Blogger in a Nutshell

Aloha, I’m Tim Sullivan. And I’m happily married to my wife of 25 years, Kurumi.

Got two grown sons, one’s in college the other just entered the real world. Number-one-son Ry lives in the Big Mikan where he just graduated from Teikyo University–thanks to an American football scholarship that dropped from heaven. For an interesting take on current trends in Japan check out Ry’s blog. Ry is a bilingual/bi-cultural hapa kid with his finger on the pulse of Tokyo. His new gig is bridging hip-hop, gospel and a variety of genres with the Japanese market. Not a bad gig for a 23-year old.

Number-two son Grady attends University of Hawaii Hilo and lives at home. But we don’t see him much, he’s a busy guy! Grady is a hip-hop dancer in Hilo’s premier dance crew Cataclysm. You can catch the crew at Center Stage teaching hip-hop dance and krumping on Saturday mornings. On Sundays it’s not unusual to see them on Hilo’s rustic Bay Front entertaining the crowds. (For a peek at Grady’s trailer click here.)

What’s my gig? I’m a cross-cultural business consultant. It’s not a profession easy to describe. Kurumi likens it to marriage counseling because a good part of my job entails persuading frustrated Japanese and American coworkers to “kiss and make up”, so to speak. It never fails to surprise participants when the gig ends in a borderline love-fest. Yeah it’s kind of creepy, but in a good way. Can’t think of a more rewarding way to make a living.

What qualifies me to do this stuff? It helps to have a knack for it. Lots of “hard-knocks” experience to back my knack, including over 30 years dealing with Japan; 20 working with Japanese-owned subsidiaries in the U.S.; and 10 living, studying and working in Japan.

I speak, read and write Japanese–just don’t ask me to write it without a word processor.

Got a Liberal Arts degree, the kind my uncle said would never do me any good. Glad I didn’t listen to him. Graduated from International Christian University in Tokyo with a degree in Communications specializing in cross-cultural Studies.

Senior thesis: Black Humor in Koten Rakugo (=Japanese Classical Comic Storytelling). Currently working on a rakugo project with the goal of bridging the humor gap by, hopefully, making a humorous Japanese story work in English. Stay tuned.

As of this writing–and for the foreseeable future–I’m living the dream in Pahoa Hawaii, nestled in the lush green jungles of Puna. Life is good.

When I’m not working I’m reading, writing, listening to music, playing guitar, watching my boys in Cataclysm dance, helping out at the local charter school and, when time permits, hanging with family and friends at Richardson’s Beach in beautiful Hilo. Never imagined that I’d get along so well with my kids but they keep us smiling.

There you go, my profile in a somewhat over-sized nutshell.

For the epic version of my life check out Living the Dream in Hawaii.

Otherwise get back to the front page and start reading!

Don’t be shy about making comments.

With warm aloha,

Tim