because they had no money.” Reconnecting with Japanese relatives was largely what motivated the trip to Japan, but O’Neill admits
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From the start, O’Neill had to deal with being slightly out of sync with the normal Nishimachi International School first-graders. “My parents didn’t think people should pay for Kindergarten,” she recalls, “so my mother asked Tané Matsukata to please consider me for first grade instead. She agreed.” The result? “I was super tiny,” O’Neill laughs, “and a head shorter than anyone in the class.” But, sometimes small-statured kids leave big impressions, correct? “My classmates remember me as a chatterbox,” O’Neill agrees. “Also, I was an early reader, so it worked out.” Of the two years O’Neill attended, 1969 and 1970, O’Neill remembers little beyond people who were nice to her. “I recall my first grade teacher, Hirooka-sensei,” she says, “and a girl named Emily Severance, who was blonde and had the same bowl haircut as me, and I had another doppelgänger from those days, Debbie Krisher, though I was a head shorter than she. I was also friends with a set
The award paid for one child to attend a private school, and that was me. So this is how I ended up at Nishimachi, when I was five.
6 ..... The Internationalist of twin girls, Rieko and Kaeko Okawa, who were giants, Japanese twin giants. In truth, I was just tiny and they were of normal size.”
Double or Nothing Later, as she started college, O’Neill had a preview of the way Nishimachi International School would remain threaded through her years. As she was moving into her room at Stanford, she glimpsed twin Japanese girls riding bikes across campus, right in front of her dormitory. “I turned to my mom,” O’Neill recalls, “and said ‘that looks like Rieko and Kaeko!’ I ran out and chased them down the street, and it was them. We all went to college together.” Prior to college, though, O’Neill grew up shuttling between the United States and Japan, as her father pursued research on the Kamakura Period in Japanese history, eventually landing a position teaching premodern Japanese history at Stanford.
“I wanted to bag it,” she says, “so I called my dad and said I didn’t think I could last the 2-year contract. My dad said, do the 2 years. You’ll be fine. But I was not fine.”
Did the peripatetic life bother her, I ask O’Neill. “I don’t think it’s necessary to settle in any one place,” she responds, thoughtfully. “But growing up as a bilingual, bicultural, biracial child in the United States, it was hard to understand my own identity. I was never really sure if I was a majority or minority. Even in California, in the 13 different schools I attended, there were a lot of Asians and a lot of non-Asians, but there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me. And people didn’t talk about that difference.”
The Cocoon O’Neill’s discussion intrigues me, because I sense that identity confusion is an underexplored struggle faced by bicultural children. “When I came to interview at Nishimachi International School for this job,” O’Neill says, “I thought, oh my gosh, there are so many kids who look just like me! I felt in the majority finally; it’s like a cocoon here. I think about kids who will leave Nishimachi, and might feel the way I felt, which is, ‘wait…who am I?’ It’s a super
subtle feeling. So, I think we need to teach identity, and I’m learning about how to do that here.”
Corporate Actions O’Neill’s route back to Nishimachi International School follows a roundabout, and frankly improbably, path. Set to graduate in East Asian studies and Japanese economics at Stanford, she started to seek out work for a large shousha (Japanese trading company) in her junior year. The timing was bad, though; severe yen devaluation had caused international trade with Japan to dwindle. A friend of O’Neill’s suggested that she consider instead management consulting. “She told me that I’d only need to know a little bit about a lot of things, like at a cocktail party,” O’Neill recalls “so, I got out a phone book, took down some addresses and mailed out resumes, telling people I’d head to Japan to interview over spring break.” O’Neill flew to Tokyo in the spring of her junior year, stayed with her relatives in Hatano, and rang up all the companies she had initially contacted, and sat for their English language entrance tests. “At McKinsey & Company, though,” she recalls, “there was also a Japanese language test. There I was, in an office across from the Imperial Hotel, staring at the first page. There were two kanji on it, and I was asked what was the difference between the two. I thought, drat, I can’t read either one. The second page was the same. By the time I finished, I was mortified and embarrassed. I stood up and, apologizing in Japanese to a partner on the way out, tried to slink away. But a secretary came running after me, and they gave me a verbal interview. After that, they said they’d call me. I flew back to the States, and literally heard from no one.” Fortunately, months later, she finally got a call and interview with McKinsey’s San Francisco office. “I was instructed to meet one of McKinsey’s guys, Ken Ohmae, in Los Angeles,” she says. “I was such a novice that I said ‘I’d really like to meet him but I can’t afford the flight.’ The secretary told me, ‘Oh honey, we’ll pay for that.’”
Balance Sheet Though O’Neill was still unfamiliar with the perks of consulting management, she soon encountered the demands. “I didn’t fly to LA after all, because Ken called me, and asked me to be in Tokyo by April. I was supposed to graduate in June, but he said get there by April. So, somehow, I managed to graduate early.” Once in Tokyo, O’Neill found herself speedlearning the terminology of her new job, buried in “the Nelson” (a comprehensive Japanese-English dictionary of kanji characters by Andrew N. Nelson), counting strokes, and learning basic accounting terms in Japanese. “It was hard, but I had a Helen Keller moment,” she says “where suddenly I found I could read Japanese, not college level or anything, but I could read the Nikkei newspaper. I’ve lost a lot of that now, but I could do it then, and the whole world opened.”
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 ..... Nonetheless, there were long, lonely hours at McKinsey, and it wasn’t long before O’Neill realized she was friendless and miserable. “I wanted to bag it,” she says, “so I called my dad and said I didn’t think I could last the 2-year contract. My dad said, do the 2 years. You’ll be fine. But I was not fine.”
Investing in Her Future A chance elevator encounter with an employee of investment banking firm Jardine Fleming led O’Neill to a new job as a securities analyst. “In 1987, I became a food analyst,” she tells me. “It was a very male-dominated field, but I’d go directly to distributors and write financial analysis reports for investors. I was right here when the Japanese market started to take off, at the inflection point, and suddenly it didn’t matter what I wrote—the stocks were going up.” Later, O’Neill moved into sales, and ended up working with Nishimachi International School alumni parent Dominic Henderson, with whom she is still friends. Toward the end of the 1980s, O’Neill eventually joined investment bank S.G. Warburg & Co., a firm that had 2,000 employees when she started, and 55,000 by the time she left her position as Executive Director. There, she leveraged her knowledge of robust Japanese markets, and this facilitated her next move to Swiss multinational investment bank, UBS. What followed was arguably the biggest turning point in O’Neill’s career. After eight years at UBS, O’Neill decided to jump tracks, perpendicularly.
