The Internationalist
Nishimachi International School Spring 2018 Vol. 60
In the Fall 2017, Vol. 59, issue of The Internationalist, the photograph of the campus model appearing on page 8 did not carry a credit. The photograph is courtesy of TOMURO Atelier + Kenichi Nakamura and Associates. Nishimachi apologizes for the error.
The Internationalist Spring 2018 Vol. 60
The Internationalist 2017年 Fall号 お詫びと訂正 2017年秋に発行したThe Internationalist 2017年 Fall号、8ページに掲載し た『Photo 1』の画像のクレジット表記が正しくされていませんでした。 正しくは、 『TOMURO Atelier + Kenichi Nakamura and Associates』 です。 関係者の皆様そして読者の皆様にご迷惑をおかけしましたことをお詫び 申し上げますとともに、訂正させていただきます。
Staff Article
Staff Article
「北村先生を訪ねに長崎へ…」 堀田 一彦
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インストラクショナル コミュニティ リエゾン オフィサー
Table of Contents
Do Something You Love, and You Don't Work A Day In Your Life, Tom Cochran '93 Interview
4 北村先生を訪ねに長崎へ 9 Grade 9 Visit to Cambodia 10 Outreach Scholarship Program 14 Outreach Scholarship Walkathon - A Different Perspective - 15 Message from Nishimachi-Kai 16 Faces from Food Fair 2018 18 Class of 1987 30th Reunion in Tokyo 20 Postmarks 21 Upcoming Events 28
In This Issue... Feature Article
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“Do Something You Love, and You Don’t Work A Day In Your Life” an Interview with Tom Cochran ‘93 Wendy Kobayashi Nishimachi Parent
Nishimachi Service Learning
Grade 9 Visits Cambodia
“A Memorable Trip to Cambodia” Alisa K. Grade 9
「日本を遠く離れて」
10 麟太郎 U. 9年生
Head of School
Michael Hosking
Director of Development
Managing editor Editor
Philippe Eymard
Mayumi Nakayama ‘90 Anne Papantonio
Art design Akira
Tomomitsu (Mashup)
The Internationalist, Spring 2018 vol. 60, is published by the Development Office for alumni, parents, students, faculty, and friends of Nishimachi International School. Article contributors
Maki Ando Boujellabia ’87 Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma ’90 Kazuhiko Hotta Alisa K. Wendy Kobayashi Mayumi Nakayama ’90 Jan Opdahl Sara Tye Rintaro U.
Photography
Marin A.-P. Maki Ando Boujellabia ’87 Tom Cochran ’93 Philippe Eymard Yasunori Haruyama Kazuhiko Hotta Alisa K. Kakehiro K. Meredith Lawson Rei M. Michael Mercado Mayumi Nakayama ’90 Peter Opdahl Radim Sincora Sara Tye Mimi Y.
Hi Cheese!
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: http://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
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The Internationalist
“Do something you love, and you don’t work a day in your life” Wendy Kobayashi Nishimachi Parent
Tom also generously gave his free time to speak with our students about his life since Nishimachi. Born in the United States, Tom arrived in Japan in 1979 when he was just two years old, spending four years in Kobe before his parents moved to Tokyo, where the family lived for a further four years. Tom’s father worked initially for the U.S. Department of State, and subsequently the Commerce Department, where he was responsible for helping American companies sell their products in Japan. At the time Japan was highly protectionist, and it was his father’s job to work out how to enter various markets (one import close to Tom’s heart was the Easton brand of baseball bats). However, Mr. Cochran was also curious about technology, and Tom recalls how he even bought his two kids – Tom has an older sister, Anne, class of ’89 – an early book on programming, since they thought they could programme a few games (“with mixed success”, as Tom ruefully acknowledges). Asked about major differences between computers then and now, Tom says, “This (indicating his iPhone) has way more power than what was used to put a man on the moon! Computers are massively, massively faster now… It’s Moore’s Law: every 18 months, the computer you are using is twice as fast as the one from 18 months ago”.
“My name is Tom, and I went to Nishimachi a really long time ago” is how Tom Cochran ’92 kicked off his Back in the early 80s Wang computers were the order of sessions with our grade 5 and middle school students. the day, but when Mr. Cochran bought a PC, he brought Tom was here in the elementary school from 1983 to home instead one of the new-fangled Apple IIC machines. 1987 – although, to his amusement, he had to convince It had green and black text onscreen and came with the youngsters that he wasn’t actually the first student at floppy disks; they had to dial in via the landline using a Nishimachi! During a tech career already spanning nearly modem – and, if anyone picked up the phone, it would 20 years, Tom has spent the bulk of his professional life kill the connection. Tom even has a funny story about in the digital world – and four of those it. One day, Steve Jobs himself was years as an appointee in the Obama visiting the Commercial Section at It’s important to understand administration in charge of digital platforms. the embassy, and Tom’s dad was the computers, but the most difficult When he contacted Philippe Eymard from thing I have had to learn is how to only one with an Apple! Faced with the development office to say he would be “program” humans! Understanding all the Wang computers, Steve Jobs in town and hoped to visit his alma mater, human social dynamics is the most looked over, saw the IIC, and gave Mr. he wrote: “I can trace this technology love Cochran a personal “thumbs up” – he important thing you need to do. all the way back to 1983 as a first-grader was definitely onto something! at Nishimachi when my father bought our first computer, an Apple IIC”. He had an Apple machine Tom’s family already had a connection to Japan. His back in 1983, when a home computer of any sort was still parents had met in Tokyo in the early 70s when his dad something of a rarity? And he worked for Barack Obama? was a young diplomat and his mother, who was Swedish, We had to hear more… was working as an air stewardess; they were married in Tom was in Tokyo to give the keynote speech (“Yes We Can. Yes We Did. President Obama’s Digital Legacy”) to around 1,000 people at the Ad Tech symposium in Marunouchi last fall – only the second time in 30 years that he had been back, the first being in 2009 while on honeymoon. Philippe’s offer of a lunchtime bowl of zaru soba – a keen favourite – may have been irresistible, but
1972. Flying, it turns out, is another of Tom’s loves. His grandfather was a pilot, and young Tom wanted to follow suit. “When I was small I wanted to be a pilot for PanAm – which back in the day was THE airline – and fly a 747 from here to San Francisco, which was what I used to do all the time, as a passenger, to visit my family. That didn’t work out. Then I also wanted to play Major League baseball… and that didn’t work out. So this was my third choice.”
