About Me

Greetings, I’m Tim Sullivan and am happily married to my wife of 39 years, Kurumi. We’ve been empty-nesters since 2018.

We have two grown sons, one is currently dancing in Portland, Oregon, and the other is living the good life in Tokyo. When they’re not doing their day-time jobs, of course.

What’s My Gig?

I’m semi-retired, which means I’m not working but would consider projects that stir my passions. My life is mostly about play; playing with my granddaughter, playing my guitar, hanging with friends.

In my previous life, I was a cross-cultural business consultant. It’s not a profession easy to describe. My wife likens it to marriage counseling because often my job entails helping frustrated Japanese and American coworkers “kiss and makeup,” so to speak. Every workshop we’ve ever done ended in a borderline love-fest. Can’t think of a more rewarding way to make a living. But I don’t miss the travel. (It doesn’t help that I hated flying.)

That was one part of my gig. The other part was helping Western organizations connect with Japan. My work in Hawaii (my former home) was mostly customer-service consulting and workshops for clients serving the Japanese visitor market. I start with “deep culture” by educating clients on Japanese history, values, cultural traditions, geography, etc., and through this cultural lens, how they view–rightly or wrongly or stereotypically–folks from the West. From this foundation, we challenge participants to come up with their own ideas on ways to improve.

The beauty of this approach is that once folks get the big picture, most figure out on their own what they need to do to raise their game. And if you allow the improvement suggestions to be their ideas, then they’ll make sure those ideas become reality. It’s not rocket science—try it at your company, you’ll like it.

What qualifies me to do this?

It helps to have a knack for it, but I’ve got lots of hard-knocks experience to back my knack, including over 40 years dealing with Japan, 33 of that working with Japanese-owned subsidiaries in the U.S., and the other 10 living, studying and working in Japan. In 2019, I partnered with Destination West in Tokyo and am now Japan-based.

If you want to put my name to a face and voice, here’s a short clip of me in action, taken at a seminar that I conducted for Hawaiian Airlines at Halekulani hotel:

I speak, read and write Japanese, just don’t ask me to write it without my computer.

My educational background includes a Liberal Arts degree from International Christian University in Tokyo with a focus on cross-cultural studies. That and over three decades of experience working elbow to elbow with, and between, Japanese and their foreign counterparts.

We work only with top-shelf organizations committed to quality and excellence. Clients include Microsoft Japan, Hawaiian Airlines, Halekulani, Hilton Grand Vacations Hawaii, Nordstrom, Christian Dior, Royal Hawaiian, Sheraton, Gemini, Pacific Air Force Command, Hawaii Tourism Authority, a major Japanese automotive maker and its 400+ suppliers.

As of this writing and for the foreseeable future, we continue to live the dream in Japan, nestled on the hillside, overlooking Japan’s most famous hot-springs’ town of Atami. When I’m not working, I’m reading, writing, picking at my guitar or conquering the hills of Atami. I’ve even taken up Stand-Up Paddling! And on the right weekend, you might catch us at Café Lydian chilling with friends and listening to live jazz. Life is good.

Thanks for reading this far. And don’t be shy about making comments.

All the best,

Tim