MEET THE PROJECT TEAM
Miyuki Era
Interviewer
Hello! I’m Miyuki Era, a 2nd-year student in the Department of Global Tourism at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. I’m from Toyama prefecture, but my parents are from Kyoto. Since my grandparents were Nishijin-ori craftsmen, I have come to love Kyoto, and especially its traditional industries. I decided to join this project, because as a student studying in Kyoto, I wanted to participate in an activity that would allow me to become deeply involved with the city and local areas. For the interviews for this project, I went to Keihoku, an area that is far from central Kyoto. In the interviews, I learned of the various good things about Ukyo Ward and Keihoku, and I also came to realize the strong and deep connections among the local people that has been built through the traditional industries and establishments of this region. I really would like many people to know and learn more about the good things of Ukyo Ward and those who are active here.
Hina Yamanaka
Interviewer
Hi! My name is Hina Yamanaka, and I am a 2nd year student at Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School. I’m from Yokohama and moved to Kyoto a few years ago because of my father’s job transfer. I don’t know Kyoto perfectly yet, but I love the atmosphere of Kyoto where I can feel the history close to me wherever I go. I decided to join this project, because I was asked to participate in it by my teacher, and it sounded interesting. I interviewed two people on the management team at a Japanese language school near Kyoto University of Foreign Studies for this project, and through this I was able to reconfirm my belief that Ukyo Ward and Kyoto are loved not only by local people but also by foreigners. I also heard that they are helping each other to overcome the current difficult situation with Covid-19. I would like everyone to know the charm of Ukyo Ward, a place where you can feel the connection between the kind and considerate local people and visitors.
Yuria Nishimura
Interviewer
Hello guys! I’m Yuria Nishimura, a 2nd-year student in the Department of Global Studies at KUFS. I was born and raised in another part of Kyoto but moved to Ukyo-ku three years ago. I decided to participate in this project, as I couldn’t join any volunteer activities like this last year, and I really wanted to get involved in something interesting. I interviewed Mr. Imai of Sagano Farm, a hands-on farm in Ukyo-ku, and Ms. Satake, a marriage counselor in Arashiyama for this project. As this was my first time to interview anyone, I was worried about whether it would work or not, but I was actually able to hear a lot of good stories about Ukyo-ku in both interviews. I hope the articles will convey the charm of Ukyo Ward to more and more people.
Ai Umeda
Interviewer
Hi there! I’m Ai Umeda from the Department of British and American Studies at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. I love cats, and spending time with my cat is my favorite thing to do. I also love coffee and can’t start each day without a cup every morning. My other hobbies are reading and watching Youtube. I actually live in Osaka, which of course I am very fond of, but as I go to university in Kyoto, I wanted to learn more about Kyoto and the local people and places. This is really why I decided to join this project, and through this activity, I hoped to discover the charms of Ukyo-ku and then tell as many people as possible about it. Through this project, I discovered there were many interesting people and places in Ukyo-ku. The people I interviewed were very interesting, and all of them are engaging in some activities to make society better. I am so grateful that I became a member of this project and came to realize the many interesting aspects of Ukyo-ku.
Chiharu Miyamoto
Interviewer
Hi! I’m Chiharu Miyamoto from the Global Tourism department at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. I like bagels and making them at home from scratch. I recently baked matcha bagels and they were great. I also like traveling and would love to go everywhere in Japan after the pandemic. I was very interested in this project, because I wanted to know more about Ukyo-ku where KUFS is located and talk to local people who live here. Moreover, I wanted to improve my skills as an interviewer. Through the two interviews I conducted, I was able to learn how wonderful Ukyo-ku is, and that the local people care about it very much. We had interviews with Rev. Ryujun Oishi of Ninna-ji Temple and Rio Miura, a baseball player at Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School. They were very friendly and gave us many good stories about Ukyo-ku. In addition, I had a lot of fun following the process towards publishing a bilingual article, like preparing for interviews, doing interviews, writing articles, and working on the translations.
Ayane Maekawa
Interviewer
Hello! I am Ayane Maekawa, a 2nd year student in the Department of Global Studies at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.☺︎ Even though I was born and raised in Kyoto, I am constantly surprised by new things I discover about it every day, so I decided to join this project because I wanted to know more about Ukyo Ward and the people and places in it. I went to Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School, which is the high school next to KUFS, and therefore also located in Ukyo, however I didn’t know much about the place. In this project, I conducted interviews with people at the Kyoto Minsai Japanese Language School and had a part in interviewing Mr. Tokumaru Kunihiro, a representative director of the non-profit Frontier Association. There were a lot of things I had never done before and I felt uneasy about the interviews at first, but both interviews turned out to be very good and I could learn new and interesting things about the area. Also, through my participation in this project, I was able to feel that Ukyo Ward is a place that is loved by everyone, regardless of age or nationality.
