In tracing roots, our woman in Aizu finds her calling

When Dorchester native Cristina Quinn graduated from college, she wanted to follow her Asian roots. She joined the Japan English Teaching Program and requested an assignment to Aizu, the same rural prefecture in which her mother, Toshiko, had grown up.

Over the next 32 months, Quinn, who is half Japanese and half Irish, hired a language tutor, reconnected with relatives, and even taught high school English in the same tiny village where her mother had been raised.

She also found another, more unexpected avenue to her past: sharing her bicultural background over the airwaves as the DJ of her own radio show, ''Let's English."

After exploring a culture with which her mixed pedigree both connected and challenged her, Quinn will return to Boston this July with a new sense of what it means to be native and foreign.

Japan English Teaching, a program run through the Japanese Consulate, sends young college graduates to teach English in Japanese public schools.

As one of 82 Americans sent through the Boston office in 2001, Quinn was granted her rural request and was soon teaching in Wakamatsu, a city in the Aizu prefecture 130 miles north of Tokyo.

It wasn't long until she made the 10-mile journey to Bange, the small farming village of her mother's childhood.

''I remembered thinking . . . 'These are the same streets where my mom walked, growing up,' " said Quinn, whose red Irish locks are cut in a Japanese style, with flat bangs that taper down near the outside of her almond-shaped eyes.

Nestled near the foothills of Mount Bandai, Bange had not forgotten Toshiko, even though she had left almost 40 years earlier for America.

Quinn met a former classmate of her mother's, who recalled the way she used to walk along the curb ''with her head high, like a movie star." Quinn's mother had described that same walk.

Despite Quinn's roots in Bange, people outside her family considered her a gaijin, or foreigner.

''It was hard for me to accept," Quinn said during a recent trip back to Boston.

Though her upbringing was woven with Japanese traditions, in Japan she was ''still a foreigner." The red hair and light skin inherited from her Irish-American father, whom her mother met during a vacation to California in the 1960s and married two years later, make Quinn look more Hibernian than Asian.

Susan Gill, New England coordinator for the Japan English Teaching Program, said that even if foreigners of Japanese descent have an understanding of Japanese culture, their non-Japanese background ''brings with it special problems."

Though most of the treatment was benign, Quinn said she was annoyed when locals continually complimented her ability to use chopsticks or said ''kawaii" in front of her (''she's so cute").

''They don't do that to Japanese people," she said.

''It's like I'm still a novelty, you know? But when I thought about it, it was their first time seeing me," said Quinn, who has become fluent in Japanese. ''It just takes patience."

Fortunately, she had company.

Of Wakamatsu's 120,000 people, 709 are gaijin, slightly above the national average, according to Shinji Kobayashi, manager of the Aizu-Wakamatsu International Association.

To reach that growing population and respond to local interest in English, the local radio station asked Kobayashi if he knew of any gaijin who would host a regular program in English. Quinn, who had already served as the MC of some international festivals, was the natural choice.

''She's very genki," or lively, said Kobayashi by e-mail from Wakamatsu. ''She always makes us laugh."

Live on FM Aizu (76.2 MHz) every Tuesday evening, ''Let's English" begins with short announcements, which Quinn likes to spice up to keep listeners on their toes. For example, for an announcement about a child-care class, she began, "Is your baby 7 months old? Are you letting him chew on the couch or oily rags. . .? Lucky for you, the city of Wakamatsu is offering a class on dietary and dental advice for the parents of 7-month-old babies."

Next, Quinn moves on to her own segment, called "Word Up!" It is often autobiographical, which allows her to explore another part of her past -- her bicultural upbringing in Dorchester.

At a coffee shop in the financial district, Quinn recalled some of the memories she shared. In one, she talked about being scolded by her mother with the word ''co-min-since." Only years later did Quinn realize her mother was telling her to have common sense. In another, she told the story of Sunday afternoon trips to her uncle's house in nearby Newton.

Quinn added that her mother would pack enormous Japanese picnic baskets full of onigiri (rice balls) for these trips.

In Aizu, Quinn watched her Japanese compatriots do the same on a four-hour hike up Mount Bandai, when they "unloaded their kitchen" during a lunch break.

''It came to me: That's exactly how my mom is," Quinn said.

That Dorchester upbringing gives Quinn the perspective of a foreigner, which she uses to comment on Japanese culture.

One ''Word Up!" segment made light of the Japanese aversion to hugging, while another dealt with Japanese attitudes about recycling.

''Her 'Word Up!' segments are insightful and original," e-mailed Joanne Hickson, a British citizen who lives in Wakamatsu and listens to ''Let's English" regularly. ''She has a very intelligent sense of humor which comes across really well in her show."

Hickson called Quinn a ''cultural ambassador."

''Having blood roots in Aizu is a really positive thing for community radio," Hickson said.

According to Kobayashi and Hickson, the show has made Quinn something of a celebrity in Wakamatsu. She has been interviewed by a local newspaper and profiled in an Aizu monthly magazine. However, when she's on the air, Quinn enjoys the anonymity.

''It's just my voice out there," she said. ''I find solace in that."

Though Quinn looks forward to reclaiming her ''anonymity" in Boston, she said her time in Aizu has given her a new perspective.

''Coming back from Japan, I understand my mother more," she said. ''After 24 years, I can finally speak to her in Japanese."

The search for her roots has also given Quinn an idea about what she'd like to do with her future.

''I've fallen in love with radio," she said. She plans to get her FCC license when she returns to Boston and one day hopes to work for National Public Radio.

''A lot of their reporters do autobiographical stuff," she said. ''I would love to do that. I've got a lot of stories."