Spring 2018 Vol. 60 For much of his youth Tom spent a maximum of four years in any one place and was an early “third culture kid”. He now ponders the pros and cons of “not coming from anywhere”, recounting how, since starting work in Washington D.C., he has been more settled than at any time in his life – but admitting that, when the first four-year period came to an end, he had to resist the strange yet strong urge to move on that seemed almost “programmed” into him. His parents chose Nishimachi, he says, because it was a natural option: it wasn’t far from the U.S. Embassy compound, and, then just as now, there was a bus that took the compound kids (around 25 of them at the time) to the school every day. Even though he lived at the compound, in Grew Tower, he didn’t have many nonNishimachi friends: his group were all fellow Nishimachi students, and he never got to know the ASIJ kids, for example. He recalls the school as very international, with maybe 15% of students being American; he loved the international aspect of it and enjoyed the fact that his group comprised a Finn, a Kiwi and a JapaneseAmerican. “I was so proud of being the American-Swedish kid, especially on flag days”.
remembers the gym and the Red Building being built and throwing beans off the balcony at Setsubun. But he also says, “A lot of it is still the same… I look around this room and see a lot of my friends in you”. He remembers Tané Matsukata, already in her mid-60s, as “a really nice, lovely, warm person; a very caring, childfocused lady”, who spoke fluent English, having been born and raised in the U.S., and is interested to learn that she is now a legendary figure at the school, as opposed to the real live person he knew. He also warmly recalls
Tom experienced Nishimachi as a warm, friendly and fun place to be. He felt completely at home here and still identifies with the school and its ways. This seems to have directly impacted his career choices. “I was never a great student but I was also not the worst! When I didn’t like to do something, I wasn’t very good at it; so I would get As in members of the staff such as Mr. Montgomery, who was the classes I loved, and Bs and Cs in the classes I didn’t his fourth grade homeroom teacher, and Ohta-sensei, like. You don’t always get to do the things you want to who used to teach swimming and, of course, still teaches do in life. Sometimes you have to do the things you don’t Japanese here in our middle school. He’s in contact with like, and you should do your best at those as well”. Tom many friends from Nishimachi through social media (even maintains he was an average “B” student and says he messaging them from the MS Commons to tell them felt personal disappointment for not applying himself; this he’s visiting), and, whenever he gets together with his led him to overcompensate in his professional career. He sister, they reminisce about friends and teachers, such attributes his success to date to his determination to do as Mr. Green and his method of whispering to control the better any time he failed at something. The world is full of room, “Which was very clever, because people who promised much but proved unable to advance. This willingness to I never formally trained in software everyone had to stop and listen carefully to hear what he said”. Tom remarks on make and learn from mistakes is what development – I taught myself. the fact that some teachers are still here has taken him forward. thirty years later, saying it speaks to the strong sense of community at Nishimachi. He always loved P.E. and played every kind of sport offered by Nishimachi: kickball, basketball, dodgeball... Because he moved to Japan so young, Tom says it was (Tom didn’t start to play baseball until after he left Japan strange returning to the U.S. at the age of ten, when he and returned to the States). He even remembers playing was basically a blond-haired Japanese kid. There was hockey in what is now the Multi-Purpose Room, back no internet, and he had no cultural frame of reference: then an open area under the gym that was at one time his world was Doraemon, not Scooby Doo! Culturally, he apparently slated to be made into a swimming pool! didn’t fit in. There was a Japanese girl who was also new Because of the columns, there had to be well-developed in his school, and they would chat together, but for a long strategies of going round first one column… then time he had the sense of not being from anywhere and not another… As for the school ski trip to Iwappara, Tom went belonging. He now credits this with making him flexible only once as a student, but he and his dad went while his and able easily to get along with whomever he meets or sister was on her middle school ski trip, something she has to work. He feels he is as native in D.C., where he now didn’t altogether appreciate! lives, as anyone can be and wants to give his two young children a sense of “being from here”, reflecting on the Asked about the school and its premises, he says it was importance of having roots and knowing where you are originally only the Matsukata House, and none of the from – or, indeed, having a place to go back to. other buildings were here when he arrived – although he
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The Internationalist When asked about how Japan has changed, he laughingly remarks that it used to take six months for popular movies to reach Japan – and is amazed when the students tell him it still does! But other things have changed. Calling overseas was expensive, whereas now it’s free or very low cost, and it’s so easy to stay in touch. In the 80s Japan was on top of the world, dominating the economy, but these days the country is struggling with the effects of an ageing population that consumes less. He notes, however, that Thailand has changed more: when he lived My role there was to run there you might occasionally a team…to connect the see elephants in the street President to the people… (you certainly don’t see that anymore!). After Nishimachi, Tom attended the International School of Bangkok, then Langley School in Virginia and Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, before going on to Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He started off studying engineering, but, ironically, he didn’t like it and switched to a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business Administration (“And, lo and behold, I found myself in a career requiring engineering!”). But he clearly enjoyed technology and the early form of the World Wide Web, so that one day a professor said to him, “You really seem to like this, why don’t you think about it as a career?” As Tom told his young audience, “If you do something you love, you don’t work a day in your life”. Asked about his college days, he says, “It’s a really important thing to be able to use various skills. Learning how to learn is the most important skill I learned in college. Knowing I didn’t know something and being comfortable in working out the answer on my own was another key skill I learned”. He does also say, however, that writing and presentation skills, plus being able to speak to groups of people as well as superiors, are really important, too. It’s hard to find people with good writing skills, and speaking to others isn’t an easy thing to do. (Asked what he uses the least from his time in college, he hesitates before saying he once took a course on Roman Civilisation…). How was it that he came to land his first job, with AMS (American Management Systems, a big technology company), from 2000-2003? Luck, and being in the right place at the right time, according to Tom. AMS, like other big corporates, would visit the Vanderbilt campus during recruitment fairs. Tom laughs as he recalls how the AMS representative told him, as he was half-way through a speech, “That’s a really BAD answer!” Tom thought he had messed up. But they called him back and flew him to a second interview – and he was in. The moral of the story being that you don’t have to have the right answers all the time, but you should have something to offer.
