I was born in 1965 and raised in Japan. I grew up without my biological father due to a fatal car accident when I was only 18 months old. I graduated from Oki Gakuen High School in Fukuoka, Japan and became a computer programmer in 1983. Going to college was one of my dreams, but because it was very financially difficult to do at the time, I wasn't able to.
I visited America on a vacation and met my husband in 1997; we married in 1998 and have two daughters.
Having pets is a huge part of my life. I had a cat when I was young and had a dog, Shuta, in my 20s. My family had a dog, Mandi, a duck, Blue-eyes, a rabbit, Fluffy, and goldfish; all the goldfish had names that are hard to remember for me because our daughters named them, but the last one was Poppy and was so beautiful. Right now, our family pets are Nutmeg and Madi. We adopted Nutmeg from a rescue center in 2010; she loves to cuddle. We also adopted Madi from a shelter in 2019; she is very playful and loves to play with her ball all day.
I had many dreams that I wanted to do. Staying home for our children was one of my dreams because I didn't have that luxury in my childhood. I was a latchkey child due to our family structure as a single parent family and my mother's work; therefore, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mother for our children. After my children became old enough, I pursued another dream of mine; I enrolled in a community college in 2010. I took two classes at a time for the first couple of years because taking care of our daughters was the first priority, and I needed to focus on learning English since I am a second language learner.
I graduated with Honors in Psychology and Social Behavior Science Associate Degrees from a community college in 2015 and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Development with Summa Cum Laude in 2017 while working. It was not very easy to do: taking care of family, having a job, and dealing with a lot of homework. But I did it! Studying Children's Literature was my favorite college course because it taught me the important elements of children's books.
Publishing children's books had became one of my dreams! I started to illustrate Shuta, ("Shuta" is a Japanese name so it is pronounced Shoo-ta) in 1998. I loved him dearly and missed him very much. Drawing Shuta was a sort of therapy for me; I felt Shuta was with me, and it made me feel better. I had been working on stories to produce a book that would be loved by children since then. During this COVID-19 crisis, I had to stay home; however, I took this as an opportunity and focused on publishing my first book, "How Are You, Shuta?". Following that, I published the series of "Shuta and Me".
The "Shuta and Me" series is designed to promote the understanding of emotions, the development of empathy, and the acceptance of others for young children. I developed this idea while I was studying Children's Literature. I thought, "If I were to publish a book, it must let the child feel loved and cared for and must help a child understand emotions, empathy, and individual differences. I want to create a book that a child will take everywhere and even sleep with it because she/he loves the book so much."