By Sid Holmes

Ask Bill Ravenell to say something in Japanese and after a brief, thoughtful moment he responds with 日本の文化が好きで、日本にすむのが好きです。 In English, “I like Japanese culture and I enjoyed living in Japan.

“I had a very positive, life-changing experience in Japan and for having lived there I wanted to express my gratitude,” he offers as explanation for his carefully measured words. “It was always a dream of mine to visit Asia. And for having lived there I wanted to express my gratitude.”

Quite consistent from a man with an easy sense of self matched with a no-regrets outlook on the world that has enabled him to encounter a life rife with constant, new explorations that are molding his career goals and a burgeoning interest to serve humanity.

A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Ravenell’s interests weren’t always drawn to foreign cultures; he was a typical American boy who gravitated towards sports: basketball, baseball, tennis and soccer. “I was pretty athletic,” he says, admitting that although he made good grades, he didn’t push himself academically. “I thought school was pretty easy.”

His family, however, resides in the pantheon of educational achievement; between his parents and two sisters there are nine higher education degrees. (No slouch himself, Ravenell has two and will soon complete his juris doctor.) Add his grandparents on both sides and 10 additional sheepskins boost that number.

A legacy of accomplishment loomed in Ravenell’s pedigree: his parents were both Howard-trained lawyers. His mother, Mildred, taught tax lawyer at Florida A&M University while his father, William, a professor at Florida A&M’s acclaimed business school, later became an attorney of highway control during the Carter presidential administration.

Ravenell began to take his schooling more seriously in high school following his parent’s divorce and a move to Charlottesville, Virginia, where his mother again taught tax law, this time at the University of Virginia. He credits two factors for his awakening, the first being his stepfather, Armstead Robinson, a UVA professor who was also the director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute.

“He was a very cool guy and a very important figure in my life,” Ravenell says with an affectionate grim. “He had an air about him where I felt it was important to do well academically.” While his mother left her lawyer’s hat at the front door, simply becoming mom at home, Robinson “was always the professor, trying to teach me something. He encouraged me to write and to study hard. He was very specific about what it took to be academically successful. And I listened.”

His second influence was ‘The Karate Kid’ – yes, the 1984 film about a martial arts master-cum-handyman who teaches a bullied boy karate, in the process showing the lad there is more to the martial arts than mere fighting. “I saw ‘The Karate Kid’ and when he perched like a crane, I think the day after that I started taking lessons,” Ravenell laughs.

Soon thereafter, the kid who previously got into three to four fights a year rumbled no more, carrying himself with the newfound confidence that serious study in the martial arts can unearth. “I just liked it: the discipline of self-defense, the training, the challenge of moving up levels and the instructor,” he says, noting his teacher, who was a 5th degree black belt, Canadian Golden Gloves boxing champion and Olympic martial arts trainer – along with a PhD in religious studies.

Like his basketball teammates, Ravenell assumed college was in his future – although most of them did not have parents with college backgrounds. “College was a cultural current of my family,” he says matter-of-factly, adding that he had no idea of what to choose when selecting a major.

His older, best friend was already at UVA and Ravenell followed in his footsteps. “It was great,” he says. “For the first two I did everything but study. I had a 2.7 average.”

But he also joined a dojo (a gathering place for students of Japanese martial arts) where Ravenell studied his favored Northern Chinese Long Fist and Qigong techniques. He also met Ruben Gonzalez, who “piqued my interest in the idea of not only practicing but also having a quest for spiritual enlightenment,” opening Ravenell’s mind “to increasing one’s connection to God, and fasting in order to teach a higher level of enlightenment.”

Consequently, Ravenell grew stronger academically, earning a 3.4 average in his last years as a religious studies major, which focused on a comparison of and historical approach to religion, its evolution and political, cultural and social influence – the positive as well as the negative. A fascination with Zen Buddhist meditation techniques via a Japanese religious course fueled a quest to become a more sensitive and compassionate human being.

His parents approved of his studies, the idea being that Ravenell might become a lawyer, or even a priest like his grandfather, William, who had earned a BA, MA and divinity degree from Colgate University, plus a University of Chicago PhD in theology.