Tom’s belief is that “being nice” (however you define that, whether it’s working well with others, or listening attentively, or not putting people down) is more advantageous in the long run. It’s often the “soft skills” – people management and leading teams – that are most essential in getting things done. His philosophy is that it’s how you work – bringing people together, collaboration and so on – that’s key: some people want to work together and others don’t, and you have to know how to manage that to move things forward. “It’s important to understand computers, but the most difficult thing I have had to learn is how to “program” humans! Understanding human social dynamics is the most important thing you need to do”. While at AMS Tom worked as an analyst at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, responsible for the business architecture of the largest geographic information system implementation in the world; he was also the lead developer on a content and feedback management system that was awarded a U.S. patent. There were nevertheless periods when he wasn’t especially busy, when he could have sat back and enjoyed some free time. Instead, when told he could teach himself how to program in earnest, he jumped at the chance. “I never formally trained in software development – I taught myself”. With hindsight, though, it seems obvious to Tom that he was destined for a career in technology, engineering and programming, as he recalls playing for hours as a child with LEGO constructions, building massive structures and losing himself in total concentration. After AMS he worked for a spell as Web Software Developer with AC Technologies, building a large-scale content management system to power the Department of Education’s website, before moving in 2004 to Blue State Digital (Blue of course signifying the Democratic party), where he was part of the team that created “DeanSpace” to support the political candidacy of Democrat Howard Dean. In an early intersection of politics and technology, this was a plan to introduce fundraising via a digital platform; Dean was one of the first presidential candidates to use the internet as a major fundraising tool, an idea still in its infancy at the start of this century. As Senior Software Engineer, Tom was responsible for developing roughly a third of the first phase of Democratic Party campaign and advocacy software. In the event, Republican George W. Bush won a second term in 2004, but the applications and tools that Tom built evolved into key robust digital platforms which supported the Democratic National Committee and Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, helping to raise US$1.2 billion online in two election cycles. Another
Spring 2018 Vol. 60 example of his work is the first version of early social networking software that evolved into MyBarackObama. com (otherwise known as MyBO), where people could get information about Barack Obama and also send information to him; this was a more sophisticated and politically-aware attempt to harness the power of communication, and became an important part of the campaign to elect Obama president. For the next few years Tom was employed as Chief Technology Officer at SevenTwenty Strategies, where he managed the engineering team and technical infrastructure to support national legislative advocacy campaigns totalling over 6 million Democrat supporters. But, after his former Blue State Digital co-workers were called in by the new administration, and the team that had worked on DeanSpace moved on to work for Barack Obama, Tom eventually joined them as lead engineer, becoming White House Director of New Media Technologies at the beginning of 2011. In his new role, Tom was now responsible for the security, stability and scalability of the President’s global digital platforms. Talking about the White House and the whitehouse.gov platform, for which he maintained 100% system availability over 18 months of operations, Tom says, “My role there was to run a team that used digital technology to connect the President to the people and, conversely, the people to the President. There were about 3,000 people who worked for him, so I’m pretty sure he would not know my name. But I did meet him once or twice”. As a feature of the website they would live stream every time the President or a member of his team spoke, and Tom recalls wondering why, around about 9 p.m. on Sunday 1st May, he got the call that they were shortly to go live. It turned out that President Obama had just received news that the United States had finally got Osama Bin Laden, and he was preparing to address the nation. This website broadcast would go out to the whole world, and, interestingly, Tom says that the entire process was normally supported by only about 100 people. His team also created and developed a platform that would leverage peoples’ rights under the First Amendment. In Tom’s words, “We built a platform called “We the People” which allowed ordinary citizens to petition the President. This was the first time in United States history that the people were directly connected to the President in this way. 100,000 signatures were required on any online petition to get an official response from the government. This could have interesting outcomes. Someone wrote a petition that the U.S. government should build the Death Star… and it reached the threshold required in terms of numbers of signatures. The reply
that emerged is archived, as government policy, and went something like this: “We won’t build the Death Star because it would cost 100,000 times the national budget and take 10,000 years to build, and that doesn’t seem like a wise investment”. This shows that the people who work in the White House are regular people like you and me: they have a sense of humour”. In 2012 Tom left the White House to join Atlantic Media, a private company, where he was again Chief Technology Officer, charged with executing business strategy with industry-leading digital and enterprise technology across all their brands (including The Atlantic, Quartz, National Journal and Government Executive) and managing a digital product infrastructure team that handled over 25 million monthly visitors. Tom focused on eliminating unplanned downtime, enhancing security and improving page load times (by 800%!). Security and measurably improved efficiency are common threads running through everything he has done. He also founded an advisory group for his CTO peers from other media companies such as Vice, Mashable, Politico, Salon.com, Hearst Corporation, Conde Nast, Fast Company and Vox Media. In 2014 Tom landed at the U.S. Department of State, where he was Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Coordinator for Platforms, working in the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP). He was now a presidential appointee to the Senior Executive Service (which Tom finds somewhat ironic, since, when his father was at the State Department, he often used to grumble about temporary political appointees – as opposed to career diplomats and civil servants – making public policy or thinking they could come in for four years and change things), overseeing the offices that managed online and offline spaces for U.S. public diplomacy while focusing on data-based decisions and individual engagement. During this time Tom lead the U.S. Embassy website upgrade for the Department’s largest digital platform (with 150 million visitors and 650 million annual page views), and implemented a global The most important skill that public diplomacy prototype anyone can learn in life…is Customer Relationship being curious…Be curious. Find Management system something you love. with sixteen embassies. Importantly, he also led the implementation of ShareAmerica, which is a “sociallyoptimized platform for distributing foreign policy-relevant public diplomacy content to global audiences” (check it out!) and provided digital strategy consultations to government officials, NGOs and media companies in many other parts of the world, including Bolivia, Ukraine, New Zealand, Indonesia, Poland, Germany, Mexico and
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The Internationalist plugged in to the internet, for better or worse. You’d better understand the security of the internet”. Asked what he doesn’t like about the internet, he says that’s easy: “I don’t like the hate and anger that is spewed on social media more and more. The election of 2008 was one of hope and change and making the country a better place. In 2016 it was almost the opposite, although the technology was even better; the election itself was one of hate and bullying, there was so much anger on the internet. Technology can be a force for good and a force for bad: it depends on who is using it”.
