Tokyo Alumni Podcast

Nickolas Harris

Interviewing international school alumni from the Tokyo region, the podcasts hope to shed light on the various paths internationals school graduates took to get to where they are today. The podcast is intended for current international high school students and parents to gain a deeper insight in regards to life after high school. The host, Nickolas Harris, attended the American School in Japan (ASIJ) from 1989 to 2005, and is currently an educator teaching at an international school, the Korea International School Jeju (KISJ).

  1. Aug 11

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast Episode 95 - Lois Lowry - Two-Time Newbery Medal Winner (ASIJ 1948-1950)

    Episode 95 features two-time Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry, author of The Giver and Number the Stars. In the late 1940s, Lois arrived in post-WWII Tokyo as an American military kid. She remembers a city still recovering from war. Cars ran on charcoal burners. Kids were told not to eat ice cream because the water was said to be contaminated. Shibuya looked nothing like the Tokyo of today. Each morning a bus picked her up for seventh grade at what students then called the Meguro School, now the American School in Japan. In this conversation, Lois shares: What it was like to be a blonde, blue-eyed kid who stood out everywhere she went in 1940s TokyoThe small victory of learning to ask for milk in JapaneseThe Japanese teacher and administrator who protected the school through the warThe remarkable story connecting her to illustrator Allen SayA school bus driver she never forgotHow her Tokyo years shaped her as a writerThe Giver being challenged and banned in schools across America, and still reaching 27 languages and more than 12 million copiesHer upcoming novel Building 903, a dystopian story about censorship and book banning, out September 29We close with a rapid-fire round of quick questions, every one of them about books. This is my final episode of the summer. Only about 3-5% of podcasts make it to triple digits.... more episodes coming later this year, and Episode 100 is only five away.

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast Episode 95 - Lois Lowry - Two-Time Newbery Medal Winner (ASIJ 1948-1950)

  2. Jun 22

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 94 - Don Lee (ASIJ) - Guggenheim Fellow, Award Winning Author

    Episode 94 features Don Lee, a Guggenheim Fellow and award-winning author whose novel Country of Origin won both the American Book Award and the Edgar Award. Don also edited the literary journal Ploughshares for nearly two decades. Don grew up as the son of a US State Department officer in Tokyo and Seoul and attended ASIJ. We talk about growing up multicultural, his hope to be read as "a writer" rather than "an Asian writer," why Hawaii is where he feels he belongs most, and his advice from years of teaching creative writing (including "don't try too hard to be literary"). We also get into how AI has changed his process, and close with a rapid-fire round on books. Listen now on Spotify.

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 94 - Don Lee (ASIJ) - Guggenheim Fellow, Award Winning Author

  3. May 25

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast Episode 93 - Fred Schodt (ASIJ 1968) - Tezuka's Translator & The Man Who Brought Manga to the West

    There are very few Westerners who knew Osamu Tezuka, the god of manga, personally. Fred Schodt is one of them. Fred arrived in Tokyo as a teenager in the 1960s and went on to become the godfather of English-language manga translation, the person who introduced the medium to the West with his 1983 book Manga! Manga!. He became Tezuka's friend and interpreter, and his translations, Astro Boy, Phoenix, Barefoot Gen, Ghost in the Shell, Urasawa's Pluto, are the versions a whole generation grew up reading. Japan awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun, and he sits in the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame. In this episode we trace it back to the beginning: his ASIJ years, learning Japanese, and the college roommates who first handed him Tezuka's Phoenix. We talk about Dadakai, the short-lived translation group he formed with Jared Cook and friends Sakamoto Shinji and Ueda Midori, and how he and Jared later reunited to translate the full Phoenix series, work that continues today on a brand-new edition. We get into the near-impossible craft of carrying Japanese wordplay and onomatopoeia into English, his prescient early writing on Japanese robotics, an engineer's prediction that "in the end, software wins," and what it all says about today's AI moment and the future of translation. A living bridge between Japan and the West, in his own words.

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast Episode 93 - Fred Schodt (ASIJ 1968) - Tezuka's Translator & The Man Who Brought Manga to the West

  4. May 22

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast Episode 92 - Adam Platt (ASIJ) - Former NY Magazine Chief Restaurant Critic

    In Episode 92 I sit down with Adam Platt, chief restaurant critic at New York Magazine for 22 years, James Beard Award winner, and son of a US diplomat who grew up eating across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo before landing at ASIJ in the mid-1970s. We get into how he fell into food criticism, how the profession has changed across his career, and why ASIJ felt like a pocket of America inside Japan. We dig into the famous Bourdain claim that Tokyo is the best food city in the world, why Adam thinks it only overtook Paris around the 2010s, what makes Tokyo different from New York, and the twist from his upcoming book: many chefs now name Bangkok as the next great food capital. We also land on something every Tokyo international school grad knows, that feeling of leaving at 18 and realizing no American city quite matches the food you grew up with.

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast Episode 92 - Adam Platt (ASIJ) - Former NY Magazine Chief Restaurant Critic

  5. 05/03/2024

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 83 - Joshua Thomson - Content Creator (Former CAJ)

    In episode 83 of the Tokyo Alumni Podcast, I had the pleasure of welcoming Joshua Thomson, a model, actor, and content creator who has hundreds of thousands of followers across various social media platforms. Joshua's videos, which have garnered tens of millions of views, resonate deeply with culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, especially those with international schooling backgrounds. Joshua has a unique educational journey, having started in a Japanese elementary public school, transitioning to the Christian Academy Japan (CAJ) during his middle school years, and then returning to the Japanese public school system for high school. Although Joshua isn't an international school graduate, his unique experiences make him an integral part of the international school community.

