Photography by Yam Bloom, http://yambloom.com
Writer and Teacher, Melissa Uchiyama. Photography by Sam Spicer.
This is an exciting new podcast, Tokyo Shishi, which Melissa hosts and narrates.
From “Any Ring is Commitment, Even One Made of Fire”, first published in Kyoto Journal.
Subscribe now and catch every article, interview, and amazing food shoot Melissa posts on Jewish Food Writing!
Melissa has been featured on Zibby Owens’ Moms Don’t Have Time to Write.
Photo of the author in her Tokyo neighborhood by Yam Bloom, http://yambloom.com
Writing for Kyoto Journal
Writing about Japanese Love of Mon Blanc for Taste
Writing Camps and Workshops
for Kids, Teens, & Adults
Taking our writing outdoors for fresh inspiration
Snapped by the author, link to her Epoch Times’ piece, “How to Make Umeshu, the Spirit of Summer in Japan”.
About Melissa, the Author, Writing Mentor, Podcast Host, and Food Writer:
Writer
Melissa is an essayist, poet, journalist, teacher, and food writer. She is a champion of young people, women, and every person, finding and strengthening their voice. Melissa also works with individuals who are in need of some measure of healing through writing their experience with her supportive, artful methods.
Her writing taps into identity, what we inherit, and what we pass on. Whether writing about raising a family in another culture or digging deep into history, it is through writing that we process our experiences and cultivate beauty. Melissa helps others to find themselves within a great community as they also discover and hone their own abilities to write.
Mentor to Adults and Young People
She leads writing workshops and camps with adults, international school groups, and dynamic learning communities, both online and in-person! She serves writers not only in Japan, where she is based, but anywhere there is connection.
Melissa works one-on-one, online with kids across Japan in parts of the US. She also works with teens and adults to encourage and fine-tune their writing for elite university admission and various creative projects. In her work with young writers, she has served as a judge and mentor for the annual Young Inklings Book Contest.
Melissa has given workshops at forums for professional writers such as the Japan Writers Conference.
As an educator in South Florida and a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, she has taught at every developmental age, from preschool to kindergarten, as a classroom teacher to first and second graders, before working as her school’s writing teacher across grades. As a National Board Certified Educator, she also mentored other educators.
Upon moving to Tokyo, she continued in education at American School in Japan. She branched out into working as a literacy coach and writing specialist for students at varying ages, from emerging readers and writers to high schoolers desiring individual writing support for their application essays. Her writing instruction has been put to use in MBA programs, as well.
Melissa assists writers from the idea stage, helping with organizational structure, creativity, and the ability to publish. Her camps and Sunday Club meetups are the perfect space for emergent authors and dynamic thinkers.
Everything That Comes Out of Hosting Her Guests & Preparing Lavish Tables
Melissa continues to publish her work in the food and culture arena as a freelance writer, essayist, recipe tester, Japan-based creator, journalist, and preservationalist of Jewish history and culture, using her Jewish Food Writing Substack, newly-appointed blog at Times of Israel, and the exciting podcast called “Tokyo Shishi”, where listeners are welcomed into the magic that is running a vibrant guesthouse for Israelis. They cook together and share the stories and significant moments that fill the space with every emotion.
Truly, writing connects.
To connect with Melissa, click here.
Melissa is a mentor for writers of all ages. She sparks a fire for writing, using creative writing camps and workshops within Tokyo and globally, online. She is a passionate writer.
Published and Featured
Melissa’s essay, titled “Being a Woman at Night” earned an honorable mention in Women on Writing’s creative nonfiction contest, Jan. 2023. Another essay of hers was a finalist in the 2022 creative nonfiction contest.
Her long-form essays can be found in such journals and sites as Kyoto Journal.
On Japanese food and culture: in such sites as The Epoch Times, The Japan Times, The Washington Post, Taste, Kyoto Journal. Find more on Medium.
She writes about Japanese cocktails, spirits, pastry, culinary ingredients and techniques.
Melissa is a guest teacher at Temple University Tokyo’s food and culture class where she teaches on Jewish food writing. Her AISH piece, “How to Stock a Jewish Pantry Wherever You Live” is here.
Melissa leads challah workshops, Jewish History Through Food workshops, and other significant lectures.
More published pieces
On motherhood and finding culture: Compound Butter, Kveller, Mamalode, Brain, Child, and within various anthologies like Mothering Through the Darkness and Knocked Up Abroad.
On Zibby Owens’ Moms Don’t Have Time to Grieve and in Zibby Owens’ Being Jewish Substack, “Being Jewish in Tokyo…”
On poetry: LA Review of Books, The Sunlight Press
On the craft of writing: Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, and again, in Brevity, Literary Mama, and The Sunlight Press.
Pictures taken by author. Ki No Bi Gin article originally at Kyoto Journal.
Various Travel and Food Culture Writing as a longtime resident of Japan, photo by Stasia of Inkimono
My piece about being Jewish in Japan and the guest who changed our lives, in Zibby Owens’ On Being Jewish Substack
Links to poetry written by Melissa & published in The Sunlight Press Journal. Image by Jonas Von Werne
My piece on how to get to the beefy heart of the writing, FASTER, with a Japanese cooking tool—published in Brevity Blog.
Food & Writing workshops and camps that I lead here in Japan
My piece on tsukemono, Japanese pickles, in The Epoch Times
From Melissa’s Roadbook Magazine’s Cocktail Guide to Tokyo