Team Member Introduction #1: Eri, Community Manager
Hi everyone! My name is Eri, and I am a Community Manager at SINRA.
I will be introducing the three founders and one advisor of SINRA about once every two weeks, so let me introduce myself as an interviewer in advance. I hope you will enjoy reading this article and find out about the people who are involved in this project. Thanks!
Summary from Childhood to the Present
Eri Kobayashi
Born in Fukuoka City in 1985 and raised in Nakano, Tokyo. Due to father's work, spent two years from the age of 1 to 3 in Frankfurt, Germany. Although grew up in Tokyo, spent most of her childhood summer vacations at her grandparents' house in Fukuoka, her mother's hometown, so she was familiar with the ocean, mountains, rivers, the countryside culture and its natural features. Learned classical ballet from the age of 9 to 23 and aspired to become a professional ballerina until her freshman year of high school, but changed her direction to pursue a career in international cooperation after graduating from university. Entered the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, majored in International Relations and Gender Studies. Studied abroad at the University of California, Davis for a year. First and last internship was a three-week Interpretation Ranger program at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, U.S.A. 20 years later, now lives in a national park in Japan, and feels a strange connection to it.
Working Career
2009 Joined Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd. (now RX Japan Ltd.)International Trade Shows, mainly involved in the planning and operation of seminars on new energy (photovoltaic power generation, rechargeable batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, etc.)
2011 Started up and operated a used bookstore in Tokyo
2012 Engaged in recruiting new graduates at Google JapanInvolved in volunteer activities to support Tohoku reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake (The beginning of my encounter with Tohoku)
2013 Joined ap bank, a general incorporated association, in charge of Tohoku reconstruction assistance projects and was involved in planning and managing various programs
2014 Moved to Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture as a staff member of ap bank. Mainly involved in the planning and operation of an art festival (Reborn-Art Festival)
2017 Joined Fuukeiya ELTAS (now Fuukeiya Co., Ltd.), a landscape design office run by her husband
2018 Started to live in both Sendai and Lake Towada. Started planning and managing "Towadako Marche" to promote the local community and return vacant land to the forest.
2019 Opening of yamaju, a guesthouse for long-term stays at Lake Towada
2022 Start of “Hokukou no F"UNKASAI (cultural festival, supported by the Fukutake Foundation’s “Fund for Regional Promotion through Art”), planning and managing the festival as a producer
2023 Joined SINRA project team as a Community Manager
Encounters with Tohoku and the "Local”
My career does not seem to be consistent, but I have often worked to establish a "secretariat" for a new project and to manage it, and I feel that my work was all about "on-the-ground" skills. I also often belonged to small organizations, so I think I developed a "do whatever it takes" attitude, whether good or bad.
In particular, during the four years since I moved to Ishinomaki City, I have had the opportunity to work as a one-man secretariat on the local (regional) side, consulting with, approaching, and requesting cooperation from local residents (local fishermen, etc.), negotiating, collaborating, and building organizations with local governments. I had the opportunity to work closely with people, which I could not have imagined when I was working in Tokyo.
It is true that it was not always easy to communicate with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and languages, but I learned a lot about the local culture, its natural features, and way of life from a wide variety of local people. I have come to know the joy of living in a "community" that is not a city, and the value of regaining a sense of being human.
My First Encounter with SINRA
My first encounter with SINRA was when Atsushi Hayashi, one of the founders of SINRA, approached me. I had met him about 10 years ago when I was in ap bank in Tohoku, and we happened to be the same age, so we became good friends.
I believe there are some reasons why I was asked to take on the role of Community Manager of SINRA;
I have been living in what is called the "local area" of Japan for about 10 years.
Especially in the past 5 years, I have been living in a national park called Lake Towada, where I have been closely connected with abundant water and virgin forests.
I have been thinking about the relationship between nature and art, as well as creating a space in the local community.
I knew the words such as NFT or Web3 but have never caught up with them, and once I joined the project right after saying "I'm interested!" and have been attending meetings and encountering words and concepts that I didn't know, and I'm literally having a fever and a headache as I struggle to keep up. After a little over a month of participating in the project, I finally stopped having a fever. I'm so new to the latest technology that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to keep up with it… at least, I am trying my best!
What do I want to achieve with SINRA?
Let me tell you why I wanted to join SINRA.
SINRA is not just a financial product, NFT/generative art, or carbon credit, but has many elements, and the SINRA team itself is made up of a diverse group of people who would not normally come together. I think that the diversity of both the product and the team is what makes SINRA so attractive and valuable.
In addition, when you purchase SINRA, you gain ownership of carbon credits, which in turn will help regenerate the forests and oceans and create biodiversity. I am very excited about the possibility of creating and nurturing diversity in the world with our diverse team members.
Above all, I think the most attractive thing about SINRA is that it is a system that provides the necessary money to people and activities that are working hard to regenerate the forests and oceans on the local level, and also provides the necessary funds to nurture the necessary human resources.
I believe that among the various services and products that are being created every day in the industry known as ReFi (regenerative finance), it is rare to find a product that is so directly related to the local community, and that also has meaning and value as an art. I feel that this is a system that can lightly involve people who have previously avoided NFT and people who have shunned working on environmental issues as "conscious" people.
I may be praising it a little too much, but I really mean it. I think it is a very happy thing to be able to talk about climate change issues/biodiversity on a regular basis, and I hope that I can create such an atmosphere and environment with many people. This is what I would like to try to do now as a Community Manager of SINRA.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long article.
We will post interviews with three SINRA founders and one advisor about once every two weeks. Please look forward to it!
Also, everyone who has even a slight interest in SINRA is highly welcome to join the Discord community, so please feel free to join us. And, please follow our twitter account as well.
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