Shedding Bonds “I was quite senior in the bank, because they kept promoting the very few women there,” O’Neill says modestly. “I was working on global financial institutions, and I had a weird moment when I realized that I was spending my whole day on email and voice mail. I began to think ‘this is such bunk… what am I doing?’ I liked advising and working with young adults, so I thought, I’ll go into teaching.” O’Neill called her father to let him know the good news. “I told him I was going to leave the financial world to become a teacher,” O’Neill recalls. “He said ‘WHAT? why would you, at the pinnacle of your career, leave your job to do a thankless task?’ I told him I wanted to teach high school math. He told me not to do it.” Nonetheless, O’Neill followed her gut feeling, and left her position as Managing Director at UBS. “Then my dad got sick, from stomach cancer, and died, at age 60,” O’Neill says. “Plus, that year was 2011, in September. 9/11 was supposed to be the first day of graduate school for me…but of course school didn’t open. I wondered what all this was telling me.” It’s testimony to O’Neill’s tenacity that, despite these sobering events, she stuck to her convictions. Her first placement was as a math teacher. “I hated it,” she says vehemently. “I didn’t want to be a single-subject teacher.” Her next placement
was in a 2-grade classroom as an assistant. “I thought, gee, I might ruin their young lives,” she says, “because I didn’t know how to teach reading. I came to realize that knowing something, and teaching it, are very different things.”
From Banking to Bank Street To address this disparity, O’Neill promptly enrolled at New York’s Bank Street College of Education. “It’s the place for instruction in early childhood learning,” she says. “and it totally upended everything I thought I knew. We learned how math works. You think you know about math, and how it works, but you don’t always know why you know it. Encoding formulas, so that you build a long-term working memory in your brain to use when you need it, was all something I didn’t understand until I got to Bank Street.” O’Neill brought her new knowhow to Beauvoir School at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. There she taught second and third grades. A few years later she transitioned to Sidwell Friends
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8 ..... The Internationalist School. “I really loved teaching there,” she says, with a wide smile. “I learned several things at that school: most important was that children need time to play, and they also need quiet time to just be, to reflect.”
“My gosh, I have recess duty,” she says, and flies out the door. I try to follow her, but she disappears into a sea of children outside waiting for her, putting them before herself, just as Tané Matsukata would have done.
At Sidwell, O’Neill taught second and fourth grades, then broadened her interests to include work in the area of identity. “I was interested in gender roles, stereotypes and the gender construct in general. I became a diversity practitioner and loved working on a wide variety of topics with children,” she says. “After training myself in the field, I started training others, adults, and that got me thinking about becoming a principal.”
Principal Principles O’Neill did not set her sights on heading Sidwell— “The man I would have replaced had been there for 36 years, and I didn’t want to do that,” she says. Instead, she enrolled in Columbia’s Klingenstein Institute, to take a degree in independent school leadership. “It was the hardest thing I’d ever done,” she recalls, “harder than childbirth. It was so intense, and I was the second oldest person there. But, I knew if I could get through so much reading and so much writing, I’d survive.” A survivor extraordinaire, O’Neill next took a job heading the elementary school at Norwood School in Bethesda, Maryland, just down the street from Sidwell. She was several years into that post when she got a random call from a friend, asking her if she’d heard of some place called Nishimachi International School in Japan, where there was a listing. “I of course applied,” she says. An amalgamation of two cultures, O’Neill seems
exactly like the kind of person Tané Matsukata hoped to education, and the ideal choice for Head of School. But O’Neill is wary of the high expectations and challenges she faces. “I can’t pull some bunny rabbit out of the hat,” she cautions. “I’m totally human.” In addition, O’Neill has a husband, two boys at ASIJ, a labradoodle, and a cat to look after. How does she manage the whole work-life balance thing? “I don’t,” she says, wryly, “at least not very well. But I try. Being in Japan helps, because my kids can be more independent. It’s dog-walking that’s the issue.” Just as she starts to tell me more about her life in Japan, O’Neill suddenly looks at her watch, and leaps up. “My gosh, I have recess duty,” she says, and flies out the door. I try to follow her, but she disappears into a sea of children outside waiting for her, putting them before herself, just as Tané Matsukata would have done.
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Welcome to Nishimachi 2019
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am very excited to be the new elementary school principal at Nishimachi International School. When I visited the school earlier this year, it felt like no place I had ever been before – I felt as if I fit, as if I belonged. The fact that that was a palpable feeling I had in only a couple of days really made an impression on me, and I couldn’t help but imagine what an incredible experience that is for our students. I wanted to be part of something so excellent, so special, and so unique. Growing up as a bicultural kid in the United States, I was fortunate to be raised in the rich culture of my South Indian parents, who immigrated to the States in the seventies. At night and on weekends, I enjoyed learning about our religion and culture at home, studying classical Indian dance, eating traditional food, and celebrating our major holidays. However, at school, it was very different. I was teased if I had leftover decorations from dancing on my hands. My name was shortened to something “easier” for the teachers and kids to say. In short, I had one identity at school and a totally different one at home. Nishimachi is unique because it invites all of our students’ selves to school. I have been in education for twenty-plus years, mostly in schools across the United States, and more recently in Australia and South Africa. In the U.S., I served as an elementary teacher, assistant principal, and principal, and also worked at district and state education levels. While in Australia and South Africa, I coached and trained emerging school leaders and school principals. It was very rewarding work, and I miss my “coachees,” but I was missing children, laughter, learning, and the community a school offers much more. So here I am!
The best part of every day for me is time with students—in their classrooms or when I’m on recess duty, or just chatting with them before or after school. Our children inspire me with their cheerful, sunny dispositions, their enthusiasm for reading, learning, and school, and their creative way of looking at the world. This is what school and learning should look and feel like. I am an educator who is committed to joyful and rigorous education. Learning should be fun and challenging; exploratory and introspective; global and personal. In my work at Nishimachi, I want to follow in Tané Matsukata’s footsteps by ensuring we learn and live together. This means as a school we are a cohesive learning community, while ensuring each classroom has its own flavor and personality. We as adults learn together, as well as from the kids themselves. Our children will live and work in a world that demands leadership, ethical behavior, creativity, risk-taking, cultural sensitivity, and emotional intelligence. My commitment to the Nishimachi community is to support those qualities in the education and experiences we offer. A favorite author of mine is Dr. Seuss. In the most creative and child-friendly ways, he taught us about so many of the ideals we espouse at Nishimachi. The following two quotations reflect our ethos perfectly. “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you!” “Happy Birthday to You!” poem “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose,” Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Kalpana Rao ES Principal
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Knowing, Caring, and Taking Action in Grade 4
Terry Morris Grade 4 Teacher
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s we complete our first month of the 20192020 school year and students are settling into their new classes, we want to reflect on an amazing project that our 20182019 Grade 4 students completed last year. They worked hard to bring positive change to the children at our sister school in Cambodia! They did this by truly knowing, caring and taking action during their learning journey throughout Grade 4 and should be proud of their hard work and the positive impact it has had on others. In the Grade 4 unit “Energy and Human Impact,� students were presented with guiding questions along their learning journey to help them investigate and learn what energy is, the different forms of electricity, how it is made, human use of electricity, and the impact this has on the environment. This led to many more questions, and the students began to wonder how we can lessen the negative impact that
energy creation and consumption causes on the environment. We began to focus on where our actual electricity comes from here in Tokyo and how we can lessen the negative impact of our consumption of electricity. We decided that we wanted to reduce our electric consumption at Nishimachi, and the school gave us permission to run a saving electricity campaign in March, with a promise to donate the money saved through this activity to our Cambodian sister school, Kirivorn, about which we had recently learnt more about through the grade 9 students who had visited the school. To run this campaign we realized we needed to make people want to join our campaign and teach them to KNOW, CARE, and TAKE ACTION. To do this we created three groups. The KNOW group would teach the NIS community the impact energy manufacture and consumption have on the environment and the need to use less. The CARE group would show lay out strategies on how to use less electricity at NIS and at home. The TAKE ACTION group would find out what Kirivorn School really needed so we could use the money generated to provide for this. Children chose the group that they wished to participate in, and each group created posters, commercials, websites, and handouts to share with the community.
