Hi! I am from Tokyo Japan. I moved to the US to study after graduating from Komatsugawa high school in Tokyo. I really enjoy living in Cambridge, but I do miss the real Japanese food from Japan, the cute things I can see and buy in Tokyo, and of course my family in Tokyo.

Before coming to the Media Lab, I studied Linguistics and Psychology at SUNY Stony Brook. At Stony Brook, I was blessed with amazing professors like Nancy Franklin, Susan Brennan, Mark Aronoff, and Gary Mar. But I cannot thank enough my mentor, Richard Larson for always believing in me and giving me the most profound words about life.

I came to the Media Lab in 1997 and received my masters in 1999. I felt that the two years of craziness at the Media Lab was not enough, so I decided to continue as a PhD student at the Media Lab. I am fortunate and truly happy to be part of the wonderful mixture of talent and passion to create cool new technologies to make our world a better place J

Aside from my Media Lab research, my passion is to create cute little characters that make me and people smile.

A few snapshots:

• my family here and in Japan
• little characters of mine
• my toys
• my name in Japanese