Japan Life Stories

This week we welcome Fariza Abidova, CEO of Trusted Corporation.Fariza shares a great story, from moving to Japan from her home country in Uzbekistan to bootstrapping 50 businesses in 3 years, being a panelist alongside Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, and writing for the Nikkei, one of Japan's biggest newspapers. Fariza speaks 7 languages, is an expert in cross-cultural communication and her background is a true inspiration and a model of entrepreneurship and self-empowerment.Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/09-connecting-cultures-through-business-innovationLink to our free guide book to help you save money in Japan: https://japanlifestories.com/ebookLink to our upcoming career mentorship program: https://japanlifestories.com/mentorship

Tyas Sosen is a Belgium Tea Ceremony Master from Kyoto. He has been living in Japan for over a decade, trained in an impressive number of traditional arts like calligraphy, kendo or flower arrangement before eventually joining a famous lineage of tea masters. During the next hour, we'll discuss tea, of course, but also Buddhism, Taoism, mindfulness, martial arts and the underlying principles of the tea ceremony. This is the perfect episode to lift your spirits and take your mind away from the daily worries we all face at the moment.Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/08-becoming-a-tea-ceremony-master-in-japanOur upcoming career mentorship program: https://japanlifestories.com/mentorshipOur free guide book to help you save money in Japan: https://japanlifestories.com/ebook

Alessandro is an American videographer living in Kyoto. After a first career as a chef and directing his first movie, he created his own production company with a key mission: to archive Kyoto's cultural landmarks through virtual reality and high definition 3D videos. He has since been able to cover events such as the Gion Matsuri and be an ambassador for Kyoto at the Grammy Awards ceremony. In this interview, Alessandro discusses his love for Kyoto, his challenges working with the most traditional institutions and the responsibility of being a foreign resident in a city impacted by mass tourism. Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/07-recreating-kyoto-in-vrOur upcoming career mentorship program: https://japanlifestories.com/mentorshipOur free guide book to help you save money in Japan: https://japanlifestories.com/ebook

Alex is more famously known online as AGK42. His unique style of photography attracted a strong following on Instagram. When he is not working as a UX designer at bitcoin.com, Alex spends his nights exploring and capturing Tokyo's hidden spots. If you like Blade Runner and Stranger Things, you'll love rediscovering Tokyo through his camera.He recently launched a great campaign allocating all the profits coming from his online shop directly to help the animals impacted by the terrible fires that devastated Australia. We discussed photography, fintech and nothing less than the meaning of life (spoiler, it's 42!)Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/06-photographer-agk42-and-ux-designerOur upcoming career mentorship program: https://japanlifestories.com/mentorshipOur free guide book to help you save money in Japan: https://japanlifestories.com/ebook

Hirisha Mehta is the Head of Design at Kyoto Journal, an award-winning magazine sharing artistic and cultural insights all across Asia. Hirisha's background includes experiences designing at Universal Studios Japan and creating her own Japanese typeface. In this very rich episode, we discuss typography, scripts, Japanese design, Kyoto as a creative & cultural hub, architecture and local dialects. We had a lot of fun recording this and I am sure you will enjoy it too! Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/05-head-of-design-at-the-kyoto-journal-with-hirisha-mehtaOur upcoming career mentorship program: https://japanlifestories.com/mentorshipOur free guide book to help you save money in Japan: https://japanlifestories.com/ebook

This week we welcome Nathan Hoernig from Humble Bunny.Nathan is the founder of a design and marketing agency now collaborating with famous international companies. Expatriate since 2007, Nathan explains how failing the JET program exams and creating a simple logo for a music band kickstarted his entrepreneurial adventure. He also shares his views on the marketing field in Japan, how valuable networking is and his challenges in building a great corporate culture while finding good talents.Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/04-running-a-design-and-marketing-agency-in-tokyoLink to our free guide book to help you save money in Japan: https://japanlifestories.com/ebookLink to our upcoming career mentorship program: https://japanlifestories.com/mentorship

Introducing a shorter format to share insights on a specific topic related to life in Japan!This week, we follow up on Japanese learning after exchanging with Tao on this topic in a recent podcast episode. Learning Japanese is tough but the process can be significantly improved by a few mind tricks. Discover our battle-tested tricks to boost your Japanese level and avoid talking like a Yakuza to your boss.Link to the blog post and resources: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/3-hidden-tricks-to-radically-improve-your-japaneseLink to our free guide book: https://japanlifestories.ck.page/ebook

This week we welcome Tao Romera Martinez from Pocket Marche.Tao has been living in Japan for 15 years and transitioned from a corporate job at Fujitsu to becoming in 2013 the co-founder of Tadaku, a startup in the travel industry. After years of growth and successfully selling his company, Tao is now working on saving Japan's aging agricultural industry at Pocket Marche.In this episode, we discussed startups, acquisition VS venture money, identifying your strength and passion as well as strategies to radically improve in Japanese. Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/03-on-bootstrapping-a-startup-in-the-travel-industryLink to our free guide book: https://japanlifestories.ck.page/ebook

This week we welcome Adrian Leon Morris from Tokyo Otaku Mode.Tokyo Otaku Mode is an e-commerce and news platform dedicated to the Japanese Pop culture (anime, manga, games...). Adrian is also the co-host of the Unknown Games Podcast, a show covering video games. He discusses with us the job opportunities laying in the Japanese gaming industry.Adrian previously worked in a much more conservative environment and shares his experience learning Japanese, adapting to his daily life in Tokyo and going through job interviews.Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/02-working-in-the-gaming-and-anime-industryLink to our free guide book: https://japanlifestories.ck.page/ebook

In this very first episode, I am very happy to welcome Lina Boudier, a coach in business English from Tokyo.Lina and I worked for a few years in the same co-working space and I have been able to witness the evolution of her activity, from being an occasional english teacher to developing her own school, style and pedagogy to support other businesses.Lina shares with us her memories on her first few years in Japan, the challenges in creating a business here and in teaching English while being non-native. She also explains her conception of a "glorified freelancer" and how to move past this stage.Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/01-business-english-coach-and-glorified-freelancerLink to our free guide book: https://japanlifestories.ck.page/ebook

Welcome to Japan Life Stories! As this episode is the very first of our podcast series, I'd like to use this opportunity to introduce myself and share more on the origin of Japan Life Stories. How we got started, who is behind it and our plans for the show.Thanks and enjoy!Link to the show notes: https://japanlifestories.com/stories/00-on-creating-japan-life-storiesLink to our free guide book: https://japanlifestories.ck.page/ebook