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 ..... The TAKE ACTION group met with the grade 9 students and learned more about the Kirivorn school and its students. They discovered that the school already had electricity, a well with clean water, and other necessities, but they noticed that something fundamental to the well being of the students was missing––a place to wash their hands. We seized on this idea and with Nurse Nancy’s help found out that it would be possible to get sinks made, along with a water tank to provide water for these sinks, at a total cost of US$660. Our Electricity campaign began on March 1, and the materials the students produced were shared with the community. Students gave presentations at ES and MS assemblies and visited each classroom and the staff in Matsukata House to share our campaign message. They even stood at the front gate in the morning to remind students to save electricity. It was wonderful to see the children so motivated to create change at our school as a way to help others. One of our favourite mottos was We have the power to help others by saving power! The Electricity campaign was a success. We saved a total of 7.6 % of electricity compared to March 2018 and raised a total of JPY53,989. Unfortunately, this was not enough to purchase the sinks and water tank, but we did not let that get us down. Instead, we were more motivated to find a way to reach our goal. In math, we were just
beginning to explore fractions and decimals through a favourite family recipe. We thought “Why don’t we each make our recipe and have a bake sale after school to raise the funds?” Again, the school fully supported our proposal, and on Monday, May 27, we held our bake sale after school. Children, with the wonderful support of their families, who bought ingredients and supervised the cooking on the weekend, sold their delicious baked goods and raised a total of JPY55,961. We made well over our goal with a grand total of JPY109,680. The money needed for the sinks and water tank was sent and Kirivorn School now has 4 sinks with running water for their students. The impact on the well-being of the Kirivorn students has been huge. Washing hands is fundamental to good hygiene and the prevention of sickness and disease. Grade 4 students should be proud of the hard work that made this possible for the Kirivorn students. With the remaining money, we are restarting the process of investigating the best way to use it for Kirivorn. What do the students really need? One of the ideas being floated is providing soap and soap bags (for tying the soap to the sinks). The grade 9 students could deliver it to Kirivorn School on their annual December visit. Whatever direction we take, it will be another positive contribution to the lives of the children there.
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Nishimachi Learner Expectations: Framing Our Work, Guiding Our Practice “All members of the Nishimachi community, including students, teachers, support staff, parents, and the larger community, are part of the continuous process of growth and learning. We are all learners.” (Carol Koran, Director of Learning)
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Carol Koran Director of Learning
hat are the characteristics of an educated person? What are the qualities of a good person? What makes a good student? These questions were posed to a group of grade 8 students during a silent conversation activity in 2018. Some of their responses: An educated person respects others, has multiple perspectives, makes good choices, solves problems, and tries to make the world a better place. A good person thinks critically but is open to new ideas, accepts different cultures and backgrounds, and is compassionate and thoughtful of others. A good student is open minded, asks lots of questions, tries hard, and is open to challenges. Starting in 2016, under the guidance of consultant Pam Harper, the Nishimachi faculty has been exploring similar questions: What does learning look like? How do we know when a student is learning? What attitudes and approaches to learning best prepare students for their futures? The faculty responses, which were similar to those articulated by students in 2018, helped to provide a baseline for our journey to develop a new set of learner expectations for Nishimachi. Following the creation of a list of learning principles, the faculty spent the next two years further refining and analyzing our beliefs and understandings about education, culminating in five Nishimachi Learner Expectations. The new NLEs successfully merged
the previous Student Learning Expectations with our current understandings about how students learn and the skills they will need to be successful in the world in which they will be leaders.
Visualizing the NLEs Our modern culture is highly visual. Students respond emotionally to colors, shapes, and designs. To ensure that our new NLEs were appropriately rendered visually, graphic designer Juntaro Mori created a series of posters with original designs inspired by traditional Japanese themes. The descriptions of the designs included in this article are Mr. Mori’s. The NLE posters displayed throughout the school and in the classrooms include English text, Japanese kanji, and Mori’s unique designs, all illustrating founder Tané Matsukata’s vision for Nishimachi of keeping a special identity, a principle that remains core to the school’s mission to this day. We Make Connections. “To share, to live and learn together...” (Tané Matsukata) At Nishimachi, we recognize that learning involves collaboration, communication, and sharing. When a student says, “That makes me think of…,” or “That reminds me of the time…,” they are making those valuable connections that make new knowledge personally meaningful. Tané Matsukata also noted the important role education plays in forging connections between people and cultures as a means of promoting peace and understanding. Grade 8 student Alexis M. identified this NLE as important because “we have a whole international community and we get to know different perspectives.” The image for this NLE combines snow, circles, and sakura blossoms, signifying harmony in and connections to the changing seasons. Nishimachi’s strong alumni community, as well as the many graduates who return each year to visit their former school, is a testament to the meaningful human connections that are formed in the classroom. We Are Creative In the art classroom, students are constructing
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a large mural out of individually created images. The grade 3 students are experimenting with ramps and different materials to discover more about motion and friction. On the playground, a group of grade 1 students has devised a new game using only a length of rope they found in a basket. The whiteboard in the math class poses a question, “How many ways can you solve this problem?” Creativity extends to all aspects of learning; it is a mind-set that explores, looks for new perspectives, and asks “what if?” As one grade 8 student commented during a discussion in advisory class, “It appeals to me, because to be creative is to have something that nobody else has thought of. It means you think differently, or have different reactions.” The image for this NLE is the umetsuru or umezuru pattern, which combines a plum blossom with the head of a tsuru (crane) to suggest rich ideas and creativity. We Take Ownership The original Student Learning Expectations included “Responsible Learner” and “Developer of Quality Work.” In the case of the revised NLE, the focus shifts from what a student produces (a product) and widens the concept of “responsible” to include a sense of individual accountability. The image associated with this NLE depicts mature rice in a traditional Japanese design that combines grain, the moon, and clouds, to illustrate the humility that comes as one grows in knowledge. Taking ownership asks students to recognize that they need to be active, involved participants in their own learning: setting goals, identifying practices that will move them forward in their learning, and reflecting on their own progress. From a grade 2 perspective, it means “asking others for help when you don’t know the answer.” From a grade 4 perspective, it means, “being a leader. Because, if something needs to happen, someone has to say, ‘I will take charge of this’.” We Act Ethically At Nishimachi, we want students to know, to care, and, perhaps most important, to take action. It is no coincidence that the verb for this NLE is “act.” Translating knowledge into action is evidenced when our students travel to Cambodia to work with the students at the Kirivorn School,
when they raise funds for and provide support to Minamisanriku-cho, when they venture out early on a weekend morning to deliver food to the homeless in Shibuya. Acting ethically is reflected in our curriculum, where we ensure that students are engaged intellectually in exploring ethical issues around environmental sustainability, human rights, and global conflicts. Acting ethically also means treating those with whom we interact every day with the same compassion and respect that we show to a larger community. Saying “I’m sorry,” including others in activities, and being mindful of one’s impact on others are simple, everyday observances of this important NLE. The floral pattern designed to illustrate it suggests its importance in nurturing both the heart and the mind. Tané Matsukata’s vision for Nishimachi included this important component of sensitivity toward others and the courage to take action. We Pursue Challenges As described by the artist, the image chosen for this NLE is a traditional Japanese chidori (a thousand birds) design that is associated with good luck and achieving goals. It suggests swimming through rough waves and navigating challenges. When asked to describe what this NLE meant to them, grade 8 student Sara T. responded, “If we don’t take on a challenge, our world would not be broader. Pursue challenge means don’t give up.” Emma S. expanded the concept further. “It means to do things that are out of your comfort zone, to ‘open your bubble,’ as Ms. Lawson [MS principal] says.” Challenges may be personal, physical, intellectual, and global, but, regardless of their origin, this NLE encourages all learners to not only accept challenge, but to pursue it as a valuable and necessary component of continued growth. We would like to acknowledge the work of all those who collaborated to create our Nishimachi Learner Expectations. They provide us with a common language to use when talking about learning with our students and community. They connect us to our past and our founder’s vision for education. Finally, they are both practical and inspirational, relevant to our students in their current context, and reminders of those attitudes and practices that will guide our students to be leaders in the future.