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 83 - Joshua Thomson - Content Creator (Former CAJ)

  6. 04/30/2024

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 82 - Justin Novak - Seattle Mariners Bullpen Catcher (ASIJ 2014)

    Welcome to Episode 82 of the Tokyo Alumni Podcast. Today, I'm excited to have Justin Novak join me. A standout alumnus from the ASIJ Class of 2014, Justin has made significant strides in the world of professional baseball. He's currently the bullpen catcher for the Seattle Mariners, a role that keeps him with the team for all 162 regular-season games, plus playoffs. Despite his demanding schedule, Justin took the time to join me for the 82nd episode. During his time at ASIJ, Justin was nothing short of a baseball legend, leading his team to two Far East titles and an undefeated season of 27 wins to 0 losses during his senior year. He also excelled in college, helping his Division I team (University of Virginia) clinch a national championship in his freshman year. A s a fellow baseball enthusiast, I was truly inspired by Justin’s positive energy and deep insights into the sport. In today's episode, we delve into his journey through international school and college baseball, and discuss how one can seek out a career in the MLB.

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 82 - Justin Novak - Seattle Mariners Bullpen Catcher (ASIJ 2014)

  7. 11/27/2022

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 81 - Steve Harris (ASIJ Faculty 1997-2014) - Former Faculty

    There is no way Steve Harris could have predicted he would spend 43 years in Japan.   Born in San Francisco, California, on Halloween in 1958, his family would soon cross the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County, where they settled in the city of San Rafael. His first encounter with foreign language learning consisted of two terrible years of middle school German, a language he chose because his mother’s side of the family immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area after fleeing Nazi Germany.    His talent for foreign languages would emerge during his years of study of Spanish at San Rafael High School, where at the age of 16 he would also meet his future wife, a Japanese girl from Tokyo who happened to be studying there for one year. The relationship prompted him to begin studying Japanese upon entering the University of California at Berkeley in 1976.    He enjoyed his Japanese studies so much that he declared Japanese as his major and took advantage of Berkeley’ study-abroad program to spend a year at ICU in Tokyo during his junior year. Though he spent his last year back at Berkeley, the appeal of Tokyo was so strong for him that he decided to try to find work there right after graduation in the summer of 1980.   This led to a 17-year stint as a freelance translator and interpreter and then a 17-year stint as a Japanese language teacher at The American School in Japan.    He left ASIJ in June of 2014 and has since been freelancing from his home, which is walking distance from the ASIJ campus.   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - 2:18 - Introduction 3:47 - 4:33 - "17 years"   4:34 - 7:38 - Being an ASIJ parent vs ASIJ faculty / why ASIJ? 7:39 - 13:22 - Is sending a child to an international school worth the cost?   13:23 - 17:00 - Working at ASIJ from 1997-2014 / Leaving ASIJ 17:01 - 22:09 - Living in Japan for 40+ years - moving to Japan in the 1970s 22:09 - 22:36 - How to become bilingual   22:36 - 27:34 - Memories of ASIJ 27:35 - 36:49 - Soccer - ASIJ Soccer & working as a Japan Futsal Director 36:50 - 39:53 - Creating the ASIJ "Tama Cup"   39:54 - 44:12 - ASIJ Squad of 23 players (mid-2000s-mid-2010s team) 44:13 -46:47 - What is coming up next

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 81 - Steve Harris (ASIJ Faculty 1997-2014) - Former Faculty

  8. 08/21/2022

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 80 - Taeuk "Richard" Kang (KISJ 2022) - Stanford University Student (CS Major)

    Taeuk Kang (KISJ 2022) Stanford University student Taeuk Kang was born in Gyeongnam but moved to Jeju, where he attended Korea International School, Jeju Campus for 11 years. He plans to spend the next four years at Stanford University, CA studying Computer Science. He was awarded the Talent Award of Korea in 2020 among 100 Korean citizens for their exemplary talents. His early interest in computers led him to software development. Since then, he has developed multiple projects and apps for both open source and businesses. One of his most recent projects is the LiveCorona Map, an open source COVID visualization tool and information source. As one of the project leads, he automated the statistic collections and created a public pharmacy mask map. The project had been adopted by the Jeju government as the COVID status website early on during the pandemic. He also enjoys creating hobby projects such as a multi-source language dictionary and a failed cloud hosting reseller startup. Now, Taeuk is preparing to study Computer Science at Stanford University, specializing in the Artificial Intelligence area. He wishes to pursue a professional career in a related field. TIMESTAMP 1:35 - Introduction 3:18 - Why choose Stanford University over Harvard University? 7:45 - How to get into Stanford, Harvard and Columbia University? Are hagwons and consultants worth it? 9:40 - What gave you an edge over other applicants? Are sports and extracurriculars needed to get into a prestigious University? 17:04 - How do you find something you are genuinely passionate in? 25:50 - Attending Korea International School Jeju / life in the GEC 34:10 - The advantage of attending international school over public school 36:55 - What do you envision doing ten years from now (2032)

    Tokyo Alumni Podcast - Episode 80 - Taeuk "Richard" Kang (KISJ 2022) - Stanford University Student (CS Major)
See All (86)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Interviewing international school alumni from the Tokyo region, the podcasts hope to shed light on the various paths internationals school graduates took to get to where they are today. The podcast is intended for current international high school students and parents to gain a deeper insight in regards to life after high school. The host, Nickolas Harris, attended the American School in Japan (ASIJ) from 1989 to 2005, and is currently an educator teaching at an international school, the Korea International School Jeju (KISJ).

Information

  • Creator
    Nickolas Harris
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    86
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Nickolas Harris
  • Show Website
    Tokyo Alumni Podcast