Finding Your Ikigai on the Mountain with Alison Beale

Ikigai with Jennifer Shinkai

This week on the podcast we are all about mountains and mushrooms! I am talking with the wonderful Alison Beale about her weekly trips to the mountains around Tokyo and why she has become rather addicted to these hikes. Alison shares with us some of the physical, mental, emotional and social benefits she has experienced on her trips to various mountains and why she loves discovering all the wonderful biodiversity on the mountains, including mushrooms!

In this episode you’ll hear:

• How rehabilitating an injury led Alison to weekly mountain walks
• Why Alison enjoys finding different types of mushrooms while hiking
• Advice on how to keep yourself safe while walking in the mountains alone
• What Alison learnt about fear and ways to use that in everyday life
• The community aspect of hiking and how life affirming it can be

About Alison:

Alison is Director of the University of Oxford Japan Office. She came to Japan immediately after graduating from Oxford and has had a long career in international education and cultural relations, mostly with the British Council. She worked for the organization in various cities in Japan, and then in Trinidad and Tobago and Shanghai China, before coming back to Tokyo. She then decided to ditch her peripatetic life, and now heads up the representative office of the University of Oxford in Japan.

Alison is passionate about building links between the UK and Japan and holds a number of voluntary positions for example as Vice-President of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan and Executive Director of the Japan-British Society. She is also a fan of the performing arts and is on the Board of the New National Theatre Tokyo.

Things mentioned in the Episode:

Blog post about Unconscious Processing: https://jennifershinkai.com/2020/01/07/need-inspiration-pop-to-the-loo/

Connect with Alison:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/aliyama_japan

Blog: https://www.japan.travel/en/blog/author/alison-beale/

Connect with Jennifer:

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifershinkai/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifershinkaicoach

Website: https://jennifershinkai.com/