Kirsty Kawano: Interview
1) Could you tell us about your background and connection with Japan?
I first came to Japan on a one-year student exchange directly after high school. I had always been interested in living in a country with a different language, so when Japan was proposed as a destination I went with it.
I returned to my hometown of Melbourne, Australia, to study journalism and then came to Japan again. After teaching English for a while and studying Japanese, I eventually worked as the editor of a corporate in-house magazine and then on the editing desk of a financial newswire.
2) What sort of writing do you do?
I am a freelance journalist. At the moment, I mainly write for online publications in Japan.
I write about my experiences and things that I find interesting in daily life. Having moved to Kyoto 11 months ago, I now write some travel articles, and have written a few pieces about trying to fit into life here.
Writing for the internet can be daunting because readers can so easily post comments on an article, but so far I’ve received positive feedback—even some thank-yous for the stories I’ve written. It is exciting to be available to a worldwide audience. I once had three comments posted about the same article—one from a reader in Africa, one from Japan, one from South-East Asia.
3) What brought you to Kyoto?
Kyoto is where my husband and I met. We soon moved to Tokyo for our careers and found the city difficult to navigate and frustratingly complex. I remember saying to my husband back then that we should return to Kyoto one day. After 20 years in Tokyo, though, it was a shock when his career moved us back here.
Experiencing Kyoto now as a mother and writer is in many ways very different to how it felt being here as a young English-language instructor, but the sense of there being so much to discover and learn, remains the same.
4) Do you have any message for the members of Writers in Kyoto?
I look forward to learning more about Kyoto—and many other topics—with WiK members, and from them.
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