13
14 ..... The Internationalist
Nishimachi Walks in Rainbows
S Justine Hitchcock
Former Grade 3 Teacher
Formal education teaches how to stand, but to see the rainbow you must come out and walk many steps on your own. ―Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power
howered in color and surrounded by smiles, Nishimachi took to the streets last month, proud to celebrate the beauty of diversity. On April 28, students, teachers, and parents joined thousands of fellow Tokyoites on the streets of Shibuya to march in the annual Tokyo Pride Parade. Determined to show our respect and care for Japan’s LBGTQ+ community, we draped ourselves in rainbows, patiently battled through the crowds, and wore out our wrists waving and shouting “Happy Pride Day!” to well-wishers along the city streets. It was a fantastic day, as the words of the participants give testament to: I was so glad to participate in the Pride Parade. It was inspiring to see so many people gathering together to celebrate their identities and to stand up for what they believe in. I also loved all the bright colors and the positive and happy vibe of the event. It was great to be part of! Charlotte G., Grade 6 I found the diversity at the parade really inspiring. There were so many different kinds of people, companies, and organizations all taking part to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. It was really enjoyable. I got to understand more about the community, and I met new people with new insights into different topics. Coco C., Grade 8 I had a wonderful experience at the Pride Parade. I really enjoyed representing Nishimachi and
marching around Shibuya. I feel the Pride Parade was an opportunity for everyone to feel open and accept each other with open arms. Something that was particularly memorable for me were the connections I was able to make with people watching the parade. Although we didn’t know each other, we all shared smiles and high fives. I loved how people who weren’t part of the parade were able to enjoy the experience. I think this parade spread a lot of awareness and also made the LGBTQ+ community feel welcome. Sofia M., Grade 8 I was most moved by the number of people who came to support the LGBTQ+ community here in Japan. Seeing young people was promising and gave me hope that the world (and Japan) will continue to grow safer and more accepting of all people. When I saw LQBTQ+ people of an older generation, I could only imagine the prejudice they have experienced and how the world has changed for them in their lifetime. It has been a collective effort of all of the equity warriors out there! Mihoko Chida, Former ES Principal Many thanks to everyone who was able to join us and share our message of “strength in diversity.” We look forward to joining other international schools to make an even bigger, brighter splash at next year’s Pride Parade.
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
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16th Annual Outreach Scholarship Golf Tournament Chiba Birdie Club May 25, 2019
T
he 16th annual Outreach Scholarship Golf Tournament was held on Saturday, May 25, at the beautiful Chiba Birdie Club. Fifty-two golfers, including ten parents, one third grader, fifteen alumni and parents of alumni, as well as six members of the Nishimachi staff, participated under clear skies in a day of golfing fun. The winner of the day was Shigekatsu Takeda, a regular on the Nishimachi tour, with a net score of 70.8 under the double-peria* rule (gross 84). In close second was first-time participant Keiko Uekubo with a 71.0 (gross 95). Nishimachi alumnus and current parent Tokuya Sano took home the third place trophy with a 71.2 (gross 100).
Many, many thanks to the players, the helpers who joined us, and the forty-four tournament sponsors, all of whom made the day a great success. We raised ¼895,000 in support of the Outreach Scholarship Program. We hope to see many of you at the 17th tournament, scheduled for Saturday, May 23, 2020. *Handicap for the Nishimachi Outreach Scholarship golf tournament is calculated as follows: Double Peoria Rules Add your scores on the 12 secret holes; Multiply by 1.5; Subtract the golf course’s par (72); Multiply by 80%
Philippe Eymard
Director of Development
---
ANNIVERSARY SOCIAL Join us for a community get-together to celebrate Nishimachi’s 70th! Parents, staff, alumni, parents of alumni, former staff, and friends are welcome! Date: Time: Place: Fee:
Friday, February 14, 2020 6:00–8:30 p.m. Ushiba Memorial Gymnasium, Nishimachi 5,000 yen per person (adults only) Food, drinks, and activities included
Prior reservations are required. To make a reservation, (1) please complete the 70th anniversary online reservation form at www.nishimachi.ac.jp/alumni/70th or (2) complete the form below and send to: Nishimachi International School, 2-14-7 Moto Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0046 Reservations and payment* are due on Monday, February 3, 2020. (*if you are joining us from overseas, we will accept payment at the door.) Payment can be made: (1) by cash – submit name(s) and total payment to “70th Anniversary Social” box at the Nishimachi front office (2) by bank transfer – Nishimachi International School, MUFG Bank, Hiroo Branch, Ordinary Account #0724066
✂- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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70th Anniversary Social Reservation Form
Name: ________________________________ Email: ________________________________
Total Number of Attendees: _____
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
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Nishimachi-Kai Alumni Barbecue Update
H
eavy rain did not deter Nishimachi-Kai BBQ enthusiasts at this past year’s annual June BBQ. We welcomed over 100 guests, including current school administrators and the school board of directors. We also welcomed Nishimachi’s seventeen 2019 graduates as new Nishimachi-Kai members.