Hong Kong. As an example of the various programmes the State Department has, Tom talked about the development of “American Spaces”, of which there are now over 800 around the world, and how he has received personal testimony of the efficacy of this programme, which also heavily leverages technology. Tom left the State Department towards the end of 2016 and is currently Chief Digital Strategist and Vice President of Public Sector at Acquia, the leading provider of cloudbased, digital experience management solutions, where he works with city, state and national governments to help them improve services to their citizens. An example he mentioned is Amazon Alexa: in Georgia, you can ask, “Hey, Alexa, where do I renew my driver’s licence?”, and Alexa will tell you. He talks about open government and making governments work better. In his spare time (?!) he is Adjunct Professor for Digital Marketing at American University in D.C., where he teaches a graduate-level course on digital marketing and e-commerce, “blending theory with practice and exploring the best paradigms, practices and principles of traditional, new and emerging marketing techniques, along with their effects on individuals, audiences, publics and cultures”. Talking with the older students, Tom told them the internet is not free and not always a safe place… “But, if you are wandering around in a bad neighbourhood, and if you are aware of your surroundings, you can operate in a safe space”. That same day the grade 6 students had been learning about the risks of sharing passwords and what can happen if you allow someone else to access your account. “Let’s say you give someone the key to your house and ask them to get your computer or a toy… and then they forget to lock the door… and then someone comes in and takes your family’s Lamborghini… Your friend didn’t mean to do anything bad, but you lost something precious to you. There are real dangers with sharing passwords”. There were knowing murmurs of assent from the kids, who totally got the analogy. He went on to say, “At some point your brain is going to be
Questioned on what concerns him most about the world in which his children will grow up, Tom answers immediately: “Cyber-bullying”. These days you cannot simply disappear or move towns and create a whole new identity. With the advent of social media in particular, the amount of information that is online and can be collected about you over the years is immense. There is a movement away from social media, where it is considered cool not to be part of it. On the other hand, Tom cannot think of a single reason why any professional would not have a LinkedIn profile… Asked about his family, Tom says that, apart from his job, his children – who are 3 and 1 – are his passion. This prompted questions from the students about his own childhood. He loved gaming when he was younger, but doesn’t have time now and hasn’t played in a while. When he was their age, it was all about Super Mario (this information was met with excited recognition). Asked about hobbies – he doesn’t watch TV… doesn’t even own a TV – he says baseball, of course (he supports the Washington Nationals), and travelling. He used to write a blog entitled D.C. History, which had a couple of million followers back in the day (pre-kids, is the unspoken understanding). A final question came on how to develop a skill. “The most important skill that anyone can learn in life… whatever it is you’re interested in… is being curious, exploring, asking questions, taking things apart and learning how they work. Even if you are 80 years old, as long as you are curious, you’re going to be successful at whatever it is you do. Be curious. Find something you love”. He left our middle schoolers with the (certainly for some) comforting and somewhat tongue-in-cheek assurance that, “You know, nerds rule the world, eventually!” “In 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president, I don’t think it ever crossed my mind that I would get to work at the White House. I’ve had the good fortune to have amazing opportunities like this, marrying my passion for digital engagement and technology with public service and government”. And to think it all started with that Apple IIC back in first grade at Nishimachi… website: www.thomascochran.com
Spring 2018 Vol. 60
北村先生を訪ねに長崎へ… 堀田 一彦
西町インターナショナルスクール インストラクショナル コミュニティ リエゾン オフィサー
北村房子 1916年（大正5年）長崎県生れ。西町イン ターナショナルスクール日本語教員、副教頭 1964年〜1992年 1997年没
西町に勤め始めて早35年が経ち、 そろそろ出口が見えてく る頃となった。 そこで、以前から心に留めていた北村先生の お墓参りをするため、秋休みを利用して長崎への旅行を計 画した。 なんの偶然か、今年は （旅行時は2017年秋）北村 先生がお亡くなりになられてからちょうど20年という節目の 年だった。 しかし、 現時点で学校には先生の永眠の地や教会 などの情報がなく、 行き当たりばったりで機上の人となった。 長崎に着いてから北村先生が唯一残された住所をたどって みると、 そこは元教会で今は移転してしまったとの事であっ た。落胆しつつも調べた所、 その教会の本部が長崎市内に ある事が分かった。何か情報があればと思い、長崎古町教 会に向かった。 長崎古町教会を訪ね事情を説明し、 「何かしらの情報をお 持ちではありませんか？」 と伺ったところ、 「ひょっとして学校 の先生をされていた方ですか」 とのお返事をいただいた。驚 いて、 「その通りです、北村房子さんと云う方です！」 と伝える と、 「その方なら小江原町のあじさい霊園にある当教会の墓
あじさい霊園
地に葬られていますよ。」 と教えてくれた。早速お花屋さんで
住所：長崎県長崎市小江町2707
お花を用意し、 タクシーであじさい霊園に向かった。
電話番号：095-849-3344
長崎は坂の街としても有名で、 これでもかと云うくらいの数 々の坂をタクシーに揺られ、市内から30分ほどであじさい 霊園に着いた。教会の墓地は霊園の一番奥まったところに あった。早速お花を手向けてお参りをさせていただいた。 ふ と、北村先生に 「あら、今日は珍しい人が来たね。」 と仰って いただけたような気がした。 北村先生は長崎市郊外にある、長崎の街を見渡せる丘の上 の穏やかで風光明媚な素晴らしいところで永眠されていた。
私は長年の心残りであったお墓参りが出来、先生にまたお 会いできたような気がして、大変爽快な思いであった。家内 の恵子も北村先生には大変お世話になったので、感慨深い ものがあったようだ。 随分遠回りをしたが、私たち夫婦の北村先生のお墓探しの 冒険は大成功であった。卒業生のみなさんも長崎やハウス テンボスなどへ行くことがあれば、 ぜひお墓参りに行ってみ てください。北村先生もさぞお喜びになると思いますよ。
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The Internationalist
Nishimachi Service Learning
Grade 9 Visits Cambodia
A Memorable Trip to Cambodia Alisa K. Grade 9
