Skip to main content

Alex- Hello from Joy and I!

初めまして！Greetings from Joy & Alex!

¡Hola! 你好！Bonjour! こんにちは！Hello!
お待たせしました！We’ve kept you waiting, but we’re finally here – at your service, the 2016-17 LEX America Intern Duo, Joy and Alex! よろしくお願いします♪ The two of us will be filling this blog with snippets of our adventures and discoveries over the next year, so keep your eyes peeled for more posts coming your way~ To kick off our blogging journey, here’s a quick introduction to the both of us!

✯☆✯

Alex Wray

Hello there everyone, my name is Alex! I am from a small town called Alexandria, Louisiana in the United States of America! I am a senior University student at LSU. I enjoy photography, Haruki Murakami novels, and long walks on the beach.

How did you find out about LEX Hippo?
I found out about LEX/Hippo when I came to Japan in October 2015 with my grandmother. She works as an exchange student coordinator for ERDT in America and won the a trip to Japan for placing a large number of students. She was allowed to bring one person with her and she picked me! We ended up going all over Japan with Bird and Kenshi. During our travels around Japan Bird told me about the Hippo internship and I decided to apply! The rest, as they say, is history.

What’s your favourite discovery about Japan thus far?
I have made lots of discoveries in Japan so far! One, Calpis is a wonderful drink that is a gift from the gods! Two, Okonomiyaki is also wonderful! Three, Asahi Dry is the smoothest beer on the planet! Four, Elevator “close door” buttons actually work! Five, Ameyoko is the coolest place in Tokyo!

Pick a favourite SADA!
My favorite SADA song is Soran Bushi! Every time we do it I get hyped up!


Joy Chee

大家好！我的名字是Joy（^_^）请多多关照！I was born and raised on the tiny island of Singapore, but I left my little tropical home to study at Tufts University in Boston for four years. Post-graduation life has since brought me to Tokyo, the Hippo Headquarters, and into the open arms of countless wonderful people. I like cooking, writing, occasionally writing about cooking, dog-watching, collecting interesting words, and of course, Hippo activities.

How did you find out about LEX Hippo?
I stumbled across LEX in my third year of college – given my love for languages and their quirks, I knew that Hippo was something I wanted in my life. The little office in Cambridge became a warm, nurturing space where I could experiment with language while helping and being helped by the members around me. After graduating, coming to the Tokyo headquarters seemed to be the next logical step – the process has felt like discovering a whole new (and incredibly extended) family on the other side of the ocean, and I can only imagine how much bigger the family will be at the end of this year!

What’s your favourite discovery about Japan so far?
My favourite discoveries have been somewhat linked – I was incredibly excited to find cans of grass jelly, a popular Singaporean dessert, at a tiny Chinese store in Ameyoko, and was even happier when I got to speak to the shopkeeper in Mandarin. It was also a pleasant surprise to discover that Milo – Australian in origin but practically a part of the Singaporean drink identity – can be found in pretty much any Japanese supermarket, and that my host siblings also drank it as children. These two moments were little insights into how connected we can be, no matter who we are and where we come from.

Pick a favourite SADA!
Like Alex, I am a huge fan of Soran Bushi – it has a supremely かっこいい feel! – and though I’m not particularly coordinated when I do it, I love Uno Dos Tres for how energetic it is!

✯☆✯

We're both looking forward to sharing our stories with you, and we hope you'll enjoy reading them! For a more pictorial account of our life in Japan, and a sneak peek and the other lovely interns we're working with, check us out at @internrangers on Instagram! じゃまたねー

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daniel- こにちわ！！

こにちわ！！　(Daniel) Hello,こにちわ, bonjour,  Привет ! My name is Daniel Panasenko, and I am the 2012-2013 LEX intern in the Hippo office in Tokyo. I am from Sacramento, California, although originally from Dnipropetrovs'k, Ukraine.  I first came across LEX and Hippo when I came to Japan with People to People in 2009. I was hosted by members of the Hippo Family Club for four days, and I enjoyed the experience so much, that I came back to work for Hippo as an intern. Although I am fairly new to Hippo, I have been received warmly and welcomed into the Hippo family. Everyone at the office and at the family clubs are very kind, supportive, and incredibly patient as I unintentionally butcher their language. As the year progresses, I will blog about my experiences in Japan as well as my insights into the language and culture. Although I am a bit overwhelmed by the novelty of the lifestyle and language, but I am more than happy to be here, making fascinating new discoveri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dannielle- Setsubun

Setsubun In February, there is a holiday in Japan called Setsubun. In celebration of the special day, I ventured out to Nagatacho (close to my work here in Shibuya) and visited the Hie Temple. It was so beautiful and peaceful up on a small hill, and oddly placed among the city life of Tokyo. It was crowded with people (but not too crowded, hence why I chose Nagatacho over Asakusa) standing in front of the temple "stage", within which we could hear some music and see some people inside dancing and preparing for the event. Because I got there earlier, I had to wait a bit, and so I talked with the older couple that stood next to me. Turns out, the husband and wife had been to the US before and lived in New Orleans about 10 years ago, so we eased into some great conversation. Very sweet people. When the event started, I witnessed a person dressed as an oni (demon) emerging from inside the temple, being drawn out by the priests who threw beans at him and shou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Danielle- Shopping Malls

Shopping Malls I noticed I don't talk about shopping enough, so here's a brief overlook of some of my favorite shopping malls (so far~) out here in Japan. AEON I have one about 5 minutes away from my local train station here in Chiba. It feels very homey to me, just because it's really spacious and open and reminds me of a shopping mall I had back in Illinois. What I love about Aeon, too, is that it has a bunch of different stores (other than just clothes). On the first floor, you have your groceries, bakery, and cosmetics, and stuff like that. On the other floors, you have your clothes, electronics, food court (talk about majorly nostalgic, especially with the KFCs and Subways), and mini arcade. Chiba is kind of out-of-the-way, and so Aeon has been a very convenient place for me to buy my toiletries and CalorieMate... and just walk around, if I feel like it. I bought my first winter coat there and some gloves, and it was all reasonably priced, I think (granted,...
Post a Comment
Read more