About Me (私について), Mark Pickard Life, ピカード・マーク, Okinawa, Japan, 沖縄

About Me

私について

Introduction

My name is Mark Pickard. Without being too specific about my age and date of birth, I will say that I am an Aquarius born in the Chinese Year of the Water Rabbit.

American

I am an American citizen, and I love my country dearly.

Honolulu, Hawaii

I grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. I lived on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for 32 years from 1968 until 2000. If you are unfamiliar with Hawaii it is a chain of volcanic islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th State of the United States.

I dearly love my hometown and the Aloha State for many reasons.

The main reason I truly love Hawaii is because of its multiculturalism. Hawaii is one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world. Hawaii’s ethnic diversity shows in the faces of the people, in the blend of international cuisines, cultural festivals, etc.

Another reason I honestly love Hawaii is because of its beautiful nature and comfortable climate year round. Hawaii is simply paradise here on earth.

However, what makes Hawaii uniquely special is its “Spirit of Aloha”. Aloha is a Hawaiian word. Aloha is most often used as a greeting. However, Aloha has a much deeper meaning...

“Aloha means mutual regard and affection, and extends warmth in caring with no obligation in return. Aloha is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for a collective existence. Aloha means to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable.”

I am very proud to say I am from Hawaii because I grew up learning the meaning of Aloha.

Hapa

I am also extremely proud to be "hapa" which is the Hawaiian word for people of mixed ethnicity. My father, Bill, is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. My mother, Nobuko, was born a Japanese national but later became an American citizen. Thus, I am a hybrid of multiple ancestries.

Okinawa, Japan

I was born on a US military base in Okinawa Prefecture. At the time of my birth Okinawa was governed by the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands.

Okinawa was finally reverted from the US back to Japan in 1972 following the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement. However, the US military still occupies large portions of land in Okinawa Prefecture.

I have been living in Okinawa, Japan since the year 2000, for I am a permanent resident of Japan. I love Okinawa and Japan very much.

I live in the city of Naha. Naha City is the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, and Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture in Japan. Okinawa is the only Japanese prefecture located in a subtropical region.

Okinawa is part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. Historically, these islands were known as the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Family Life

The primary focus in life is my family.

While on vacation in Okinawa, Japan - back in the year 2000 - I was extremely fortunate to meet the most wonderful woman in the entire world. We instantly became best friends and then we both realized that we were soul mates. I moved to Okinawa that same year to marry her and to spend the rest of my life together with her.

I am happily married to the most wonderful woman in the world. We have been married since the year 2000. My lovely wife's name is Izumi. She is a Japanese citizen, so we have a transnational/international marriage.

I am a proud father to two of the most wonderful children a man could ever hope to have. My eldest child's name is Kana and her middle name is Rebecca. My youngest child's name is Saki and her middle name is Bianca. Both of my daughters are very special in my eyes. I love my children with all of my heart. Being their daddy is the greatest joy in my life.

Our family has some pets including a dog, a cat, and some fish. Our dog's name is Sara or affectionately "Sara-chan". She was a present to us from Santa Claus one Christmas. She is a Golden Retriever. She is extremely cute, friendly and well-behaved.

Our family also has a pet cat. Our cat's name is Caramel but we usually call him Mel, which is simply short for Caramel. Our cat is very affectionate sometimes, but most of the time he is either sleepy or hungry.

Career Life

Since 2015, I have been a full-time faculty member at Senmon Gakkou LIFE Jr. College. LIFE Jr. College is an accredited, two-year, post-secondary, academic institution. LIFE Jr. College is located in Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and previously operated as International Community College or ICC.

I work primarily as an English language teacher. I have been teaching the English language here in Japan since 2001. Throughout my many years in Japan I have predominantly taught the English language to vocational college students. Generally my students here in Japan are young adults 18 years old and older.

The majority of my teaching experience here in Japan has been with Japanese students. However, since joining LIFE Jr. College in 2015 I have had the opportunity to teach the English language to college students from many other foreign countries such as Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, French New Caledonia, Malaysia, and elsewhere. I appreciate this relatively new challenge at this stage in my long career as an English language teacher.