This year, Nishimachi organised an educational trip to Cambodia for us, the grade 9 students, to experience a developing country with our own eyes. Before the trip, middle school principal Ms. Lawson and the teacher supervisors organised Friday meetings for us to learn more about the history, economy, and culture of Cambodia. We expected to visit beautiful places like the Royal Palace but also the horrible Tuol Sleng Museum, where around 20,000 people died from political violence in 1975-1979. We also had to prepare activities for the children at Bright Futures, an NGO which provides
accommodation and supplementary education to support students who wish to enter a top-notch secondary school in Phnom Penh; and the Kirivorn school, knowing that these children could not speak English very well. On the fifteenth of December we finally flew to Cambodia. On the first day we had a beautiful sightseeing tour in Phnom Penh, which started with the golden roofs of the Royal Palace and its spectacular garden. As we drove around Phnom Penh, there were a lot of motor bicycles on the road, and people were trying to sell products on the side of the roads. During the day we also visited the central market, where we had the chance to buy gifts. The visit to the Toul Sleng genocide museum was the most memorable stop of the day. This museum is housed in a former school that became a prison and torture centre during the Khmer Rouge regime. It was very sad to see that something that used to be a happy children’s school had turned into a place of horror. Visiting the sobering museum is essential for understanding how far Cambodia has come in the intervening years since
the Khmer Rouge. This is just one of many tragic sites for the Cambodian people. The next day, we visited Bright Futures Kids Home. After an introduction we split into groups to spend time playing games inside and outside. We showed the kids the Japanese game kendama and created origami. We learned Khmer words and became friends very quickly. The kids are very thankful to live on the campus and have the possibility to go to school and dream about the future. In the late afternoon, we had to go back to Phnom Penh, which was sad as we had bonded really well with the students. The fourth day we drove towards Sihanoukville, which sits on the southwestern coast of Cambodia. We were heading to Kirivorn school and were welcomed by all the students and teachers on our arrival. Our group was prepared for crafts, reading, teaching English, and also outdoor games. We started with introducing ourselves and created a warm atmosphere for learning more about the village children and their school life. The school has two shifts for different ages. Kindergarten-grade 3 meet in the morning and grades 4-6
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in the afternoon. Kirivorn goes up to grade 6, and then the children must find a high school. Often the children finish their education at Kirivorn school and start to work. There are still not enough high schools in Cambodia. The Kirivorn kids were always smiling and happy to see us. Doing the activities with the children and getting to know them was really an amazing experience. At Kirivorn we also had the opportunity to talk to a 13-year-old boy who is in grade 4. The boy was small for his age, probably because he didn’t get the necessary nutrition. The boy herded five big buffalos in the morning and went to school in the afternoon. The boy’s parents worked in the capital, Phnom Penh, as factory workers and only came to the village once a month, when they got paid. His grandparents were both monks, and the boy lived with his aunt and younger sister. After that, we visited an old grandfather who had given part of his land to the Kirivorn school. He himself lived in a small house with two children, one baby, a girl, and two adults. They had a kitchen where they cooked their food over wood. He told us how hard it was to get clean water and how happy it makes him when he sees the children learning and playing. Communication with the Cambodian people was sometimes a challenge. Almost everyone spoke
Khmer, and most were not able to communicate in English. Especially with the younger children, it was very hard to communicate in English. The tour guide, C.S., taught us a couple of words. Suisday means ‘hello’, and arkoun, ‘thank you’. The children at Kirivorn taught me to count to 10. Moi (1), bing (2), buy (3), boy (4), prad (5), prad-moi (6), prad-bing (7), prad-buy (8), pradboy (9), and ram (10). During the trip everybody enjoyed the delicious national Cambodian food. The food is spicier than it is in Japan and has different flavours. My favorite dish was the black sticky rice. I also really loved the spicy shrimp soup. I had learnt that food sanitation in Cambodia cannot always be trusted. Therefore, we were not allowed to eat street food as our stomachs are not used to it. I learned many things in Cambodia. Particularly, that the people are happy, although they may live in poverty. They enjoy life and live in a close community, where they help each other. Communication was not always easy. The children hardly spoke any English, but through nonverbal communication I was still able to connect with them. One
gesture that symbolises this trip for me is putting your hands together in front of your chest. In Cambodia this means ‘thank you’, or arkoun, but it is also a greeting. Using this sign we greeted new friends and expressed our thanks for our Cambodian experience. This trip moved me out of my comfort zone and helped me see the world from a different perspective. I think the children were the best part of this trip. They were always very excited to see us and wanted to hug us or hold our hands. I hope that the Nishimachi community, and the students, will continue to support the Bright Future Kids Home and Kirivorn school. They are waiting for us, and we can learn a lot from them.