Thanks go to Kiki Jiang-Yamaguchi ‘87, Akemi Kanazawa, and Kotoe ’00 and Tomohiro Shirakawa for helping with food preparation. As we all know, preparation is the kanjin kaname (prerequisite) for a successful BBQ, and we appreciate all their hard work. A special thank you goes to alumna mother Yoko Nakayama, who spent the day behind the scenes holding down the kitchen fort.
Nishimachi Alumni at Outreach Scholarship Golf Tournament 2019 Thank you to the seven alumni golfers who participated in the tournament last May. From left to right: Ryoji Kubo ‘90, Meg Higuchi ‘78, Nancy Hashima ‘83, Sang-Dae Rah ‘96, Mary Katayama ‘67, Yushi Katayama ‘96, and Mayumi Nakayama ‘90, who was there to help run the tournament. Missing from the group shot is Tokuya Sano ‘86, who had already started his round!
We are grateful to Noel Bradshaw, Jin Fukuma, Chris Hathaway ‘90, Andy Hill ‘86, Gary Kellenberger, Shige Kobayashi, Thomas Miller, Austin Powell, and Hisami Shirai for cheerfully grilling away under the tent despite the constant drizzle. The BBQ doesn’t happen without a great fire and a team of dedicated grillers so we thank them very much for all their help. We would also like to recognize the Cheerio Corporation for its continued support for Nishimachi-Kai events, and DC BBQ for this year’s wonderful briskets. To all NIS alums, your involvement in and support of Nishimachi-Kai are invaluable. We look forward to seeing you at our next event.
Nancy Hashima ‘83 Chair, Nishimachi-Kai Executive Board
18 ..... The Internationalist
Class of 2019 High School List
Class of 2016 University List
Ryo Abekawa Yokohama International School, Japan Gabriel Cantero UWC ISAK Japan, Japan Taiga Cogger St. Mary’s International School, Japan Lily Downey-Yamada Tokai University Takanawadai Senior High School, Japan Ken Flores The American School In Japan, Japan Marin Fujino The American School In Japan, Japan Keisuke Fukui Waseda University Honjo Senior High School, Japan Mayako Furuya International School of Sacred Heart, Japan Erica Greenberg The American School In Japan, Japan Elizabeth Handte The American School In Japan, Japan Christopher Hathaway The American School In Japan, Japan Ethan Hirano The American School In Japan, Japan Asako Ishibashi The American School In Japan, Japan An Ishizaki Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen Shibuya Senior High School, Japan Elizabeth Jaeger Bradbury School, Hong Kong Mackay Jenkins The American School In Japan, Japan Takeo Kawasaki Kimball Union Academy, U.S.A. Kia Kellenberger Taft School, U.S.A. Ellen Kobayashi Yokohama International School, Japan Mantaro Kurihara UWC ISAK Japan, Japan Miya Laborde The American School In Japan, Japan Max Lebrun The American School In Japan, Japan Taiga Lewis The American School In Japan, Japan Yujin Lin Harrow School, U.K. Davide Lorenzoni Yokohama International School, Japan William Mercado Northgate High School, U.S.A. Ian Milstein The American School In Japan, Japan Kazuki Miura The American School In Japan, Japan Rina Naito The American School In Japan, Japan Katherine O’Shea The American School In Japan, Japan Emily Ohara Iolani School, U.S.A. Riki Ohara IMG Academy, U.S.A. Yujin Okuda The American School In Japan, Japan Miyu Peters The American School In Japan, Japan Adam Platek The American School In Japan, Japan Miya Porter The American School In Japan, Japan Jake Reid Crestwood Preparatory College, Canada Ellie Reidenbach The American School In Japan, Japan Evon Robertson Desert Junior-Senior High School, U.S.A. Kaho Sakemi The American School In Japan, Japan Kai Schinaman The American School In Japan, Japan Soichiro Shibata St. Mary’s International School, Japan Aiko Shimizu Kanrei Shirayuri Gakuen, Japan Samaya Singh International School of Sacred Heart, Japan Erika Takei International School of Sacred Heart, Japan Haruka Tanaka (Yiu) ICU High School, Japan Ayana Usui K. International School Tokyo, Japan Patrick Whelan Prospect School, U.S.A. Justin Yamada The American School In Japan, Japan Maya Yamamoto Northfield Mount Hermon High School, U.S.A. Sijie Yan Taft School, U.S.A. Chantal Yoshino York House School, Canada
Yuki Adams Barnard College, U.S.A. Yuika Ando Barnard College, U.S.A. Bianca Beck Yale University, U.S.A. Sarah Brauer Gap Year Keith Choa University of Waterloo, Canada Emma Copsey Univesity College of London, U.K. Masako Donahue Northeastern University, U.S.A. Sho Flores University of Southern California, U.S.A. Alisa Fukuda Tufts University, U.S.A. Dean Hahne Gap Year Eriya Hara Sophia University, Japan Hannah Heile Copenhagen Business School, Denmark Isabella Henderson The University of Edinburgh, U.K. Elissa Ito Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A. Hana Kabira Northeastern University, U.S.A. Ryo Kamibayashi University of Michigan, U.S.A. Masao Kawasaki Dartmouth College, U.S.A. Koa Kellenberger California State University, Northridge, U.S.A. Jeongbin Lee Dickinson College, U.S.A. Justin Leung Pace University, U.S.A. Ashley Lin Brown University, U.S.A. Chloe Macasaet Savannah College of Art and Design, U.S.A. Jonathan March Middlebury College, U.S.A. Mirei McKinnon Waseda University, Japan Konstantin Meyer zu Brickwedde University of Exeter, U.K. Anna Milstein Stanford University, U.S.A. Ryone Ohmae Suffolk University, U.S.A. Raian Ohtaka University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. Nelson Phelan University of California, Santa Cruz, U.S.A. Mia Ritter Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A. Shawn Satterwhite George Washington Universty, U.S.A. Julia So Boston University, U.S.A. Kai Sulkin New York University, U.S.A. Mona Suzuki Columbia University, U.S.A. Ciaran Hikaru Ueda Fitzgerald Boston University, U.S.A. Christopher Uruma Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland Aqua Wood Parsons School of Design, U.S.A. Toshiyuki Yano Denison University, U.S.A.
Please accept our apologies if we overlooked your name in compiling the high school and university listings (this list was compiled with help from the class reps, students, and parents).
P O S T M A R K S Former Faculty and Staff
Jonica Bushman
JH English (1990 - 1991) 9/17/2019
Hiroko Lockheimer
Assistant for public relations (1982 - 1983), Development Office staff (1994 - 2011) 5/16/2019
Hiroko-san stopped by during her stay in Tokyo to say hello to her Nishimachi family. Here she is with her son’s classmate and current parent Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma ‘90.
Erin McNamara
MS English (2002 - 2017) MS social studies (2015 - 2017) 5/29/2019
Even though my tenure at Nishimachi was only for one year, the mission and vision of this school have always remained in my heart. It was a wonderful year. I still hear occasionally from some of the great kids—now adults—I taught here. It is so nice to see all the changes and the still thriving school. Jonica with her husband, James
Shusuke Ishida
Director of Administration and External Affairs (2006 - 2014) 6/12/2019
Ms. McNamara recently married a lovely man whom she has known since they were children. Congratulations to Ms. Mac!
