Kumi (Sato) Kanak '74
Louisa Rubinfien '76
Jeff Hsu '77
Einat (Chitayat) Nahmani '86
Chris Hathaway '90
(The Internationalist Winter 2011/2012 Vol. 48)
This issue of The Internationalist focuses on global education. We thought that it would cast a special light on this subject to hear from some of our alumni who are two-generation Nishimachi families — Nishimachi alumni who have sent their own children to school at Nishimachi. We asked them why their parents selected Nishimachi for their schooling, how they think their Nishimachi education has influenced them in their adult lives, and why they themselves chose, years later, to have their children attend Nishimachi as well. The conversation that follows took place among Kumi Sato (Class of 1974), Louisa Rubinfien (1976), Jeff Hsu (1977), Einat Chitayat (1986), and Chris Hathaway (1990).
Kumi Sato: The reason my parents sent us to Nishimachi was simply that they saw the need for Japanese people to become more international or global. They had been educated in the U.S. and had worked there, and felt that learning English at an early age would be extremely advantageous. When they returned to Japan from the U.S., they did consider Japanese schools, but when they met Tané Matsukata, they quickly concluded that this was the school they wanted their children to attend. I attended Nishimachi from kindergarten through ninth grade, as did my siblings, my niece, and my own three children.
The first thing I distinctly remember about Nishimachi was that it was quite diverse in terms of nationalities. I came from a home where our primary languages were English with my father and Japanese with my mother, so it was striking to be exposed to something that was more than just bicultural. As a child it was extremely exciting to be invited to different houses and learn about other places through just visiting friends and meeting their families. Having the chance to see the way different nationalities lived in Tokyo was like peeking into a hole as in Alice in Wonderland.
Or like the "It's a Small World" ride at Disneyland. My family is a bunch of foodies, and there, within fifteen minutes, at one friend's house we'd be doing Hannukah, and then at another's, everything was American and we were eating Christmas cookies, and then a few minutes away, we'd eat Taiwanese ramen at my best friend's home. It was just a whole gourmet cultural concoction that was just unbelievable, every day, and we took it for granted, but to think back at it, wow, what a great experience that was.
And I still remember sitting next to an Israeli boy on the left and on my right someone from Palestine. The pride these children had in their country or their religion, it was all new to me, but what it meant was that already in third grade, I was in the midst of discussions and situations that I'd be exposed to when I became older.
I grew up feeling that we are all the same, despite our different backgrounds. So-and-so may be from such-and-such a country, but actually he was a second-grader and friend. So I'd say we were very blind to the differences. Gender-wise, too, seeing Japanese girls in Japanese school taught to behave a certain way, whereas that wasn't the case at Nishimachi. People were individuals and personalities.
That really was extremely helpful in my upbringing and my future career. Once I started working, I never felt any hesitation in going up to people from different countries and introducing myself. I think that sort of confidence was ingrained in me at an early age. I can be any place and find myself comfortable, walk in anywhere and not feel like a stranger. This was Nishimachi's biggest contribution to who I am today.
Jeff Hsu: I'm just a few years younger than Kumi, and I also remember the very international quality of the school.
My parents' reasons for sending us here were first that we were in the immediate area and could walk to school, and also that for an expat Taiwanese family, there weren't many opportunities to learn English other than by going to Nishimachi. At the time the area was very diverse — it was the cosmopolitan center for all of Tokyo. We didn't have all the security back then. The embassies were all open and I could walk right through the French Embassy garden every day on the way home after school, and smell what was cooking in the kitchen, and the German and Swiss embassies, too.
One of the strengths of Nishimachi at the time was that it reached out to families with backgrounds that were neither Japanese nor English and educated them until they were fluent in both languages. When I enrolled, my English was not very strong. No one actually spoke English at home, just Japanese and Chinese. I could understand the math that was being taught, but in English class I was drifting a bit. I think I did the after-school ESL for my first two years at Nishimachi. Teachers actually took their time to bring together children from diverse cultural and language backgrounds and blend them. I think that kind of bicultural, bilingual — or really, trilingual — education was an important foundation for our future flexibility.
Kumi: In my time, it was the school where all the diplomats sent their children. So I don't think there was so much emphasis on kids' English ability. You had a classroom full of ESL children. There was less emphasis on Western standard education.