Iori Yamaguchi
Interviewer
Nice to meet you! My name is Iori Yamaguchi. I’m a 2nd year student at Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School and was born and raised in Kyoto. I joined this project because I wanted to improve my English ability and connect with people in Ukyo Ward and people from various countries around the world. In this project, my job was to interview people. However, there were a lot of things that I was puzzled about when I did the interviews for the first time. Even though my partner, Miyuki, did a lot of the talking, I think I learned a lot and it was very informative! I certainly know more about Ukyo Ward than before through doing the interviews, and I want to tell more people about it.
Chihiro Okajima
Interviewer
Hello! My name is Chihiro. I live in Kyoto now but I’m originally from Kochi. I go to Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School, and I belong to the volleyball club. I like sport very much. I like Kyoto very much, too, because Kyoto has many nice places and traditional buildings to visit and has very delicious foods, such as matcha. I decided to join this project, because I’m not so good at communicating with people when I first meet them and I wanted to get better at doing that. Even though it was difficult for me to interview someone for the first time, I had a really fun time in the end. As I am living in Kyoto now, it was very useful for me to find out more about Ukyo-ku through these interviews.
Ruka Sasaki
Interviewer
Hello there! My name is Ruka Sasaki and I am a 3rd year student in the Department of Global Studies at KUFS. I love dogs and I think taking a walk with my dog is a great way to relax! I also love Disney, and I’ve been watching a lot of Disney movies at home lately! I only started living in Kyoto after I entered Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, but thought it would be a shame to live in Kyoto, a city full of Japanese history and culture, and yet know nothing about it. Therefore, I decided to join this project to learn more about the charms of Kyoto as well as its history. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Oishi of Ninnaji Temple and Ms. Miura of Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School for this project. From their stories, I was able to feel the true beauty of Ukyo-ku, which is full of history and culture, and the friendliness of the local people who value relationships between people above everything. I am very glad to have participated in this project, and to have the chance to meet new people and discover Ukyo for myself.
Hikaru Sasaki
Interviewer
Hi there! I’m Hikaru Sasaki, a 4th year student in the Department of British and American Studies at KUFS. I like staying home and watching Netflix in my free time and have recently become obsessed with “Glee” which is an American drama about a show choir team. I also enjoy cooking vegan food because I’m trying to live on a plant-based diet. The reason why I joined this project is because I realized that I didn’t know much about Ukyo Ward, including people, places, and history, even though I’m from Kyoto. Through this project, I was able to know more about the area and its attractive features, and then share this information with many people. It was my first time to do the kind of professional translation work necessary for this bilingual project, and to be honest, it wasn’t easy. We didn’t use a direct translation, so we needed to make sentences that were easy for everyone to understand, which was the toughest part. However, I really enjoyed interviewing people and engaging with the community in Ukyo because they made me realize how amazing the city really is.
Niklaus Weigelt
Interviewer
Hello everyone! My name is Niklaus Weigelt and I am a 4th year student at KUFS in the Department of Global Studies. I am originally from Switzerland and have been in Japan for 5 years. In my free time I like to spend time outdoors and go hiking. I also enjoy travelling around Japan and discovering new places. I joined the Ukyo Voices project because I am interested in finding out more about the Ukyo-ku community. I intend to apply to a graduate school in Japan where I plan to conduct research about social innovations for community/regional development, and joining this project gave me some valuable insights. I also hoped to get to know some new people and do my part to make the project a success. During my interview with Stephen Gill, I was able to learn a lot about the on-going projects and ideas to protect and improve Ukyo-ku from within the community. I was extremely impressed by Mr. Gill’s efforts in trying to preserve the natural beauty of Ukyo-ku, as it is important to find a balance between preservation and development. I hope that more awareness about the importance of this challenge is raised through this project.
Ryota Harada
Interviewer
Hello! I’m Ryota Harada, a sophomore in the Department of British and American Studies at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. An English tutor I met when I was a junior high school student and the English rock band “Queen” got me interested in learning English, and that’s why I’m here now at Kyoto Gaidai. To be honest, I have been interested in volunteer activities using English for a long time, and that is why I decided to participate in this project. I wanted to not only improve my English ability, but also learn more about the local environment around the university and the appeal of Ukyo Ward. For my interview, I spoke with a person in charge of sales for Kyoto Hannaryz, a professional basketball team based in Kyoto. I was very impressed by their attitude towards cheering the people of Kyoto up and attempts to solve some of the problems in the community in a way that only a sports team can do. Overall, it was a very good experience for me.