Leanne Mercado
Kindergarten (1994 – 1996); grade 1 (1996 – 2000); assistant librarian (2007 – 2008); curriculum support assistant (2008 – 2009); ES teacher (2009 – 2012); director of Library Media Center (2012 – 2018) 6/13/2019
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
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David Priest
PE (1987 - 1997, 1998 - 2007), JH coordinator (1988 - 1990), music (1991 1993), and vice principal (1998 - 1999) 10/9/2019
Mr. Priest stopped by Nishimachi to see his former colleagues. In the photo (from left) are John Beirne, student services; Mr. Priest; Dan Williams, MS PE; Nancy Tsurumaki, school nurse; and Philippe Eymard, director of development.
Masako Suzuki
MS Japanese (1999 - 2006), ES Japanese (2006 - 2017), JSS (2000 - 2006) 9/12/2019
Suzuki-sensei says “hello” to all.
Takeo Tan
PE (1978 - 2009) 9/22/2019
Ishida-san visited Nishimachi to say “hello” to all his friends in the Matsukata House. Here is a recent photo of me taken with my dog in my backyard. Even though today is the first day of fall, Atlanta (where I live) is still hot.
Christine Crane
Computer Resource (1990 - 1992) 4/19/2019
I am currently living in Colorado but interviewing across the US for an elementary ESL teaching job for 2019-20. My kids, and former Nishimachi students, Rebecca ‘97 (Fairview High School, Boulder, 2000) and Keenan Crane ‘00 (Boulder High School, 2002) are both living in Pittsburgh, PA. Rebecca is a licensed massage therapist, and Keenan is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Keenan and his fiancée, Andrea Kao, will be married in 2020, and we are all very happy for them.
Mrs. Mercado returned to Tokyo with her family for the graduation of her son, William’s, former classmates from grade 9. Pictured with Mrs. Mercado (from left) are Mari Matsumura, librarian; her husband, Michael; William ‘19; and Lucy ‘21.
Attention Nishimachi Alumni Just like you, your classmates are always wondering what you have been up to. Write your class reps or write to us directly. We would love to hear from you!
20 ..... The Internationalist
Alumni
P O S T M A R K S 1979
Marla Petal
mpetal@imagins.com
1970
50th
bluesky_blueocean@fd6.so-net.ne.jp
Berylhosack@gmail.com
1980
Mark Melnick
markmelnick0204@yahoo.com
SP
Mary (Inoue) Tamiya 5/13/2019
1971
tanyapete@earthlink.net
1981
No Class Representative
1972
Tony Gillion
tgillion@puredew.co.nz
Judith (Almstadt) Guyer
Nir Platek
1973
1982
nir.platek@gmail.com
Akiko Tanaka
Osamu Francis
atanaka@mail1.meijigakuin.ac.jp
1963
Ann (Sado) Honjo
atoz.sado@gmail.com
1966
Mari (Otagawa) Parker mari.parker2@gmail.com
Fumiko (Saneyoshi) NishinoFriedewald
osamu_francis@hotmail.com
1974
Henry Buddy Marini buddymarini@gmail.com
Paul Anderson
1983
anderson@asialeverage.com
1975
45th
Nancy Hashima
nhashima68@gmail.com
Jesse Astalos
Gioia Marini
1976
Aileen Ramirez Bouclé
jesse.astalos@gmail.com
40th
Tanya (Nebenzal) Rude
judithguyer@mac.com
Mary dropped by Nishimachi during her walk around the neighborhood. She is pictured here with Mayumi Nakayama ‘90, development officer, who happens to be her daughter’s classmate from ASIJ. What a small world.
galenflint@gmail.com
Hanako Muto
Beryl (Horn) Hosack
Galen Flint
marinigioia@gmail.com 4/16/2019
Galit (Platek) Fuhrer galit@emjoi.com
Mari Takeuchi 8/27/2019
fnf55@hotmail.com
1967
Arthur Balfour
abalfour@cvvmaxsgarage.com
1968
Stephanie Farrior
stephanie.farrior@gmail.com
1969
Leslie (Zyto) Celentano
LeslieZCelentano@gmail.com
Bruce Moran
moranb@saccounty.net
Mari stopped by to say hello.
1977
Lynn Astalos
lynnastalos@gmail.com
1978
Deborah Krisher-Steele
debbie@cambodiaschools.com
Aileen has been working as the executive director for the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization in Florida. You can find out more about what she’s up to professionally in an article about her work that appeared in Diario Las Americás (in Spanish). https://www.diariolasamericas.com/ florida/las-6-soluciones-el-transito-miamidade-n3790623
She is pictured here with her husband and daughter.
P O S T M A R K S 1984
Maki Ando 4/16/2019
Robert Sharp
robert@robertsharp.com
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
from Finland to meet up with my ’89 classmates. We had a lovely dinner and a fun evening catching up on everything we had done since we last met. From left in the photo are Marina Repetto, myself, Henrik Brusewitz (Nilsson), and Anna Omstedt.
1990 I saw Natasha Wood ‘86 in Melbourne last December when I was there with my husband and daughter for the holidays.
Ravish Sachar 11/29/2019
Visiting Nishimachi after many, many years with my son, Nikhil. Great to see how much the school has grown. Still look back at Nishimachi as some of the best years of my life. Looking forward to coming back soon for the BBQ in June and catching up with more from the class of ‘84.
1985
1988
Maki Suzuki
21
30th
William Hammell
william.hammell@gmail.com
Akiko Popiel
akikopopiel@hotmail.com
Lieko Earle 6/14/2019
makilisasuzuki@gmail.com
Audrey McAvoy
audreymcavoy@gmail.com
Heather Terbell 4/3/2019
35th
Nobumichi Hara
nobumhara@gmail.com
Frederik (Riko) van Santen rikovansanten@gmail.com
1986
Makiko (Hara) Tomita makikotomita@gmail.com
Andy Hill
jandy.hill@gmail.com
Natasha Wood 4/24/2019
So excited to visit Japan for spring break. I was so happy to show my family Nishimachi.
Lieko visited Nishimachi with her husband and two children, and her sister, Sayako ‘96, and her family. Here she is with her classmate Mayumi Nakayama.
Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma 8/29/2019
1989
Danya (Norris) Clark
danyanorris@hotmail.com
Noriomi Chiba 10/30/2019
Lalaka and Wendy Kobayashi, mother of Ellen Kobayashi ‘19, stopped by the alumni office to finalize plans for the alumni booth at Food Fair 2019.
Chris Hathaway 6/15/2019
Natasha and her husband, Peter, visited Japan. They took short trips to different parts of the country during their stay here. While in Tokyo, she stopped by Nishimachi, where she met up with an old friend from her Nishimachi days, Haruko (Kawai) Kohno ‘85. From left in the photo, Haruko, Natasha, and Peter.
Hi, everybody. Back in Nishimachi for the first time in 35 years. Very nostalgic.
