Vivienne Kenrick - The Japan Times

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Jul 1, 2006

Tokyo International Singers, conducted by Marcel L'Esperance, will present its 104th concert on July 9 at Suntory Small Hall, Akasaka, Tokyo. This "Summer Serenade 2006" features Latin-American music. Guest artists on the program will be the Mike Price Jazz Ensemble.

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Jun 24, 2006

Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey

A new book published by the University of Hawaii Press appeared recently on bookshelves in Japan. Painstakingly written by Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey, it is titled "The Dog Shogun: The Personality and Policies of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi."

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Jun 17, 2006

Mitsuru Yamazaki

Rumor had it that Mitsuru Yamazaki used to drive a taxicab in New York City.

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Jun 10, 2006

Stephen Salyer

The headquarters of the Salzburg Seminar are in Salzburg, Austria. Many of its year-round meetings take place in the 18th century castle Schloss Leopoldskron, known to moviegoers for its impressive presence in "The Sound of Music." "It is a very beautiful place," said Stephen Salyer, the Salzburg Seminar president, who was recently visiting Tokyo. "It is inspiring."

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Jun 3, 2006

Theodore Skillman and Paul Guilfoile

In May 2004, 26 people representing six international schools in the Kanto area met and formed the first International Alumni Council, Japan.

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May 27, 2006

Harriet Boxall

A young woman in England decided, when she was of university entrance age, that she wanted to do something as far away from her own life as possible. So she did a degree in modern Chinese studies at the University of Leeds.

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May 20, 2006

Norma Diaz de Polski

Mention Argentina, and two stereotypes spring to mind: soccer and beef.

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May 13, 2006

Shin Maeda

In 1937 Spanish artist Pablo Picasso immortalized Guernica, symbol of the Basque nation, which suffered ruthless bombing during the Spanish civil war. For the Spanish pavilion in the Paris Exposition, Picasso produced a large black-and-white mural that protested the destruction of Guernica. It was said to be a "document of intellectualized pain."

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Apr 29, 2006

Elizabeth Oliver

"In June this year, 10 ARK dogs will go to find new homes through the famous Battersea Dogs Home in London. Although in the past ARK has sent individual dogs abroad for rehousing, this is the first time so many Japanese dogs have been sent from a shelter in Japan to find homes in another country. Why send dogs to Britain and why to Battersea? Battersea Dogs Home is the oldest shelter in the world, with a 160-year history. It has enormous prestige, and it is said that it is more difficult to adopt a dog from Battersea than it is to adopt a child in Britain. In Britain, dogs are no longer sold in pet shops. When people want dogs, they go to breeders directly, or more often they adopt from shelters."

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Apr 22, 2006

Peter Bernick

"Now that I have been involved with Tokyo English Life Line and gotten some experience in the mental-health field, I realize that this is very much what I want to do long-term, and in Japan," said Peter Bernick.

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Apr 15, 2006

Maureen Tan

When Mutsuko Miki, widow of former Prime Minister Takeo Miki, set up the Asian Ladies Friendship Society in 1968, she could not have projected how the society would rate in 2006. To her gratification, ALFS today, expanded to the Asia-Pacific Ladies Friendship Society, has 24 member countries and a general membership of about 300. It is a healthy, active and effective organization, concerned with extending aid to countries in the region and with building personal friendships at many levels.

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Apr 8, 2006

Mary Kerwin

Born the eldest of five sisters in Minneapolis, Mary Kerwin said that superficially hers was an insular upbringing. Her grandfather was an immigrant from Norway. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother a schoolteacher. "But while I was still very young, the Viking ancestry won out," she said. "I studied French at school, and learned elementary Norwegian with my family before a trip to Norway. Later, I attended a Norwegian Lutheran college, from which I graduated in 1977 with a B.Sc. nursing degree. I was always interested in travel and foreign places."

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Apr 1, 2006

Josephine Branders

Belgium, a small European country with a beguiling medieval air, is beloved on many counts. With the ancient buildings, public squares and marketplaces common to many European countries, Belgium has also its own enduring distinctions. It is popularly known for its long history of specialist lace-making. Its chocolates rank amongst the world's most desirable. Agatha Christie made her personable detective, Hercule Poirot, a Belgian. In recent years, Belgium has produced tennis stars who bring new excitement to the international tour.

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Mar 25, 2006

Ken Nimori

Ken Nimori has an unusual personal background. He is a Japanese who, despite having lived almost always in Tokyo, did not beyond kindergarten receive Japanese education. He spent his full 12 years of schooling at the American School in Japan.

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Mar 11, 2006

Akane Okamoto-Kaminski

Marek Kaminski, born in Poland in 1947, graduated from Warsaw University. As an advanced student of ethnic minority groups, he went on to the University of Sweden. In Sweden he met and married his wife, a Korean-Japanese who was traveling there. Akane, their daughter, was born in Goteborg, and their son, Ken, in Tokyo a few years later. Marek made many trips to follow his research plans, to lecture and to develop a writing career that resulted in books, essays and films. He took his children with him on his travels, as he considered knowing the outside world to be an important part of their education. Nowadays he refers proudly to his "multicultural kids."

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Mar 4, 2006

Mong-Lan

Although she was only 5 when, with her family, she was evacuated from Saigon, Mong-Lan thinks the events of war and suffering in her early life traumatized her. Thirty years later, critics find in her poetry "the tectonic force of history, beauty and despair." Poetry, giving release to her emotions, is only one of Mong-Lan's disciplines. She is acclaimed also as a writer, painter and photographer, and a dancer of the tango. Primarily, she is a teacher.

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Feb 25, 2006

David Hewett

In 1990, then Tokyo resident Va Maughn served as special project director of Refugees International Japan's first Art of Dining Charity Exhibition here. It was her idea to feature personal table settings as "art on tabletops."

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Feb 18, 2006

Mami Yamada

In the last five years, Mami Yamada has published seven books. Her scope encompasses original novels, one of which describes ancient links between Jewish people and the Japanese, and another of which is set against a Buddhist background.

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Feb 11, 2006

Michiko Kohga

Ask Michiko Kohga what she wanted when she was a little girl, and she answers promptly, "I wanted to eat." She was a child during the early postwar years, when all Japan was hungry. She remembers her family receiving a food package from relatives in Sao Paulo. "The candy in it was like jewelry to me," she said.

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Feb 4, 2006

Dave Bockmann

"A psychologist wants to change people. An organizer wants to change society," Dave Bockmann said.

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