We even had teachers who did not speak English very well, but through them we learned about their culture — I remember my math teacher was from Pakistan — and when you're at an impressionable age like that, yes, we had academic standards and western standards, but what we were especially exposed to was a cultural as opposed to an academic orientation.
The expats who were here then had a sophisticated appreciation of Japanese culture and the Japanese parents were a sophisticated bunch of people, too. At that time, for Japanese people to send their children for an international education, they had to be fairly open-minded — they were intellectuals, academics, artists, so it was fun. I found the Japanese parents to be as unique as the non-Japanese parents, which made it a very interesting mix.
Chris Hathaway: This is fascinating, the perspectives on what Nishimachi used to be like longer ago. I came here from the States partway through first grade in 1981 and then left after fifth grade in 1986. When I was here, it was diverse, but it was definitely mostly American and Japanese or mixed families.
After Nishimachi, we moved to Jakarta for three years. I went to Jakarta International School. JIS was also a fantastic experience, different, more sprawling, less unified. But it was much more international there.
As a child, you grow up thinking whatever your experiences are normal. But from my experience being in the U.S. and going abroad and then returning to the U.S., the trickiest and hardest part was, without a doubt, coming back to the States again. Whenever anything was difficult here, we'd always be saying, "oh, if I were back at home, everything would be fine," but then you get back and it's a real eye opener.
My local high school in the U.S. was very diverse, but people tended to stay in their groups. The lines were very stark and clear, whereas here at Nishimachi or at JIS, everyone was just all together and mingling. You're aware that people are from different places, but you're just kind of blind to it. So it was my unique experience in high school in the U.S. that I had friends from all different groups, though my friends weren't friends with each other. That fluidity was in large part because of my experience growing up.
Einat Chitayat: Having our children experience that gives them the tools to be open if they ever have to adjust and accommodate elsewhere.
I felt that myself. When I returned to Israel after Nishimachi, I had to learn Hebrew practically from ABC. After high school, we were drafted into the military. And that is a shocking experience. And then the university. Each change I went through, I felt I had the tools to negotiate with those around me, because you can't pick and choose who will be in your local school or unit or university community.
These tools are so precious. The kids at Nishimachi, I am sure, are learning this negotiation without even noticing. We talk about diversity with my children, but I think it's a non-issue for them. My mom visited and noticed that not one of their friends is Israeli. They're Japanese, they're American. She said, "Have you noticed?" but it was a non-issue for me as well.
Kumi mentioned the international food tour that was Nishimachi. That's the beauty of the food fair. I remember my mother helping out at the food fair, and I've been doing the same for a number of years, too. One year my mother came to visit and she and my daughter both worked at the booth with me, so there you have three generations. Food is such a door to so many different cultures, and it's always a celebration.
Jeff: When I was at Nishimachi in the 1970s, it was at Tokyo's cosmopolitan center. But Japan was growing very rapidly at that time, which meant that a lot of foreigners came here who had a strong interest in being here, specifically. Once they were here, they became impressed with Japan's cultural traditions and lifestyles, so they sought that experience for their children. Children at Nishimachi had their parents' active support when it came to learning about Japanese culture. And the Japanese parents who sent their children to Nishimachi had a special viewpoint on the aims of education other than simply working and making your marks and passing your tests. Those were not the qualities that they were seeking. So the whole notion of education was different.
Kumi: Yes, I feel I got to see both the international side, but also what it's like to be in a Japanese public school, because our Japanese Social Studies class was taught by a former headmaster of a Japanese public school. He was extremely Japanese in his teaching. It was a culture shock in its own way, but it made a big impression on me.
Jeff: One of the reasons I decided to come back to Japan was simply because I had the Japanese.
I had a fighting chance to get into Japanese university because I had the language. I had the choice of the States, where all my international school friends in Hong Kong were going, or to take off in a different way. I prepared for Keio's exams during the gap between the Hong Kong and Japanese academic calendars, but without the rudiments I had from Nishimachi, I wouldn't even have been able to consider that. Many students from Nishimachi who go to ASIJ also have that option open.
Chris: Mandatory Japanese class, well, I hated it! I'm embarrassed to admit it, and in retrospect, I fully recognize it was a good experience. But I really resisted it. Though the emphasis on Japanese was one of the things my parents liked about the school.
