Hello from 🇬🇧 London, UK!

 

Multilingual & Cross-Cultural (26 years experience)

 

Tokyo-Native

 

LSE Graduate (MSc Social Anthropology)

 

Japanese Entrepreneur

 

Governess

 

Mariko in London

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Encouraging ​and ​Engaging

 

Mariko's Cross-Cultural Consulting
 

Based in London Since 2017

 

               Thank You Very Much For Your Interest in Mariko,

      Founder of Japanese Mary Poppins! 🇯🇵⛩👘🎎🍜🥟🍱🍙🎍👺

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  About Mariko, Founder of Japanese Mary Poppins Ltd, Cross-Cultural Entrepreneur and Governess

  Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Mariko's passion and appreciation for many different cultures of the world officially started when she was 15 years old when she enrolled in a highly selective, top-tier and the Tokyo government-sponsored first international high school in Tokyo in which the whole curriculum was dedicated to international understanding. At the pioneer international school in Tokyo, she made friends from all over the world including foreign students who were living in Japan due to their parents' work at the embassy or foreign companies, Japanese students who used to live outside Japan due to their parents' work assignment abroad and Japanese students like Mariko who grew up in Tokyo but has huge interests in learning about many different cultures around the world. 

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After she graduated from pioneer international high school, she first enrolled at Sophia University in Japan where the language of instruction was English, and started to study Cultural Anthropology, but she wanted to try living and studying for a university degree abroad. She found a way to study in Egypt (!). She studied and received a Bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology from The American University in Cairo where she further met more friends from different parts of the world. After getting the Bachelor's degree, she went back to Japan and worked at a trading company but in her late 20s, she moved outside Japan again, this time, to the Netherlands to do a one-year Master's program at Leiden University where she received a Master's degree in Middle East and Islamic Studies. She then went back to Tokyo again and happened to have worked for US Army Intelligence (!) in Tokyo. During that time, while she was on holiday in London, she really felt like London was THE place for her to live and Mariko found a way to move to London to live as a student again, this time, to do a Master's degree in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). That's when Mariko started to network with lots of Japanese expat families in London who send their children to pre-preparatory schools. She had identified there was a potential for spreading Japanese culture-inspired and Japanese-style educationally-focused services for children in London. She applied to participate in the business competition at LSE where she was selected as among the top business ideas and was sponsored for a Start-up Visa out of more than 100 ventures/people that applied, which allowed her to establish her Ltd company, Japanese Mary Poppins Ltd in March 2019.

  2024 marks the 5th year of running Japanese Mary Poppins Ltd in London, a Japanese culture-inspired educational start-up and the business idea was originally endorsed by Mariko's alma mater, the London School of Economics and Political Science's LSE Generate (home for entrepreneurship at LSE) and was sponsored for a Start-Up visa to run her business in the UK. Mariko has an existing connection with the LSE Generate community, which often gives her up-to-date perspectives on how to serve her clients better!

 

  In the past 5.5 years in London, Mariko has been consistently providing high-quality governess (home-based educators) services offering tutoring, nannying, Japanese cultural activities, museum trips, forest bathing and fun excursions with the vibes of cultural anthropology to many families living in London and many other families visiting London from overseas. 

  Mariko, as a multilingual governess, provides fun & educational activities, stress-free guidance on studying and exam preparation (4+, 7+, 11+ exam preparation), guidance on day-to-day etiquette and manners, explorations of museum exhibitions, the general daily support for attending British preparatory schools, pre-preparatory schools, boarding schools and international schools. 

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  Mariko offers: 

- Japanese culture-inspired educationally-focused governess/nanny service 

- SEN governess/tutor service

- Saturday afternoon Japanese culture immersion 

- Afterschool Japanese culture programs

​- Japanese culture-themed birthday party and many more! 

  Mariko also provides educational and cross-cultural strategic business consulting for Japanese people who want to expand beyond Japan or Japan-related consulting services for non-Japanese people, especially consultations on travel to Japan with children, studying in Japan, educating children in a global context, non-Japanese companies' expansion and marketing to the Japanese market and stress-free relocation overseas.

  Mariko is a CELTA-certified EFL teacher as well and has experience delivering EFL and EAL classes at one of the leading English language schools in London. She can offer customized Business English classes for business professionals and General English classes for various age groups.

  Mariko is multilingual and can offer services in English, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic.
- English (primary language & academic level)

- Japanese (native language)
- Spanish (advanced/business level)
- Arabic (intermediate level)

  Mariko has 26 years of experience studying cultural anthropology which took her to various locations around the world to appreciate and learn from different cultures and people. 

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  More information about Mariko can be found on her LinkedIn account.

 

  If you are interested in Mariko's services, please contact us through the contact form at the end of this page.