Ryo Nakatsuji
Photographer, Website designer
Hello everyone! My name is Ryo Nakatsuji, and I’m in charge of the web design team and the photography team. My reason for joining this project was because I like taking pictures and creating websites very much, and I want to convey the charm of Ukyo-ku through them. After participating in this project, I can now appreciate how difficult it is to create a good website. I had to consult well with other members of the team to build a website that is easy for many people to view, and this was a good and useful experience for me. Also, through the photos, it was great to be able to see a different view of the area from the one I usually see on my way to and from school.
Sora Asano
Website designer
Hello everyone! I’m Sora Asano, a 2nd year student in the Department of British and American Studies at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. In this project, I am happy to be a member of the web design team. There were several reasons I wanted to join this project, but the main ones are my real interest in technology and making and running websites. Through this project experience, I really think we have made a great website working with team members and teachers. This was great for me because I could learn how to create easy to read pages and easy to understand web design.
Prateep Na Thalang Thanavut
Photographer
Hello everyone! My name is Prateep Na Thalang Thanavut. Please call me Naru. I am a foreign student from Thailand. I have lived in Japan for 4 years (3 years in Okayama) and now I am living in Kyoto. I got invited by a fellow student, Ryo Nakatsuji, to participate in this project, and joined midway through. Therefore, there are many things I needed to learn about the project before I could get started. I am really happy to have been one of the members as a photographer, and I hope you enjoy the photos I have taken for the Eyes on Ukyo section.
Kevin Ramsden
Project Manager
Hello everyone! My name is Kevin Ramsden and I am the Project Manager for the Ukyo Voices project. My main role was to coordinate between the student participants, the management team and all other people involved with the project to make sure all the activities and assignments were on schedule and completed. I have been really happy to work with such a cool and talented group, and am delighted with the final results. Well done everyone!
Takako Ramsden
Translation Coordinator
I’m Takako Ramsden, the advisor/coordinator of translation activities in this project. I am a teacher in the Department of British and American Studies at KUFS, and a translator (E-J & J-E) with over 20 years of experience. I enjoyed this project, not as a teacher but just as a member of the team, helping to create something together with the students. I hope our efforts to introduce wonderful Ukyo-ku in this website will be enjoyed by many people.
Angus McGregor
KGN Student Coordinator
Hey there everyone! I’m Angus McGregor and I teach at Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School (KGN) in the Course of International & Cultural Studies. For the Ukyo Voices project my main role has been to assist the KGN students in collaborating with their KUFS student partners in the interviews, and in proofreading their English articles. I’ve really enjoyed reading the interviews and learning about Ukyo-ku. The students have done a fine job with the project, and I hope you enjoy learning more about the Ukyo-ku community.
Aaron Campbell
Website and SNS Advisor
Hi everybody. I’m Aaron Campbell, one of the teachers in the Department of Global Studies. I’m thrilled to have served as the website and SNS advisor for this community engagement project. And the fact that I was able to work with such knowledgeable and talented students made my job so much easier! Our Webmasters did their best to capture the essence of this project through the website and share its fruits with all of Kyoto and beyond. I hope you enjoy it.
Community Engagement Center
Project Coordinating Team
Hi there! We are the staff of the Community Engagement Center (CEC) at KUFS and it was our job to support the students who participated in the Ukyo Voices project. We coordinated with relevant departments in the university to make sure things moved along smoothly and helped out when needed by contacting interviewees, Ukyo-ku officials and other parties. We did our best to support the success of the Ukyo-ku project and we are very happy to see it was a great success!
Takashi Ushijima
Coordinator and Ukyo-ku Liaison
Hello there! I’m Takashi Ushijima, a faculty member of The Hispanic Studies Department at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and a researcher of the Hispanic community expanding throughout America, and the Mexican-American border region, known in Spanish as la frontera. However, I am not only interested in Latin America, but also Asian countries. My hobbies are watching movies and writing books or other academic works in my study area, but as I have recently become interested in studying Community Engagement, I was happy to participate in this project. I think that all the students who participated in this project were able to have a good opportunity to hear valuable stories from many local people, and I hope that the lessons learned from this will be put to good use in society.
Riho Matsuse
Communications Coordinator
Hello, everyone! My name is Riho Matsuse, and I am a faculty member of the Department of Global Affairs of Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. As I have been a professional in organizational development using AI (Appreciative Inquiry) for 16 years, I was happy to be asked to join this project as Communications Coordinator. I was really excited to be able to explore the potential and value of Ukyo-ku through “UKYO VOICES” and I hope that this project will help not only students, but also many other people, feel a sense of attachment and familiarity with Ukyo-ku.