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Grade 9 Visits Cambodia
日本を遠く離れて 麟太郎 U.
思うけれど、僕が普段住んでいる日本と、 カン
Grade 9
ボジアという場所の間には決 定的な違いが
17年12月15日。僕は飛行機の席に腰を 下ろして、 いそいそと寝る準備を始めている 友人を横目に、本に顔をかざしていた。機内 は仄暗く、機内食とガソリンの匂いが重なり あって淀んでいる。 ブラインドを開け窓の外 を眺めると、雲ばかりで何も見えな い。 もう 僕以外の乗客の ほとんどが寝てい るようだった。僕 は静かに本をリュ ックの中にしまい 眠り込んだ。 日本を飛び立 ってから約7時間 後、物音で目が覚 める。辺りを見回 すと友人が降機 する準備を進め ていた。 すでに熱 気が飛行機と空 港とをつなぐボーディングブリッジからたち のぼっていた。僕は、 テーブルの上の本やら なにやらをぼたぼたとリュックの中に落とし、 肩にかけた。 7時間なんてものは、寝てしまえばすぐに過 ぎ去ってしまう。 しかし、 そのたった7時間の 間に、僕が存在していた世界ははっきりと二 つの相に別れてしまった。 当たり前のことだと
存在する。成り立ちや、文化や、人やそんな何 もかもが違うカンボジアという辺境の地に、 僕は七日間滞在することになった。 カンボジアの土地には他にも色々と驚くべ きことがあるのかも知れないけれど、七日間 滞在してみてまず驚いたのは、 カンボジア料 理についてである。 というのも、僕たちは滞在 二日目の昼にプノンペンの北東部にあるセン トラル・マーケットという場所に買い物に行っ たのだが、 これがけっこうショッキングな経験 だった。 その場所では、生魚、生肉なんかが暑 い中で所狭しと並べられていて、 その多くは 腐敗臭がしているか、 虫がたかっていた。 その 光景は普段僕たちが築地市場なんかで見る ものとはあまりにもかけ離れていて、 グロテス クというのは言い過ぎだろうが、決して食欲 がそそられるものではなかった。 でもそれはそれとして、 カンボジア料理は けっこう美味しい。 タイ料理と中華料理の中
間あたりで、僕は美味しく食べられた。最終 日に食べた焼きガエルも(目を瞑って食べれ ば)けっこう美味しかったし、 よく出てきた白 身魚の蒸し焼きは僕の好物だ。 そして腹も壊 さない。 そういう意味でカンボジア料理は素 晴らしい。 この他にも沢山印象に残った場面はあっ たのだが、未だ鮮明に記憶しているのは四日 目に起こった出来事だ。僕らはキリボンスク ールでの交流を終えた後、 バスに乗って、行 き先も知らされずに東へ向かった。五分ほど してバスを降り、未舗装の砂利道を歩いてい くと、先頭を切っていた先生が足を止めた。 目の前には大きな木があり、 その奥には牧草 地が広がっている。 目を凝らすと、高く茂った 牧草から少年の頭が見え隠れしている。彼は 水牛の上に乗っているようだった。 バスガイド が手を振って少年を呼ぶと、水牛がこちらを 向き、 のそりのそりとこちらへ向かってきた。 僕らは砂利の上に座り込んで、少年に質問を 投げかけた。通訳によると、彼は14歳、 つまり
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僕と同い年で、両親とは別居しており、生計を 立てるために水牛を飼っているということだ った。正直、僕は彼が14歳と聞いた時、 ギョッ としてしまった。彼の身長は僕の半分くらいし かなく、手足もそがれたように細かった。 しか し、彼の表情に一切の曇りはなく、常に微笑 が浮かべられていた。 彼が幸せかどうかはわ からないが、少なくとも惨めという感じではな いと僕は思った。 これは水牛の少年だけでなく僕が会った カンボジアの人々全員に当てはまる特徴であ る。彼らは全員、平均的な日本人よりも貧し い暮らしをしている。 けれど、彼らは決して惨 めではない。彼らは生活にゆとりを持って暮 らしていると思った。 四日目に会った小さい 古屋に住んでいる老人も、親を失ったブライ ト・フューチャーの子供達も、 みんな穏やか な表情をしていた。 結局のところ、真の幸せというものを形作 るのは金とか、地位とか、名誉とかそういった 類のものではないのだ。真の幸せというのは 平静、 つまり静けさの中にある。金や地位や 名誉で得られるのは、 所詮短期的な快楽であ り、平静でなければ幸せは訪れな いし持続しない。 カンボジアの人々が崇拝 するブッダも同じようなことを言っていた気 がする。 そんなこんなで僕は七日間の滞在を終え、 ついに日本に戻ってきた。窓の外を眺めてみ ると、青い作業着を着た整備工たちや、 のっ
ぺりとした管制塔や、灰色に染まった大気や そんな何もかもが陰うつな情景を演出して いて、妙な現実感に襲われる。飛行機を降り ると肌寒い。突然日本に戻ってきたという実 感がわいた。飛行場を出てバスに乗り、家路 についた。 いつまでたっても景色は灰色のま まである。 今僕がこの文章を書いているときにも、 カ ンボジアが急に恋しくなる時がある。 あの独 特な空気感は、言葉にするのは難しいけれ ど、 やはり特別だったんだなあと思う。機会 があればまたいつかカンボジアに行ってみた い。 この日本を遠く離れて。
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Outreach Scholarship Program 5th Annual Outreach Scholarship Walkathon November 18, 2017 Jan Opdahl
Walkathon Co-Chair Alumni Parent The special, fifth anniversary Rainbow Bridge walk for the Outreach Scholarship Program was a success again. The weather held out for us, and we had a record number of registrations, with over 400 people participating or donating. Special thanks go to our new sponsors, Mercedes-Benz, Santa Fe Relocation Services, and Azabu Gardens/Pembroke, and to our perennial sponsors, Morgan Stanley, Domino’s Pizza, and Cookie Time. With our volunteer faculty and staff leading groups over the span of the bridge, families were able to take in the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo on one side and Tokyo Bay as far as the eye could see on the other. Congratulations to grades 9 and 2T for winning the pizza and cookie party for having the highest participation. Your generosity and enthusiasm for this annual fundraiser have generated an estimated 1.2 million yen to benefit Nishimachi’s Outreach program, which provides scholarships to students from various backgrounds who could not otherwise afford to attend. A diverse community enhances learning, widens outlooks, and is immensely important for young students to be exposed to as we prepare them to embark in a global world as thoughtful, engaging, and compassionate people, proud to call themselves Nishimachi graduates.