When we moved to Indonesia after Japan, I had a mandatory six-month Bahasa Indonesian class. It was much easier — in six months my Indonesian was about as good as my Japanese after five years.
But looking back, it definitely gave me a foundation. I went back to Japanese in college and then really learned the language when I worked in Saitama for a few years. That's when I reconnected. And I'm so grateful for that. I've got so much continuity in Tokyo, almost more so than back in the States. My third grade teacher was Mr. Montgomery. My parents love coming back to visit. I met my wife when I was on the JET program and she's from Mexico, so we really share a history here more than anywhere else.
Japan's a great place to raise children — that's a major factor in our decision to be here. And I think it's an incredible privilege to be able to send my kids to Nishimachi.
Einat: For my parents, Nishimachi's emphasis on learning the Japanese language and culture was one of the schools' most important qualities. My father came to Japan in the '60s right after he finished military service, learned the language, and was completely immersed in the Japanese way of life.
I think Nishimachi had a lot to do with what I do today and how I was able, when I returned here, to adjust and find my own niche. I'm an architect: I completed my studies here and am licensed in Japan, and I work with construction management companies, which is a very, very, very Japanese environment. I think I have a unique standing, in large part because of the language but also because of my familiarity with the culture. It's not 100%, of course — I always have new things to learn, but it has allowed me to feel comfortable in Japanese work environment.
Growing up with another language, making mistakes and laughing about it — when you grow up not speaking perfectly and are still able to communicate, and then you go somewhere else, it's almost like osmosis. It just happens, I can't put a finger on it and define it, but it's all there available to you. You don't need to have it spoon-fed.
Also, compared to schools I attended after Nishimachi, I think of Nishimachi as being very special. That has to do with its small size and close family atmosphere. I always remember it fondly. I am pleased till today 100%, as long as we're here, I'm completely content.
Chris: That's one of the reasons I wanted to send my kids here, too: the community feeling of Nishimachi. It's one of the aspects I look back at most fondly and it was, I think, the reason that my parents chose Nishimachi for us. We were from a small town in New Jersey, and Nishimachi also really felt like a tight and small community, and I think it still does. It had almost this philosophy behind it — the song, Let There Be Peace on Earth — and that plants a seed, I think.
Kumi: Our classes tended to be smaller, I think, so you got to know everyone, and many of the kids were like sisters and brothers.
Chris: We maybe have shorter-term stays these days or when I was at Nishimachi, three to five year stints. But one thing that does is to make the community really geared up to integrate newcomers into the community. People are coming and going all the time, and the community is very welcoming. Back in the States, it wasn't that way — kids lived in the same town their whole lives and grew up together.
Louisa Rubinfien: I was always very appreciative of having lived overseas as a child but also rather wistful about what it might be like to have been more rooted somewhere. But I think Nishimachi offered a remarkable balance between the two, because Nishimachi itself was both so international in those days and, as you say, accepting, and at the same time so rooted here in Japan, with many students attending all the way through ninth grade, that there was some experience of both.
Chris: That community feeling extended to parents, and that was one of the things that really appealed to my parents. They wanted to be somewhere they could be involved. My mother was head of Tomo no Kai, and my father was on some committees, and they loved going on the ski trips. They still visit the school when they come to Japan and go say hi to staff members who were here at that time. So there's a continuity at Nishimachi for my family, which is fantastic.
Jeff: My parents, being Chinese, were not interventionist at all: whatever the teachers said, goes. I don't think my parents ever looked at my homework. If the grades were not good enough... well that's a different matter.
Kumi: In our time, whatever Tané Matsukata said, you listened. There was no parent discussion. My parents were always scared that we'd be kicked out for bad behavior. But I think Nishimachi was run like a strong school with a clear mission. So the parents were grateful that we were allowed to come to Nishimachi. They didn't question things but just relied on the teachers to do the thinking on behalf of the children. So yes, we'd sing carols around the Christmas tree or things like Let There Be Peace on Earth, but no one questioned whether it was too religious or not. As my mother says, "It was a private school, and you were privileged to be there. We parents all believed that and just kept our mouths shut!"