Aleksi Kaislaniemi 5/6/2019
Chris attended the annual Nishimachi-Kai BBQ in June. He posed for a photo with his classmates Ryoji Kubo, Momoka Kataoka, Mayumi Nakayama, and Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma.
1987
Alexander Nalevanko
alex_nalevanko@yahoo.com
Last weekend (April 27-28, 2019) my wife, Mari, and I flew to Stockholm
22 ..... The Internationalist Mayumi Nakayama 4/12/2019
P O S T M A R K S mini-reunion. Some of his classmates had not seen Sean since the early eighties when they were all at Nishimachi. From left: Momoka Kataoka, Atsuo Yamaguchi, Izuru Kato, Sean Tadaki, Ryoji Kubo, Hanako (Suzuki) Kubo, and Yuko.
Marcus Ogawa ‘94, who was visiting Japan at the same time.
1991
Kacie (Rosenberg) Leviton
Donna Willoughby The Nishimachi gala is just one event during the school year when alumni from various years get together. Here’s a group photo from Gala 2019. From left: Nagisa (Singh) Shin ‘90; Kiki Jiang Yamaguchi ‘87; Tokuya Sano ‘86; myself; Chris Hathaway ‘90; Kacie (Rosenberg) Leviton ‘95, Nishimachi marketing and communications manager; and Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma ‘90. Omochitsuki in January is another. Alumni who are also current parents help run the event every year.
Regina Sieber
regina.sieber@gmail.com
Mami Ohara 6/18/2019
Emma Tamaoki genki09@me.com
Kenji Chikada
kenji_fc@hotmail.com
Mika Tamura
mikatamura@hotmail.com
1993
Cordelia Crockett Monica Arias
m_arias00@hotmail.com
Mia-Margaret Laabs mmlaabs@gmail.com
Sean Tadaki
25th
1992
cordyny@hotmail.com
From left: Tokuya Sano ‘86, myself, Nagisa (Singh) Shin ‘90, Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma ‘90, Kacie (Rosenberg) Leviton ‘95, and Anri (Teshigahara) Watanabe ‘98.
1995
1994
Alison (Todd-Smith) Garen alison.garen@gmail.com
Ritujoy Chakraborty 4/4/2019
4/16/2019
Mami visited Nishimachi with her baby boy. She posed for a photo with her classmate Kacie (Rosenberg) Leviton.
1996
Andrew Blanshard Lilian Wouters
lilian.wouters@gmail.com
1997
Eric Vandenbrink
eric.vandenbrink@gmail.com
Andrew Schrag
ansdy@hotmail.com
1998
Michelle James
michellejames@gmail.com
Kanho (Hirotaka) Son hirotaka.son@gmail.com
Sean visited Nishimachi while on a business trip to Asia.
Ritujoy visited Japan and was able to spend some time with his former Japanese teacher, Ohta-sensei.
Yhu Kuni
4/22/2019
Yuko Yamada 4/22/2019
1999
Lina Takahashi Maiko Nakarai
nakarai@post.harvard.edu
2000
20th
Harukako Ikeura
haruikeura@hotmail.com
When classmate Sean Tadaki ‘90 visited Japan, Yuko planned a class of 1990
When Ritujoy Chakraborty was in Japan, he got a chance to meet up with classmates Yhu, who lives in Tokyo, and
Class Reps noted in red are either new reps, or have a new e-mail address.
P O S T M A R K S Reimi Okuyama ro7n@virginia.edu
Kristian Olsen 9/2/2019
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
23
Linda Hunt 4/4/2019
2001
Hilary Papantonio papa441@gmail.com
Ian Schoch 10/14/2019
Kristian and his wife, Natalie, visited Tokyo on their way home from China.
Sarah Thomas 8/21/2019
Ian, along with his wife, sister Jennifer ‘03, her partner, and their parents, visited Nishimachi.
2002
Vicky Fang
victoria_jwp_fang@hotmail.com
Noah Greenwood 10/4/2019
I am back in Japan for the first time since our family left in 1997. Work brought me back. I am working as a baseball bat engineer on a project for the Japanese market. It’s been great to come back and walk around to see where I grew up. Linda is pictured here with her father’s former co-worker and his wife.
Amy (Videtto) Thomas 9/27/2019
Sarah stopped by Nishimachi with her mother, Junko Thomas, Nishimachi trustee, to say hello.
2004
Alyssa Smith
aizumi.smith@gmail.com
Carolyn (Broadberry) Frank 11/8/2019
Happy to visit after so many years away. It was nice to show my husband Nishimachi, a place filled with so many memories. From left: James McKinnon, Amy, and Amy’s husband, Peter.
2005
Hikaru Yamagishi
Glad to be back. Nice renovations. Here’s a photo of Noah with James McKinnon, MS science teacher.
15th
hikaru.y@gmail.com
Tomoko Aratake
John Paul Jordan
arataket@gmail.com
6/12/2019
Leo Ikenaga 10/14/2019
John Paul stopped by to say hello to his former Japanese teacher, Chika Keough. He’s pictured here with Philippe Eymard and Keough-sensei.
2003
Kayla Cahoon
kaylacahoon@yahoo.com
Carolyn visited Nishimachi with her whole family: her parents; her husband, Paul; her daughter, Emily; her brother, Lawrence; and his partner, Jess. Here she is with her former math teacher, James McKinnon.
Leo came to Nishimachi with his taiko drummers and performed for the students/school.
2006
Jennifer Blagg
jblagg90@gmail.com
24 ..... The Internationalist Emily Hunt 5/23/2019
William Hunt, father of Emily ‘06 and Louis ‘08 Hunt, and former Nishimachi director, was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (旭 日小綬章), in the spring of 2019 for his contributions to US – Japan relationships.
P O S T M A R K S Vitaly Banov
Mary Hamilton 6/24/2019
vit.ban@hotmail.com
Olivia Novotny 9/24/2019
Jennifer Long 4/8/2019
I graduated with my MD from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in May. I now live in Charleston, South Carolina, where I will complete my residency in pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina. Jenny visited Junko Thomas, mother of Anne ‘99 and Sarah ‘03 Thomas, in April. Her visit was so perfectly timed she was able to attend the Nishimachi gala with Mrs. Thomas.
2007
Akiko Watanabe
akikooo24@gmail.com
Edward Liu 8/23/2019
2009
Mai Hahne
mai_hahne@hotmail.com
2010
10th
Katherine Whatley
whatleykatherine@yahoo.com
Sophia Bogaty 11/8/2019
Hello. I am back in Japan teaching with the JET Programme and beyond happy to be home. I am living in Yamagata Prefecture in a town of 6,000 people, but it feels more like 200. Feel free to drop by for some of the best apples and produce in Japan. Olivia was photographed with Stephen Skelton, performing arts teacher, and Dan Williams, In the second photo, she appears with Hotta-san, instructional support and community liaison.
2012 Edward came by to say “hi” to Nishimachi.
2008
Sarah Haber
“Really good to be back,” says Sophia. She visited Nishimachi with her friend Ryan, and we took a picture of her with James McKinnon and Chika Keough.