Save the Date! Nishimachi Outreach Scholarship 15th Anniversary Golf Tournament is on Saturday, May 26. Sign up now via e-mail at: development@nishimachi.ac.jp Looking forward to seeing you there!
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Outreach Scholarship Walkathon A Different Perspective
Sara Tye
Teacher, Grade 4 In elementary school, the most joyful learning occurs when children can make connections to their lives. As such, we try to use situations about ourselves, families, and the Nishimachi community to add meaning to our learning. Here is an example from a fourth grade math class. Since many students take part in the Outreach Walkathon, this topic was used when learning about metric distance. Can you complete this question? Learning Objectives: I can convert measurements of distance. I can mix units of distance. PART A Mr. Skelton went to the Outreach Walkathon at Rainbow Bridge. In the first hour, he walked 1 kilometer and 734 meters. In the second hour, he walked 4 kilometers and 396 meters. Can we find the total distance that Mr. Skelton walked in the Outreach Walkathon using a simplifying strategy? Examples might include: number bond, expanded form, number line, place value chart.
PART B Mr. Dunaway also went to the Outreach Walkathon. Mr. Williams made a deal with his friend. He said, “Mr. Dunaway, if you walk more than twice the distance in your first hour than Mr. Skelton did in his first hour, I will buy you an ice cream.” Mr. Dunaway laughed and replied, “If I walk more than twice the distance in my first hour than Mr. Skelton…. AND…. the extra distance is an even number, then you must buy me two ice creams!” In total, Mr. Dunaway walked 7 kilometers and 422 meters. In his second hour he walked 5 kilometers and 366 meters. How many ice creams did Mr. Dunaway eat after the Outreach Walkathon? The students in 4T enjoyed completing this question. They were excited to find out how many ice creams Mr. Dunaway ate! All students tried answering the questions themselves, and then found a partner to share their thinking. Working together lets us explore why we choose certain strategies and find the reasons behind the mistakes we make. Reading a book is not about finishing the final chapter, writing is not about putting a period at the end of sentence, and math is not just about finding an answer. When you enter an elementary school math class at Nishimachi, it is like Alice falling down the rabbit hole…. A colorful, exciting adventure awaits!
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Outreach Scholarship Walkathon 2017 November 18, 2017 Mayumi Nakayama ’90 Development Office
Thank you to all the Nishimachi-Kai members who supported the fifth annual Outreach Scholarship Walkathon on November 18, 2017. Although the weather forecast predicted “heavy rain with strong winds” for the day, we woke up that morning to find the bad weather had not materialized. With minimal wind and light rain, the walkathon proceeded as planned. Participants walked from the Shibaura side of the Rainbow Bridge to the Odaiba side, where they were greeted with smiles and high-fives from Nishimachi’s headmaster, Michael Hosking, as
well as from fellow walkers. (For a full report on this year’s walkathon, please see p. 14.) Thank you to all those who supported Outreach Walkathon 2017. We’ll see you again next year. Alumni Outreach Walkathon 2017 Supporters David de Graw ‘85 Lalaka (Ogawa) Fukuma ‘90 Nancy Hashima ‘83 Andy Hill ‘86 Jeff Hsu ‘77 Toyoko Tasaki ‘83 Haruko (Kawai) Kohno ‘85 Kacie (Rosenberg) Leviton ‘95 Shawn Satterwhite ‘16 Kento Terui ‘21
Kento Terui ‘21 with his father
From left: David de Graw ‘85; Haruko (Kawai) Kohno ‘85; Nishimachi-Kai chair, Nancy Hashima ‘83; Toyoko Tasaki ‘83; and Development/Alumni officer, Mayumi Nakayama ‘90
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Food Fair 2017 Lalaka (Fukuma) Ogawa ‘90 Vice Chair, Nishimachi-Kai
Food Fair 2017 started with a light drizzle, but the weather improved gradually, and by noon we were able to see some sunshine. Despite the damp start, Food Fair 2017 will go down as another huge success, with many visitors from both inside and outside the community coming together to sample delicious foods and drinks from all over the world and enjoy the festive atmosphere. Nishimachi-Kai ran the Nishimachi-Kai Café and a falafel booth again this year. Thanks go to Mari Takeuchi ‘76, Junko Sumiya ‘83, and Haruko (Kawai) Kohno ‘85, who designed and produced our new Nishimachi-Kai tote bag, which sold well both to alumni and to current parents. In addition to the ever-popular baked goods Mako (Hara) Tomita ‘86 treats us to every year, Marsha Rosenberg (former faculty and mother of alumna/current NIS staff member, Kacie [Rosenberg] Leviton ‘95, Alexis ‘97, and Jimmy ‘05) and Cathy Noyes (former faculty/current NIS substitute teacher and mother of alums Faith ‘06 and Ian ‘11 Howes) created even more yummy baked goods, insuring this year’s café was well stocked-and well attended. Cheerio Corporation generously donated soft drinks once again; Makiko (Takayama) Saito ‘87 donated wine; and Yoko Nakayama and her daughter, Mayumi ‘90, donated popcorn. We would like to thank all of them. And also Junko Sumiya ‘83, who graciously made a gorgeous Nishimachi-Kai Café banner for us. (If you missed it this year, it’ll be back for Food Fair 2018.)