Louisa: Miss Matsukata was a presence. She wasn't touchy-feely at all — in fact she was rather intimidating to me as a child. But she had a poem posted on her office door — and in those days the library was right outside her office — so when I'd be looking at books, I'd stop and read the poem: Children Learn What They Live. "If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence. And so on. ...With tolerance, they learn patience, ...with praise, they learn appreciation, etc." She set the tone of the school and I think the poem there must have made me feel that she took responsibility for how we turned out. It was a special tone to be part of and think you were going to live up to someday. "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."
The poem on Miss Matsukata's door ended, "If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live." As a child of course you don't know, but when you came out of Nishimachi, you felt as if you had been in a ...
Chris: Bubble. Yes, in that sense, going back to the States felt like this rude awakening. Nishimachi was a tremendous bubble to be in. Especially for the younger kids.
Kumi: The reason we sent our kids to Nishimachi is simple: my husband and I were both running companies. We tried to put our kids in Japanese kindergarten. I did go to sports day and the little trips to dig out sweet potatoes and so forth. But it was a huge culture shock for me — the community of mothers, the consensus decision making -- and the school probably saw me as a culture shock as well. When I was told that I had to sew some bags in just such and such a perfect Japanese mother way, that's when I said, "No, we're sending our children to Nishimachi." It was an easy call, and being familiar with the teachers and the system made it flexible and comfortable.
I don't think the student makeup in the late '90s and 2000's was the same as mine. I found it a little disappointing because it is much more focused on the U.S. But with the cultural mix at Nishimachi even now, they did come to believe that anything is possible, that there are no limitations, you can go here, go there. In other words, your horizon and viewpoint are very different than they might have been.
My children are very comfortable wherever they are: Daniel's at Goldman in New York, Mia's at medical school at Stanford, which is very diverse and has more women than men. It's great where the cultural and gender diversity doesn't become an issue and you can focus on the work itself.
Jeff: The reason I sent my children to Nishimachi was that they were a mix of Chinese and Japanese and we were overseas for so long that their Japanese was suffering. We thought it would be best to establish them in their mother tongue properly before going onto Chinese in the future. So a few years in Nishimachi was quite useful.
The hallmarks of the school — what made Nishimachi the way it was back in my day are generally well accepted, I suppose. But now many schools have opened up all over Asia, and expats go from place to place, so I think what we had was unique to that time and place. You can look back and remember all the different nationalities they had back when we were at Nishimachi, but it was clear just from looking at the directory that the makeup of the students is different now and that many of them wouldn't be staying here for more than a few years. You see this at schools in the UK and Hong Kong, too. It's a different age. It's not exactly transnational, but there is this phenomenon all over the world. And the result is that the pressures and demands placed on the school are different than before.
Chris: We put a lot of emphasis on Japanese in our home, too. Our younger children go to Japanese yochien, and we encourage our second grade son to study Japanese and practice it -- Nishimachi gives a lot of support for that. So I really appreciate the Japanese program at Nishimachi.
Einat: Truthfully, I didn't look at any other schools for my children. I didn't even think of any other options that could compare to Nishimachi. I knew that we would be here for a very long time. It was very important for me that my children acquire the language as I had been able to do, and I think that nowhere else compares to Nishimachi in this. This has given me such an advantage, and I feel so rich because of that, I wanted to make sure my children had the same opportunity.
Kumi: I do think Nishimachi did influence me. Tané Matsukata, Miss Hirooka, these were early Japanese global citizens. The way they were raised, the way they were a part of the global world, all these were things I assimilated, too. I have very positive feelings about them and am forever grateful for them.
It's easy to talk about globalization — access to information is easy. But trying to "globalize" is a challenge. People already being with a certain mindset. There are many Japanese businessmen who want to be "global," but when they walk into a room with different nationalities, genders, gender preferences... Well, it's just not easy. It's best to start early when children are malleable and it all becomes much more natural. Nishimachi doesn't have to try to become global: it's just a way of life.
Einat: There are some communities where the foreign children tend to congregate in groups, but I don't see that here and I think that's due to their being colorblind. If anyone ever regarded me as different and felt that to be a barrier, I was never aware of it. If anything, it was a great ice-breaker. I always had something to contribute and I knew how to ask questions also.
The differences are always an advantage, not a disadvantage — that's what I learned at Nishimachi.