Must Listen: Tomoka Mori and Yasuha Miura TCK podcast

unique story should be valued and that these extraordinary stories have the power to change lives.

This is why at the “In-Between Club,” we strive to deliver the voices of individuals, and endeavor in encouraging TCKs/ CCKs to allow being genuine to who they intuitively know themselves as. Our goal is to inspire TCKs/CCks to advance their self-actualization journeys through these processes and discoveries.

All of us have roots or links to Japan. Just as every other TCK worldwide does, we think Japanese TCKs have their own unique experiences aligned with the country’s culture. Among the entire TCK/CCK population and regions in the world, Japan is certainly one of the countries that has a deep polarization between TCKs and Non-TCKs. With those aspects in light, we also wanted to create a space that can contribute in developing awareness and understanding of cross-cultural individuals who have roots in Japan.

PHENOMENAL DISCOVERY OF THE TERM ‘TCK’/‘CCK’

Including these terminologies into our platform was significant to us as these two words have helped us to understand and make sense of our lives and existences. All of us knew the word “TCK/ CCK” before we had started the podcast and remember the feeling of liberation running through our veins encountering the ideas and definitions behind it.

Just like many other TCKs, coming across these terms through Ruth Van Reken’s book “Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds” was a lifechanging experience. It helped us feel recognized and seen in a way that we had never felt. Everything we had experienced as a crosscultural individual suddenly started to make sense. They were the beginnings of our journeys to connect the unfinished dots, stories and emotions we had left behind internally through our experiences and challenges we faced during childhood. As such powerful terms that have the potential to change the entire outlook of a person’s life, we believe it is meaningful to share this word with a larger audience.

MUST l LISTEN WHY STORYTELLING? WHY PODCASTING?

The reason why we chose a podcast as the main platform for the in-between club is because we strongly believe in the power of storytelling. As TCKs/CCKs, many of us may share widely common traits and experiences, but certainly have unique and extraordinary stories that we have normalized and overseen the values of.

Validating our stories and sharing them can help us heal the pain and unresolved grief that we each have locked in ourselves. Through storytelling, we can learn about and sometimes even empathize with others and ourselves, given a deeper understanding of people’s backgrounds and history.

Yasuha Miura

Most importantly, we believe storytelling gives an incredible opportunity to widen people’s perspectives and curiosity. That is the ultimate reason why we like to invite guests to our podcast, sharing the many experiences and wisdom they have to offer. This allows both us and the listeners to continue the learning, growing experience and exploration of ourselves together.

INSPIR ATION, EMPOWERMENT AND DEEP-DIVES FOR SELF EXPLOR ATION

Similar to the power of storytelling, we see the InBetween Club as a space to inspire and empower one another. Instead of using a podcast as an informative tool, we place more focus on creating a space for people to be able to dive into their vulnerability. We share personal stories and experiences that can resonate with others and discussions that may pose a completely different perspective to listeners.

Due to the common nature of TCKs/CCKs, we may sometimes feel that we are on a solo journey in living cross-culturally because of being far from our friends and families. This sensation of grief, loneliness, or absence of belonging can trigger self-doubt and confusion, incoherence on our own identities and self-esteem.

We feel that there is significance in cultivating awareness of how the past impacts our present and that eventually they can evolve in becoming a transformative force for selfimprovement, development and personal growth.

We are convinced that our approach to not only reexamine and delve into pre-existent self story lines, but also to generate critical viewpoints to them, potentially resulting in awareness and mind expansion, makes our podcast special. We hope that we can inspire and empower each other through the many stories and experiences we share together in this space of the In-Between Club.

HOW THE IN-BET WEEN CLUB CAME TO BE / WHY THE NAME ‘INBET WEEN CLUB?’

We started the podcast in August 2020, when many of us around the globe were adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea came at the beginning of the many quarantines when both of us were ironically, but also with much privilege, given a lot of time to reflect back on our lives.

Even before the pandemic, we both loved discussing and rambling on topics about TCK/ CCK life, many of which consisted of experiences on identity searching and of not completely belonging to any of the cultures that we have roots in.

With time, we started to ponder on the idea of bringing our conversations online to a larger community, with the notion that our stories should shed light to many others that have similar thoughts and experiences of living as a TCK.

We feel the podcast has given a louder voice and validation to

our struggles and stories, which we had thought until then were unworthy of being shared or even talked about, and could spark others to start conversations and have their voices heard as well.

The reason why we gave our podcast the name “In-Between Club” is because the understanding that we can belong “in-between” cultures was engraved as a critical realization in our lives. We wanted to emphasize the legitimacy and validity of not fitting into preexisting boxes, and belonging to not just one culture but across multiple cultures and to a mixture of them.

Along with the hopes of playing a role in bridging cultures, groups and ideas, we want to encourage TCKs/CCKs to feel empowered, for them to allow themselves to belong in an “undetermined” space.

THE ’ IN-BET WEEN CLUB’: OUR HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

The “In-Between Club” is currently a project that we have aside of our main careers. At times, the podcast and social media accounts are updated inconsistently to dedicate time for our personal lives and careers. Despite the irregularity we often have in this project, we are incredibly grateful that we have listeners from all parts of the world who listen to and support our podcast. In the future, we hope to expand the community and network with both meetings and workshops where people can directly engage together.

We hope that the ‘In-Between Club’ can continue to evolve as a safe place for everyone to feel empowered, embraced and to be given an opportunity to love oneself for who they are.

