Ruby Lawley
Customer Services
Ruby, who was born and raised in the UK, travelled frequently overseas with her family and encouraged by her polyglot father, she was instilled with a curiosity for other countries and languages from a young age. In her teenage years Ruby developed a fascination for Japan after seeing Kurosawa and Ghibli movies. Her desire to deepen her understanding of these films prompted her to study the Japanese language, the sound of which captivated her. She began studies at home, receiving guidance from a family friend proficient in Japanese.
During high school, Ruby first visited Japan for six months to continue her Japanese studies at a Japanese high school in Saitama Prefecture, just outside of the Tokyo region. During her time there, she had the rare opportunity to stay with four different host families, who she said kindly vied with each other to host her. This afforded her intimate insights into many facets of family life and differences in Japanese society allowing her to cultivate a deeper affection for Japan and its people. Ruby went on to study Japanese at Sheffield University in England, during which time she spent a year abroad at Ryukyu University, Okinawa, to study the distinctly different local culture, language and dance of Japan's most southerly islands.
After graduating, Ruby was selected for the Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) programme, fulfilling her wish to return to Japan. For the next two years, she taught English at Junior High and Elementary schools in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture. Tanabe is at the start of the Nakahechi, one of the routes on the famed Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage. It was here that while hiking she found a new passion for the beautiful Japanese countryside. Here she also first met her wife and, after finishing the JET programme in 2015, they moved together to Tokyo, where Ruby has lived ever since. A year later, while volunteering at the British Chamber of Commerce Japan, she met Paul Christie, the CEO of Walk Japan, who invited her to join the company.
When not attending to Walk Japan’s customer enquiries, Ruby enjoys hiking in the Tokyo region, playing badminton and exploring Tokyo’s vibrant and multi-faceted music scene.
