My Friends

Konrad Mitchell Lawson (道)

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Michi has been the biggest supporter for me other than my family. He graduated from SIPA, Columbia Univ. in May 2002 with a Master of International Affairs. He got a scholarship from the Japanese government, and was studying Sino-Japanese relations history at Waseda Univ. in Tokyo after that. He started a PhD in History at Harvard University in 2004 fall. His thesis interest is traitors/war collaborators in East Asia during WWII and the aftermath. He himself is an amazing language learner but I really respect his passion and dedication to other people's language and history studies.

He has several websites; visit here for his personal info, go to the Fool's Workshop to get his language softwares, visit Mininn.net to see his personal blog and Frog in a Well, History Group Blogs to see his academic interests in the field.

Friends in Taiwan

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I was studying Chinese at a school called "International Chinese Language Program (ICLP)" in National Taiwan University between 2003-2004. The school had been specializing in training American scholars/students in the past, so most of my friends at school are basically from the US. I know only one Japanese in Taipei, which is amazing considering the number of the Japanese living here. The Taiwanese are usually very friendly to foreigners, and may be the only people in Asia who have a (extremely) good image of the Japanese.

My Roommates in NY

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I moved to a shared-apartment right behind the campus in October 2002. I had two really cool roommates there.

Nami Takashi（高志名美）: She studied development/gender issues at SIPA. She is a JPO (Junior Professional Officer) of the UN, and was working in Laos for two years. She's back in New York now.

Chen Yen-Ling（陳彦伶/れいちゃん）: She studied architecture in Columbia. She is Taiwanese but speaks beautiful Japanese since she grew up in Japan until the age of 10. She currently works in Beijing for an architecture office based in NY.

Friends from Columbia University

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I met wonderful friends in SIPA, mainly in International Secuiry Policy concentration. Students in SIPA come from all over the world. Since I am almost the youngest girl in school, they are like my reliable big sisters and brothers. I hope I can keep in touch with them for the rest of my life.

Friends from Sophia University

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I was a member of a tennis team in Sophia and spent a lot of time with the teammates. I made lots of friends through tennis. I try to keep in touch with them and see them everytime I go back to Japan.

My other best friends are mainly either from a dormitory where I was living during the first year of college, or through a student campaign that I ran with other law students. Two of the campaign mates also came to the US to go to graduate schools, and we often encourage each other in the pursuit of our goals.