TOMOK A’S STORY

Your “normal” is just a reflection of the world that you choose to see. This is one of the most powerful perspectives that I have come in touch with, in my life as a Third Culture Kid/ Cross-Culture Kid (TCK/CCK). In fact, it was what made my entire life make sense as an insecure child with a shaky cultural and self-identity.

At the age of three, I moved to the United States with my family for my father’s work. I recall identifying myself as somewhat American (although I was not), even before recognizing my Japanese identity. This eventually came to be the game starter of my lifelong self-searching journey. After leaving New York and returning to Japan at eight years old, I went to a public elementary school. This wiped out everything I knew of myself and turned my world upside down. I was targeted by the male bullies and was often left out from my female classmates as the “different kid.”

Rather than believing in who I was, the best thing an eight-yearold girl had known at the time was to kill myself internally and to erase all of the colors I held. No piece of me felt proud of the fact that I grew up in the U.S.A., nor did I even think about it anymore myself. Without even noticing, I started to hide my background and feel ashamed of the fact that I had different backgrounds. Eventually, I started treating others without respect, just as I couldn’t respect myself. My self-esteem had fallen to the ground and the strong hatred toward myself took over me.

However, little did I know that the next six years in middle/high school were going to bring back the glimmer in me. I recall a vivid memory of being startled by my friends who shamelessly expressed their personas, being fearless of attention and humility.

Slowly, with time, I learned to be comfortable in my own skin. It allowed me once again to acknowledge my cross-cultural background, also reviving my sense of respect and worthiness. Being surrounded by such strong, accepting, diverse groups of people, it became the closest place I could call “home.”

I still did not know which culture I belonged to long after this. However, the sense of

belonging to a culturally undetermined space was what ultimately salvaged me through the challenging paths of reversed identity loss and inner child grieving that came later on. Although it may have taken an ample amount of time and struggle, at the end of the day, where I ended up was being comfortable in being a Third Culture Kid and a Cross-Cultural Kid. That was who I was: I belonged “in between” cultures.

It was when I struggled to find therapists that understood my TCK/CCK background, that it hit me that individual storytelling was the key game-changer. I felt that too many things were being generalized and that they were killing the individual contexts, which are indeed everything.

I quickly realized that everything that mattered in people, every color that they held were hidden in the shadows of abstract ideas and so-called norms of society.

Along with considering my TCK/CCK experiences in a relatively collective society — Japan — I thought of how phenomenal it would be to feel seen, feel validated and to even enable the individuality to become a blueprint for growth through democratized content. Without much doubt, I decided to start a podcast called the “In-between Club” with precious friends of mine.

Even as time flows, I know that I will never quit on following my passion and purpose. I strongly believe that I will continue my love for learning, and engage with the TCK/CCK community in a way to uplift the overall empowerment of crosscultural individuals.

YASUHA’S STORY

On a typical Friday night, my family gathers around the dinner table where we have Thai green curry, tonkatsu, and french fries. My younger brothers start sharing a story about school, and my father critically comments on the world news broadcasting from the TV. Soon after that, I began to respond to my father’s feedback, and meanwhile, my mother peacefully enjoys her international mashup meal.

This seemingly chaotic dinner table is a “home” that I grew up in, yet once I step outside, my normal is often perceived as a strange and misfit experience to the norm. Growing up as a mixed Japanese-Thai and living in a cross-cultural environment, I often battled with finding a sense of belonging even though I can speak Japanese and Thai fluently or practice both cultures equally.

The feeling of incompleteness was triggered by how I was easily viewed as an “outsider” from both of my home cultures. I spent my childhood in the Japanese community located in the center of Bangkok, Thailand. On a weekday, I go to a Japanese school and immersed myself in a socalled monocultural environment, whereas on the weekend, I participated in extracurricular activities in the Thai community.

As I crossed cultures back and forth, I started to develop confusion and struggled to find a sense of myself. I constantly felt the need to prove to others and myself that I am not lesser than others just because I am a mixed child. However, I slowly grew

Tomoka Mori

more appreciative of holding cross-cultural identities when I moved to an international school for middle school and high school. I began to learn about different cultures and made friends who also have crosscultural backgrounds. This is one of my life-changing moments where I developed my curiosity in the life of individuals growing up cross-culturally and became the root of my passion in international education as a way to promote intercultural understanding.

My background and past experiences have given me a strong foundation in my passion for academics, and have uncovered further areas I wish to pursue in an undergraduate degree. I majored in Global Studies where I developed my interest in how culture and politics strongly influence each other. I learned about how the development of culture and ideology plays a vital role in globalization and international politics to shape the world order.

During my exchange year at a liberal arts college in the United States, I gained a more personal insight, when I encountered international students and U.S. students who speak up and fight for the recognition of their identity. This became another significant experience that has driven my passion for thinking about how the topic of crosscultural identities is seen in different systems and societies.

After I graduated from university, I started to work for an educational consulting company to foster international education in my home country, Japan. While this experience allowed me to influence English education among students, I also learned there is a vast number of students just like myself who struggle with their cultural identity and finding a sense of belonging. I gained strong empathy and a sense of mission to help those youths and empowered them. As a result, I decided to start a podcast with my friend to share the story of an individual living cross-culturally.

By sharing each of our personal experiences on identity crisis or talking about how we began to embrace being different, I hope to encourage others to gain a sense of belonging and feeling empowered to be themselves. At the same time, I would like to maximize the impact I can give to the youth by creating a safe space and empowering them. Currently, I am pursuing my master’s degree that will prepare me to attain theoretical and practical knowledge to promote intercultural understanding and global competency through an educational program. I’m hoping that more and more youth can appreciate their cross-cultural heritage and be proud of who they are.

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