Robin

I grew up on a farm outside a small town in the middle of Canada. In the early 1980's it had a population of around 15,000 people.
When I was sixteen I drove a pickup truck west, over the rockies and across the water, to Victoria B.C. to what I thought of at the time was a big city.
I googled "Greater Victoria population" and found that in 2006 it had reached 330,088 people. When I came to Japan in 1987 the daytime population of Tokyo was greater than that of all of Canada! Well, I thought to myself, can't get any bigger than this, so I stuck around for a while.

I enjoy learning new things and think it is important to practice and perservere. I like the Japanese expression about sitting on a rock for three years. If you want to do something and do it well you must put in the time.
I am studying sailing and the guitar (both of which I started in earnest after forty years old).
Other hobbies include wood work (many of the tables at Lexis are hand built), BBQing (we do a mean BBQ turkey dinner at Lexis's Christmas party) and cycling.

I'm here with my father, Miro, having lunch in the field. My mother drove all the way into town and bought us hamburgers from A&W! Rootbeer is still one of my faves.

In the summer of 2009, my brother, Andrew, and I passed our Advanced Coastal Skippers course! The next course is Open Water Skipper from Hawaii to Vancouver where I hope to be able to use a sextant and plot my position using the stars!...

I'll have to wait a couple of years before I can get to that one.

Sometimes people come into Lexis and ask if it is an English school. Yes, it is for the most part. But, on most Fridays after everyone goes home it turns a little bit Country and a lot of Rock'n Roll!

Richard

I thought I would only be in Tokyo for one or two years when I arrived on these shores in 1981, now looking back over the years I wonder where all the time went .

I have 3 kids, although pretty well grown up now, they are without doubt the things I’m most proud of in my life, they are bilingual, but more than that they are bicultural which is far more difficult to learn. If you see me at LEXIS ask me the difference.

Looking at the list of teachers here Robin, Lee, James and Jim, Mitch and ?I seem to be the only European representatives?in a sea of Canadians. I was born and educated in London, England and although I spent many years travelling around the country with my father’s work, other than Tokyo, London is the only other place I can truly call “home”.

This is where I should talk a little about hobbies and interests, but to be honest what with work and family it’s almost impossible to find time for anything else, but I do love to tinker, that is to say play around with or sometimes fix, in my case machines. As a child I was forever getting into trouble for taking perfectly good clocks apart and not being able to put all the bits back again...I no longer do that, but I still have a passion for mechanical wrist watches to this day.

I love anything with wheels bicycles, motorcycles and cars and I’m crazy about F1 car racing I never miss a race and have been an avid fan since I was a child. I also love photography and travelling, whenever I get a chance to return to Europe I split my time between visiting my family and trips to southern Europe where the weather is hot, but not humid like Tokyo is in summer.

I think a national trait of the British is a good sense of humour and in that way I’m no exception, in life it’s too easy to be serious I can usually see the funny side of most situations and sometimes get into trouble as a result.

Anyway I said earlier that I liked to fix things so if you think your English is “broken” and need help repairing it, I’m your man!

Jim

I am a rare fish from Montreal, Canada: a native English speaker that is.
There are not so many of us and most of those I grew up with have left Quebec to live in English speaking places.
I came to Japan about 15 years ago after living in Australia for five years.

My hobbies used to mainly be hiking and swimming and dancing to rock and roll.
Now I am more interested in walking, composing music, butchering pictures in Photoshop, and trying to make money on the stock market.

↑The second picture from the left is me taking a rest after rowing across the Pacific Ocean (actually Inokashira Pond).
The third from the left is a photoshop job as I don’t actually own a tuxedo.
The rightmost was taken in Western Australia before I did a one week hike along the river below me.

James

Originally from Winnipeg, Canada, I moved to Quebec City to study Cultural Anthropology at Laval University…in French!
I came to Japan way back in 1990 for a" one-year" Working Holiday, but I loved it here so much that I stayed!
When I'm not teaching university and adult students, I love playing the harmonica and traveling.

Over the years,I've played harmonica in various bands ranging from blues and rock to electronica and experimental.
Needless to say, I love ALL kinds of music!

But my favourite place in the whole world is The Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada where I have spent every summer since I was born!

People often ask me why I like teaching. The answer is easy; I enjoy meeting all kinds of people, and they teach ME a lot too!

Mitch

Hi everyone,

I’m Mitchell and I hail from London, England, The United Kingdom.
Do you know the difference between the UK and Great Britain? If not, I won’t tell you now, as it would take a while to explain…

Anyway, so far in my life, I have probably spent more time out of England than in, and a good deal of that time here in Tokyo.

I live close to Inokashira Park with my wife, daughter and son. I absolutely love where I live- plenty of nature to arouse the senses and a great place to bring up kids.

I’ve been in English language education for over 20 years now and I love the job as I get to meet so many nice people. Besides, every teacher knows that teaching is learning…

I feel lucky that I got to travel and enjoy adventure in my younger days. I used to hike a fair bit and my best experiences were an amazing 271-kilometre 3-week trek around the Annapurnas in the Himalayas and an arrow route climb to the summit of Kilamanjaro. I’ve also done Fuji-san-though twice is enough...

Other interests include, music (I’m trying, rather slowly, to learn the guitar), sports (especially cricket and football), and photography (I studied at Japan Photographic Art College).
I used to shoot for magazines and newspapers and once shot the Tokyo Time-Out Guide. Now, I mainly just snap my family.

I’m now wondering what ‘string I can add to my bow’ next…

Jared

I was born in Seattle, Washington USA but I quickly moved to the quiet countryside of Oregon. As I grew up, I got to travel around the US with my parents. Though my friends had the latest fashion trends or electronic devices, and I didn't, I did have a long list of places that I'd been.

Traveling has always been popular in my family. The fact that I live far away from home now is probably due to that.

After studying Japanese, English, History and Business at the University of Oregon, I moved to Nagano in 2010 and fell in love with the Japanese countryside. That love convinced me to stay another year.

I wasn't planning on staying in Japan, but after seeing the destruction of the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake, and seeing the amazing spirit of the Japanese people, I felt a drive to stay, and I'm happy to say that I've built a wonderful life here.

I spend my free time these days keeping up to date with politics, studying businesses, snowboarding, hiking, DJing music, and most recently, learning home renovation and repair.

After years of teaching public and private school in Japan, I finally found a home at Lexis and I really enjoy the wide range of students who come in. Next time you see me, say "hello!" and teach me about your hometown!