Nami Miwa 4/29/2019
Cynthia Uruma
urumacindy3@gmail.com
Miriam Weiss
miriam.k.weiss@gmail.com
Miriam Weiss 5/30/2019
sarahmachiko_jp@yahoo.com
Moeko Nakada
moeko93@yahoo.com
Lawrence Broadberry 11/8/2019
Nami stopped by with her classmate Hannah Packard and Hannah’s husband, Michael Harrington.
2011 Lawrence remembered all the classrooms he studied in. He visited Nurse Nancy, whom he spent a lot of time with while a student at Nishimachi.
Deidre (Narumi) Hsu deidre_hsu@mac.com
Her mother writes: Miriam graduated from Tufts University with a BA magna cum laude. In the photo, she is with her mother and her father, Dan Weiss, current Nishimachi director.
P O S T M A R K S 2013
India Whatley
flwcceo@gmail.com
2015
Mirei McKinnon 9/5/2019
paula.heile@gmail.com
Ayana Nakamichi
Sharmaine Cantero
Maya Platek
5/8/2019
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Paula Heile
Kim Hahne
kimhahne98@gmail.com
5th
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
ayanamazhar@gmail.com platekmaya@gmail.com
Arisa Kubo 6/15/2019
Mirei and her classmate Konstantin Meyer zu Brickwedde stopped by Nishimachi before they started their university classes.
2017 Sharmaine visited Nishimachi with her mother to cheer on her brother, Gabby ‘19, when he made his thesis presentation in Japanese class.
2014
Sally Maeda
sally.maeda1999@gmail.com
Ma’ayan Nahmani
maimainahmani@gmail.com
Mia Moran
miafrancesmoran@gmail.com
Arisa stopped by Nishimachi during her summer break.
2016
Ryone Ohmae
ryone.omae@gmail.com 9/5/2019
6/15/2019
Jean Mauratille 4/11/2019
His mother writes: Jean Mauratille is at Winchester College in the UK.
Ian Smith
6/25/2019
Ian stopped by Nishimachi during his visit to Tokyo. Though he came after school hours, he was able to see Mr. Beirne, his fifth grade teacher.
Riku Tanaka 4/16/2019
I will be participating in ISF (the International School Sport Federation) World Schools Swimming Championship in Rio de Janeiro from May 18 to 23 as the USA representative.
A few members from the class of 2014 attended the Nishimachi-Kai BBQ in June. In the back row from left: Nick So, Julienne Svalander, and Yusa An; in the front row from left: Amy Takagi, Yujin Chung Yamahara, Kaito Yamagishi, Daiki Tsunoda, and Winston Gan.
Students from the class of 2016 came by to say “hi” to Mari Matsumura, Nishimachi librarian. From left: Mirei McKinnon, Konstantin Meyer zu Brickwedde, Ms. Matsumura, Dean Hahne, Raian Ohtaka, Chris Uruma, and Yuhki Lin.
2018
Sarah Brauer
Coleman Gardner
9/4/2019
Kakehiro Koike
kakehirok18@gmail.com
Renge Shirai
rengeicel@gmail.com 4/17/2019
Samantha March 5/23/2019
Sarah says “hi” to all.
Sammy stopped by Nishimachi with her brother Jon Jon ‘16 during their trip to Japan.
Coleman visited Nishimachi with his father.
26 ..... The Internationalist
P O S T M A R K S 2019
Kakehiro Koike 4/19/2019
Takeo Kawasaki
takeoalexkawasaki@gmail.com
2020
Thomas Beck 8/19/2019
Mantaro Kurihara
mantaro.kurihara01@gmail.com
Kaz Miura 11/6/2019
Kake met up with his classmate Coleman Gardner, who was visiting Tokyo with his father.
Allen Shumway 10/14/2019
Kaz and his classmate Adam Platek ‘19 stopped by to say “hello.”
Aiko Shimizu 5/8/2019
Tom and his father, along with his father’s long-time friends, visited Nishimachi on a hot summer day.
Marcel Mauratille 4/11/2019
His mother writes: Marcel Mauratille is at Eton College in the UK.
Mikio Norton 5/27/2019
Fellow taiko performer Allen was at Nishimachi for Leo Ikenaga ‘05 and his group’s taiko performance in October. Aiko bumped into Philippe Eymard at Gotemba Station. What a coincidence!
His mother writes: Mikio successfully completed a promotion ceremony at his middle school and will be starting high school from this fall. This is a photo of Mikio taken before the ceremony.
In Memory John Clayton Linn, father to Anathea ’17 and Avalena ’19, May 2019 Heizaemon Ike, Business Manager 1980 - 1982 and Development Office staff 1982 1983, 1987 - 1988, 1990 - 1994, 1996 - 1999, July 2019 Eri Ogawa, Japanese “S” teacher 1977 - 1986, 2002 - 2003, September 2019
Fall 2019 Vol. 63 .....
Congratulations Class of 2019
Nishimachi Annual Fund Nishimachi International School inspires many of us, students and parents alike, with its dedication to educating responsible world citizens. Your continued support of Nishimachi is greatly appreciated. Support the Nishimachi Annual Fund. < http://www.nishimachi.ac.jp/giving >
Upcoming Events • 70th Anniversary Reunion - Friday, February 14, 2020 • 17th Annual Outreach Scholarship Golf Tournament - Saturday, May 23, 2020 • Graduation - Friday, June 5, 2020
DID YOU KNOW THAT NISHIMACHI HAS AN OUTREACH SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, THE GOAL OF WHICH IS TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY AT THE SCHOOL? Please contact us if you know of a student who might qualify or if you would like to make contributions to enhance the program. (Office of Admissions / Development Office)
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28 ..... The Internationalist
Yokoso - Welcome to the Nishimachi Family
Noel Bradshaw Business Office Manager
Yvonne Cawley Grade 1 teacher
Kendra Harlos ES PE
Nina Kelly Gr K teacher
Karen Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill Head of School
Kalpana Rao ES Principal
Sherif Watson Grade 5 teacher
Karen Dobbie-Hunter Grade 4 teacher
Eoghan Fitzgerald Grade 2 teacher
Mami Kobayashi Accounting Manager
Aleks Kostic Grade 3 teacher
Takahiro Maeda ES Japanese
Alisa Sato Custodian
Moeka Shima ES Japanese
Masayo Taneda Accountant
Sharan Dhami Grade 1 teacher
Lee Wilson Director of Digital Learning
Reiko Yoshida Student Services
2019 Retirement
Miwako Hongo 29 years
Keiko Koyama 17 years
Bon Voyage - Good luck with your future endeavors. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll miss you! Matt Brady, Mihoko Chida, Will Dunaway, Justine Hitchcock, Kiyotaka Horii, Michael Hosking, Niki Kitao, Kristina Kolb, Tsuyoshi Nishijima, Stephanie Short, Jennifer Sutherland, Matt Sutherland, Sylvia Turner