Who Makes It Happen?

Tokyo Journal has been around in one form or another since 1981. Over the last 25 years we have consistanly supplied Tokyo with the most up-to-date Emglish-language information on what's what and who's who, plus some exciting and ground-breaking stories from our writers across Asia and the world.

In May of this year (1995) Tokyo Journal went live for the first time on the World Wide Web, with the aim of bringing the same service to the world that it has brought to this city.

Here we introduce some of the people who make Tokyo Journal what is today, and offer our thanks to some of those people who are helping us move into the future.

Greg Star - Editor
Gregory Starr left Tennessee in 1970 to attend Tokyo's Sophia University. He paid his tuition by driving a meat delivery truck through Tokyo's traffic and continued in his early career working as a day laborer in Izu, writing lyrics for Japanese rock bands, selling noodles to housewives in Tokyo supermarkets and voice-dubbing Tora-san movies. This was the perfect education for an editor of Tokyo Journal, but he still keeps his driver's license, just in case.

Mark Robinson - Deputy & Music Editor
Born in Tokyo in 1961, to a Japanese mother and Australian journalist father. Moved to Sydney, Australia at an early age, where he began work as a stage lighting technician/designer after graduating from high school. Had little interest in things Japanese (except for his mum) until his curiousity was piqued in his early 20s and he began studying the language at university. Visited Tokyo in 1988 on a six-month working holiday visa, fell into the family trade (his sister is also a journalist) and although he now occupies the deputy editor's chair of Tokyo Journal, admits he is still "scratching the surface" of the city. "It's big," says Mark. "And deep."

Kyoko Matsuda - Editorial Assistant
Kyoko is responsible for filing all the TJ bills and invoices, making records of what articles we've done so we don't write the same thing twice, and forging our fan mail. She is double-jointed and can fold her tongue into different and amusing shapes. Her favorite animals are horses and her favorite part of an artichoke is the part you can eat.

Michiko Toyama - Associate Editor
A native of Ibaraki, Michiko took what editors assured her was a one-month temporary position with the magazine back in 1987 and then proceeded to outlast all the other full-time staff. Now she lives in Azabu, eats proteins in her spare time, and will probably quit someday, when she's not so busy.

Yuki Furuya - Designer
When she's not looking for ghosts in her Yotsuya backyard or trading language lessons with her American boyfriend (using what she calls "the visual method"), this femme unwinds by designing the Cityscope section, including matching up all those little dots with the appropriate shops for our Area Spotlight map. "I want to slip in a few nude pictures of the editors," she says. "But someone stole my cameras in Wales."

Andi Hindle - Copy Editor & Webmaster Sr.
We found Andi on our doorstep one day, wet and shivering, and made him our intern in charge of grammar and hot soup. Two months ago later, he was our newest copy editor. And a month after that, he put himself in charge of the web. Andi's here on his pre-finals break from Oxford, where he's majoring in Japanese. He also interprets for visiting Shakespearean theater troupes, lives in a temple and thinks everything is splendid.

Lucas Badtke-Berkow - Style Editor
Fresh from U.C. Santa Cruz where he did his senior thesis on '60s fashion, Lucas came to Tokyo with a three-tiered plan: to put on shows, expand our Style section and wear all the hats he can in the process. We let him in our door because he said he'd work like a dog and we needed someone to chase cats away. Lucas is also studying Japanese, "but it hurts your brain more than it's worth sometimes."

ANGELA JEFFS The Conversation Affectionately known in the biz as Alegna, everything about this displaced British beach babe seems to be left of backwards--she started out as editor for a major national magazine for men and slowly worked her way through craft books and bank publications to freelance feminist shell-polisher. Now more of a people person, Ms. Jeffs works while lounging on the seashore four minutes from her Hayama home and vacations in a musty, crowded office.

TAKAO KAWAGUCHI Performing Arts Research He may seem like just another soft-spoken researcher/author who doubles as a dancer and likes to wear belts with really big buckles, but to know the real Takao you've got to understand his salsa influence and appreciate his warm Kyushu upbringing. He's lasted longer than anyone in our office, partly because he seems so cool, but partly because there's that ever-present possibility he may just explode!!!!!

MICHAEL STANLEY Dispatches By day he chases tigers into trees and challenges rhinos to staring contests. By night he marinates chickens and bakes banana bread to wine and dine his lady friends. For years we've been wondering when Michael ever finds time to work. This month, after carefully examining the grammar, punctuation and water stains on his latest manuscript, we think we've figured it out: he writes while he's brushing his teeth.

CHERYL CHOW Art Column She works for both Newsweek magazine and the Time/Life corporation but insists there's no conflict of interest; she cranks out poems for literary journals like Prima Vera; she translates, writes, edits and makes textbooks; she speaks English, Japanese, and Chinese and she's a master of Tai Chi. Why do we believe Cheryl when she tells us she doesn't have time for hobbies? At least she remembers to feed her cat Saki, who's black and always crossing her path. "Maybe that's why I have bad luck."

HTML TOOLS in the first place, but also for providing great long-distance support. Without Lindsay, none of this would have been possible.

Jason E. Moore, author of the very un-inebriated SOBER WITNESS, for answering lots of questions.

Heather Noel Bobbie at GALAXY for being nice about it!

Bob Poulson at Ecola Design Web Services for letting us know.