At LIFE Jr. College I also work as the study abroad coordinator. I have been coordinating various study abroad programs for Japanese students since 2001, so I am quite experienced in the field. I have coordinated long-term study abroad programs, short-term study abroad programs, working holiday visas, Au Pair (USA) study abroad programs, and so forth.

As a full-time faculty member at LIFE Jr. College I also have the responsibility of being a homeroom teacher, which is akin to being both an academic adviser as well as a counselor in the general sense. In addition to my many duties and responsibilities at LIFE Jr. College, I am heavily involved in public relations, marketing and recruiting new students.

Prior to working at LIFE Jr. College I worked for 11 years – from 2004 till 2015 - at Shogakuin International Business Academy (or SIBA), which is part of the Shogakuin Group. Similar to LIFE Jr. College, SIBA is also an accredited, post-secondary, academic institution in Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.

I also worked part-time at the University of the Ryukyus (“Ryudai” for short) from 2006 until 2009. At the University of the Ryukyus I worked specifically as an Assistant English Teacher (AET) at the junior high school attached to the College of Education. Here in Japan AETs are also commonly known as Assistant Language Teachers (ALT). Working at Ryudai was a wonderful experience for me to learn more about the educational system here in Japan, which is quite different from the educational systems in such countries as the United States and Canada.

Very early on in my English language teaching career here in Japan, I taught at another post-secondary academic institution named Seattle Universities East-Asia Network Okinawa (SEA Okinawa for short). Additionally, I taught English part-time at some English conversation schools, cram schools, companies and businesses, and in private lessons.

Interests and Hobbies

I have numerous interests that I enjoy in my free time - when I have free time.

I am an amateur musician. I play the electric bass guitar, some rhythm guitar, a bit of the drums, and a little bit of the piano. When I was a kid I asked my mom if I could learn to play the drums. She told me, "No, you take piano lessons!". And so I took piano lessons for the next two years. However, soon after I starting taking bass guitar lessons at the same music school.

I do not gig or rehearse with a band anymore, and I have no ambition to perform publicly. Still, I like to learn to play new songs and some old favorites on both the bass and on guitar. I am interested in trying home recording and composing background music (BGM) because I think it will be interesting and fun as well as challenging.

However, I do spend a lot of time finding old guitars and basses that are either broken and/or have been neglected or discarded. After finding such guitars and basses I like to repair and restore them. I also like to modify and customize basses and guitars.

I obviously enjoy music. I like all kinds of music but rock music and pop music are my favorites. I also really like jazz, classical, Hawaiian music and reggae. My favorite band is without a doubt the Beatles. And so, of course, my favorite singer is Paul McCartney. Some other favorite bands include the Rolling Stones, Boston, Led Zeppelin, Rush, U2, Van Halen, Journey, Def Leppard,

Though there many great bassists I would have to say that my favorite bassists or bass guitarists include Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee of Rush, and James Jamerson of Motown Records. Other fabulous bass players that I appreciate very much include John Entwistle of the Who, John Deacon of Queen, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Carol King of the Wrecking Crew, and Sting. However, there have been many awesome session bassists and in the genre of jazz.

There are literally thousands of great guitarists but my favorites include Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Eddie Van Halen. Other great guitarists that I truly like include the Edge of U2, Angus Young of AC/DC, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Brian May of Queen, Neil Schon of Journey, Carlos Santana, Chuck Berry, just to mention a few.

I enjoy watching documentaries especially on topics such as history, science and technology, how to, nature, and for forth. And I love watching movies - all kinds of movies but mostly action, adventure, and science fiction. I also enjoy watching major sporting events in particular the National Football League (NFL) and the Olympics in particular, but even more.

I played sports a lot when I was young such as American football and basketball, hiking, running, swimming, body boarding, skateboarding and inline skating. I used to be active but also suffered many physical injuries especially to my knees and ankles.

I have always loved traveling even though it is quite expensive especially now with a family of four.

My list of interests could go on and on, but that is certainly enough.

I invite you to check out my Blog for my latest updates. Check out my Blog here.