Ravenell dispelled that notion post-graduation, taking a break from schooling and moving to Atlanta, where he played guitar in a metal band and earning a living by doing internet web design and programming at an advertising agency – work he was not trained to do. “I read books and thought ‘I can do this,’ read three books and fooled around on a computer for five months,” he says without apology.

Growing older and losing interest in the band, as well as his job during the dotcom bust, a call from an overseas friend who raved about his sweet gig teaching English in Japan heralded another change in direction.

A few weeks visiting another friend in Shanghai, China, convinced Ravenell – with meager savings and no job prospects – to move to Japan. “My parents were like, ‘here we go again,’” he recalls, “But my dad was not terribly concerned.”

Soon he was teaching three 40-minute classes a week composed of architects, professors and housewives (four students maximum) at an English language school, correcting English conversation texts at a university as a side job, and taking private Japanese lessons from a small school in Hiroshima.

Japanese is a difficult language to master, Ravenell explains, because the words and manner of speaking differ according to whom one is addressing, such as a boss or a friend. Subject-object-verb agreement is different from English too, he notes, citing ‘I friend letter gave’ as an example of Japanese sentence structure. “It’s a big learning curve,” he acknowledges.

“It was phenomenal,” he says of his four years spent living in Hiroshima, Japan. A homogeneous society where staring at strangers (or anyone else) is impolite made the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ “a very easy culture for a foreigner to live in.

“The expectation that Japan would be something exotic wore off after my trip to China. Within two weeks I figured out that these mofos were just like us,” Ravenell laughs, adding that by virtue of the American military presence the Japanese were accustomed to black Americans.

What was different, Ravenell points out, was how Japanese women treated their boyfriends (in Hiroshima) – more akin to a son than a companion, showering them with attention and often making the first move to initiate intimate relationships. With attitudes and mannerisms the complete opposite of the native men, “foreign guys are popular in Japan,” he says, describing the dating scene as a “turkey shoot,” filled with westerners living out the elusive fantasies that failed to materialize back home.

Coupled with his five-foot-eleven-inch frame (“I felt very tall over there”) and the notoriety resulting from having his picture appearing regularly in the school’s newspaper advertisements, Ravenell says his dating life was “a perfect storm” of opportunity.

Seeking more than casual relationships, Ravenell’s dalliances halted after he met Maiko Yamamoto, a Hiroshima native who shared the same qualities of deep closeness with family and a respect for and interest in education. Despite Ravenell’s “awkward” Japanese language skills – “I wasn’t comfortable with my Japanese until the end of my stay” – after a year and a half of dating they were married. (They have a three-year-old daughter, Emmaline Sanae Ravenell.)

In 2007, the couple moved to Ithaca, New York, where Ravenell secured a scholarship, and was a fellow in the Foreign Language and Area Studies Program in Cornell University’s Master of Asian Studies program, graduating with a 3.8 grade point average. His thesis, “Fukuzawa Yukichi: Western Civilization As Our Goal,” attempted to pinpoint the catalyst of Japan’s rapid rise into an industrialized nation. Furthermore, it juxtaposed how African American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois used Japan’s sudden and extraordinary progress and military success to criticize racial inequality in the U.S. against Japan’s importation of Western notions of race and colonization, which ultimately led to the destruction of Japan’s pre-World War II empire.

His plan was to pursue a PhD and become a professor, but the prospect of taking ten years or more to complete a PhD program was “not attractive.” Instead, a law school seminar sparked his interest, and Ravenell enrolled at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, where he will graduate in May.

Ravenell likes the versatility a law degree offers, with options to work in the area of legal translation, or perhaps immigration where he could help foreigners obtain American citizenship. “I feel very comfortable trying to help people from different countries get started and fulfill their dreams.”

When asked about reasons for the choices he’s made so far over the course of his 39 years, a journey that has taken him from East Asia and back to America, Ravenell relaxes, a sense of calm pervading his body. “It always felt natural,” he finally says without a trace of guile or regret.

A man satisfied with the life he is leading.