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many volunteers who worked so very hard, devoting their precious time on the day of the event to making it successful. They are (in alphabetical order): Waseema Abid, David de Graw ‘85, Erika E. (grade 7), Hana Freeman ‘20, Tomas Gistren ‘84, Andy Hill ‘87, Kiki JiangYamaguchi ‘87, Minako Kano ‘92, Izuru Kato ‘90, Haruko (Kawai) Kohno ‘85, Kacie (Rosenberg) Leviton ‘95, Mayumi Nakayama ‘90, Kie O’Shea, Aya Omachi, Claire Ozeki ‘20, Nir Platek ‘81, Tetsuya Sakaguchi ‘91, Robert Sharp ‘84, Junko Sumiya ‘83, Mike Tarna ‘95, Mari Takeuchi ‘76, and Mako (Hara) Tomita ‘86. And last but not least, our thanks to everyone who attended Food Fair 2017. It is NishimachiKai’s mission to perpetuate founder Tané Matsukata’s vision for the school; and to provide an opportunity for alumni to re-connect and engage with the Nishimachi International School community. We hope that you all make it to Food Fair 2018. Let’s keep that school spirit going.
SAVE THE DATE! Nishimachi-Kai Annual BBQ Saturday, June 16 10am - 3pm Contact Alumni Office for more info! alumni@nishimachi.ac.jp
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Faces from
Food Fair 2017 Were you at Food Fair 2017, but you don’t find yourself here? For Food Fair 2018, stop by the Nishimachi-Kai Café and we will be glad to take a quick photo of you with your group!
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Anniversary Decade Reunions Class of 1987 Reunion at Nishimachi, November, 2017 Maki Ando Boujellabia ‘87 On a pleasantly warm Saturday in mid-November of last year, a few of us from the class of 1987 met at NIS for our 30th reunion. Kiki Jiang-Yamaguchi and I had organized a two-part reunion-the first over lunch on campus with faculty members,
and the second in the evening for dinner without chaperones-though in the end, with all the catching up we had to do, the reunion turned into one long gathering of over nine hours. At NIS, Shawn Albert, Tatsuru Fukuda, Bapi Ghosh, Victoria Morehouse, Makiko (Takayama) Saito, Akiko (Mita) Tanaka, Taro Wakabayashi, Kiki, and I, all of whom live in Japan, were joined by Stephanie Lee-Bowles, who traveled from Singapore for this event. Mr. Green, Hotta-san, and Hojo-sensei also kindly made time for us, and we were all impressed by how they had not changed in all these years. While we have surpassed the ages of most of the teachers who taught us, these three looked exactly like their Ayumi photos from 30-some years ago. And look through the yearbooks we did, as we had all the Ayumis as well as all of our class photos at hand. Kiki, who works at NIS, also took us on a tour of the former junior high, where the walls in the hallway display photos from NIS’s early history by decade. The yearbooks and class photos gave me that bittersweet feeling I get when reminded of childhood. Photos of Ms. Matsukata with her students brought on a stronger feeling of gratitude: for the education and for the exposure to different cultures I received, and for the life-long friends I made who are now scattered all over the world. In the evening, we were joined by Dan Kanemitsu for dinner in Roppongi. Still not running out of NIS memories and always coming back to that funny incident at Kazuno, we of course talked about old crushes since the teachers were no longer around. Basically, we acted like teenagers, something we don’t get to do much except when we are around NIS friends. It was great to see everyone, especially back on campus where it all started. I am always amazed by how we can so easily pick up where we left off, regardless of how much time has passed since the last encounter. In coordinating the reunion, Kiki and I managed to reconnect with long-lost friends through social media, and we enjoyed sharing our NIS memories even before meeting up in person on reunion day. We thank all of our classmates who expressed their wishes to attend but were unable to do so. We look forward to seeing you next time, hopefully sooner than in another 30 years.
Ma r k
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Upcoming Events Contact the Development Office if you would like to join, or would like more information on any of the events above.
COMMUNITY SERVICE FLEA MARKET/BAZAAR
Saturday, May 19, 2018 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Flea market, Food & Drinks , Bake Sale, Book Sale, Entertainment Proceeds will benefit Kirivorn School in Cambodia, Tohoku, and WWF. No parking available
DO YOU GOLF?
Sign-up for our special Outreach Scholarship 15th Anniversary Golf Tournament! Chiba Birdie Club Saturday, May 26, 2018 ‘I-golf-only-at-Outreach-golf kinda golfer’ to ‘I-golf-more-than-I-work kinda golfer’ For more information, or to sign up, please visit our website.
< http://www.nishimachi.ac.jp/golf >
2018 GRADUATION
GRILLERS AND PREP CREW WANTED FOR BBQ!
Nishimachi-Kai Annual BBQ Saturday, June 16, 2018 Nishimachi-Kai Seeking: BBQ prep crew (morning) Novice to expert grilling crew (day-time) We supply gloves and tongs!
Friday, June 15, 2018 1:00 p.m. Ushiba Memorial Gymnasium Alumni are welcome to attend
Nishimachi-Kai needs your help to make the upcoming BBQ event on Saturday, June 16th a success! Please e-mail: alumni@nishimachi.ac.jp to sign up for shifts.
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.
Please visit the Giving page on our website.
< http://www.nishimachi.ac.jp/giving > 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)
< admissions@nishimachi.ac.jp -or- development@nishimachi.ac.jp >
Nishimachi International School - www.nishimachi.ac.jp, development@nishimachi.ac.jp