While filming

The Non Textbook-Case Woman on the 2015 Textbook

Oct 8 • Blog, Inspiration • 3542 Views • No Comments

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Have you ever noticed the moments when life expands and shrinks according to your behavior? We may not always realize it in the midst of it. But in hindsight, certain actions take us to completely unexpected, wonderful outcomes. This is one of those that have happened to me because of my bicycle tour across Japan.

Among many people I met throughout my cycling journey of Japanese food, there were those who spoke the same language, and I don’t mean English or Japanese. John Rucynski, a New York native and an associate professor at Okayama University, was one of those. I met John whilst I was staying in Sapporo, Hokkaido, where he had also cycled for two weeks from his home for the charity of Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. At the same time, he was writing for an outdoor magazine in the US about cycling in Japan. Mind you, he’d cycled at a MUCH faster pace than my let’s-take-the-longest-time-possible tour, but how we were reporting on a theme of Japan, using the same “vehicle” left an imprint in me.

In March this year, just a few days before my moving day to Tokyo from Fukuoka, I received a message from John asking, “Do you happen to be living in Tokyo?”

He was on a new project of publishing a 2015 university English textbook to be used in Japan, which entailed video interviews with over a dozen foreigners who worked in Japan in various industries. The textbook project team thought that it could bring a closer feeling for students to take a glimpse of some Japanese professionals working globally, and so they decided to add a man and a woman from Japan to fill those seats.

This was where I came up as a candidate. I am not exactly a textbook case professional as you can see from my cycling tour. But, our lives come in many forms, and there certainly is no right way to work. John and I thought it’d be awesome if we could inspire students with some atypical way of work style of a Japanese woman.

Interview shot with Alice Gordenker of NHK 英語で喋らナイト

Interview shot with Alice Gordenker of Japan Times and NHK 英語で喋らナイト

The interview itself was very exciting and also quite a challenge. Prior to the filming day, the crew came over to where I lived and worked as a freelance creative consultant for a pre-interview so they could create a script. The interviewer was Ms Alice Gordenker (her blog here), a Japan Times journalist and NHK (Japan’s national broadcaster)’s English educational program director, an extremely intelligent lady who asked me questions with absolutely zero word that was useless. I was screaming in my head (in joy), “THIS is how great pros conduct an interview in a set amount of time!!” That by itself was a great learning experience and worth going through for a couple of hours.

On the filming day, we went over the script and had cheat sheets just outside of the video frame. After all, this was a language learning material and each word needed to be said exactly how it would appear in the textbook for students to study with. Let me tell you how excited and I went blank as soon as I took my eyes off of the cheat sheet to look at Alice’s eyes. It was almost comical (to me) how one’s head decides to wipe off everything against her will. With some of those hurdles I’d never experienced before, our filming was done. It gave me a newly found respect for actors and actresses who do this regularly. I guess, like anything, practice and training make people better over time in any field.

So happy after completing the interviewv

Our short but condensed video interview was on my upbringing, student life, how I got my first job in a big corporation in the US, my cycling tour, how I work now, and what could be next. To tell you the truth, I was a little hesitant on taking on this interview. I felt that I wasn’t 100% what I’d considered myself to be a perfect example. I have many dreams and goals that I have not yet achieved. I’ve felt behind and even ashamed of my progress. I was in the middle of moving to Tokyo so that I’d grow into something more of what I’d pictured myself to be. In such transitional time, this project came flying into my life. I had to tell myself almost forcefully that it would be okay although I really didn’t know, given the in-between situation I’d been in.

Me and the video script

Me and the video script

It was much like the time before I set off on my bicycle before my big tour. It takes courage to go for a new experience when you cannot imagine the result. All that I can say from my experience now is this; that kind of courage is the one that I absolutely end up loving the outcome of at the end of it all. It’s the courage to say yes when you’re scared, but at the same time inside yourself, you know you’re jumping up and down in joy that this opportunity has been brought over to you. There is a tug-of-war inside you to go for it or not, but your heart is definitely saying yes. Our intuition is a guide that we must not ignore. It always seems to know the exact right action you should take to be the better, bigger version of you.

The Textbook

If you’d like information on this new textbook, please contact John Rucynski.

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