Purely to feed my own interests, one of the courses I am taking this semester is an introductory class to Japanese literature. This course has the largest amount of students enrolled among my classes, the professor has absolutely no reservations about cold-calling students, and it is my only Sophia class to have a teaching assistant. From our first session, I found all of these qualities endearing, but I was most excited about my newfound proximity to a Sophia graduate student. Shortly after the first few sessions, I spoke to the TA about a possible interview and thankfully she accepted with open arms. After a few emails back and forth, we decided on a time and date.

Going into this first interview, I was expecting it to be as surface-level and dull as the word “interview” promises. After exchanging hellos outside one of the campus buildings, it was very clear to me that this meeting was going to be much more eye-opening than I had anticipated. Beginning on campus with short pleasantries and questions about after-school plans, we decided to begin a short trek to a nearby park. Here Ann and I settled comfortably into a bench to enjoy our coffees and the warming spring weather. Complete with a cacophony of tattoos and countless stories, Ann was a strikingly interesting person inside and out. Our conversation never seemed to reach a dull point, as every question I ventured to ask left me with a thousand more. 

Looking out to the vast greenery of this Shinjuku park, Ann and I bounced happily between the past and present as funny anecdotes turned into thoughtful reflections that melted into meditations on the future. Like me, Anne had a clear and intense interest in Japanese culture and creations. Having previously studied history and Japanese culture, she understood the draw I also hold as someone striving to place myself in academia. Between an American childhood, a French immersion camp, and a slightly post-Covid-19 Korea, Ann’s academic journey hasn’t been exactly “textbook”, but it is clear that she greatly enjoys where life has taken her. Having had to cancel her undergraduate study abroad plans to Sophia, she decided to apply for her Masters in Japanese Literature. This almost full circle re-encounter has granted her a lifestyle she holds with deep respect and gratefulness. Anne spoke about her daily life and coursework with a stable confidence that left me equal parts awestruck and enthralled, and I was routinely roped into imagining completing my own Masters in Japan. She had a talent for speaking about the mundane so that I was left wanting to understand her many meditations through personal practice. Despite Sophia’s lack of programming for graduate students, her book club and knowledge of quiet parks offered a complete picture of how she was able to wring every ounce of enjoyment out of the day-to-day in a way that catered especially to her. Life in Japan was something that made sense to Ann, and she too was something that made sense amongst it. She talked to me about her tentative plans for the next few years as she works towards fluency in Japanese and a Doctorate. I listened intently while subtly taking note of the many scholarships and grants she presented my way. 

Our conversation naturally drifted back and forth between my pre-crafted questions and our shared interest in Japanese academia. It was amazingly refreshing to speak to someone who understood what I was hoping to do with my own research despite the differences in our disciplines. Less of an interview, and more of a conversation with a mentor, Anne shed some light on the struggles of working with cultural materials as an outsider. Bias, orientalism, and essentialist thought were all brought up and fleshed out in between rambles on choice authors and recommendations for places to explore. Having just recently spoken to Professor Armstrong from the Anthropology department about “deep hanging-out” and being present within my time in Tokyo, Ann’s words resounded very deeply with me as we explored questions of otherness and how learning was something to practice in everything around us. With the afternoon coming to a close, we walked to a bookstore that allowed us to gush openly to one another about Japanese novels and authors we loved deeply. We soon parted ways at Shinjuku station after this short excursion. On my way home I couldn’t help but excitedly imagine picking up my next novel – one Ann mentioned, of course.

Thank you for reading!