Hitomi has a bachelor's degree and　teaching certificate from Gunma University. After serving as a nature guide in Oze National Park for three years, she became a high school science teacher. She led an after school mountaineering club. She also enjoyed the weekend volunteering. She taught various kinds of experiments at science workshops for children and taught Japanese to adults who moved from a foreign country. In 2013, her family moved to Tucson. First, she taught Japanese language and culture at Charter High School. Then, worked as a guest science teacher at an elementary school, and became an after school STEM club instructor for children. In 2015, she founded Tucson Japanese Language School with co-founder Minami and continues to contribute as a community educator. She studied at the University of Arizona and obtained a Master's degree in Education and an Arizona Teaching Certificate in 2019. She became a high school teacher again in Tucson and continues her adventure.

Minami received her BA in International Relations along with Japanese language acquisition as a minor from the Tokyo International University. In her college years, she worked as a Japanese tutor at local elementary schools. She also focused on multicultural exchanges and worked with exchange students. In the last year of college, she worked at United Nations Information Centre as an intern to experience work at the UN. After her graduation, she taught Japanese at Tokyo Bungo Gakuin in Tokyo and located in Salem, Oregon where she worked as a Japanese TA for two years. She met with Hitomi through her children and founded the Tucson Japanese Language School with her in 2015. She is also a founder of truly-non toxic cleaning company " Safi Home Works" which empowering local refugees. She is working hard to make good changes and putting effort to make this world a better place. She has two beautiful children and a wonderful husband. Recently she gave a birth to her third child. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking and gardening.

Lindsay has loved Japan since she was a child, and began studying the language over 20 years ago. She studied abroad in Japan from 2004-2006, when she passed the Level 1 JLPT. After graduating from the U of A’s East Asia Studies program in 2008, she moved to Utsunomiya as a CIR through the JET Program, where she translated, interpreted for the governor, and visited schools to give presentations about the U.S. She returned to Tucson in 2012, and work remotely to translate the annual “Hobonichi Techo” by Shigesato Itoi while working at Tucson-based video game merchandise company Fangamer. She has a 1 year old daughter she is raising to be fluent in Japanese.

Coming soon!

Rie (Leah) has been interested in Western art and architecture. After she graduated from interior design school in Japan, she traveled to Europe and met future husband. In 1980, she moved to Tucson where her husband lived. Her husband and she established a commercial art business for 20 years while she was raising three sons. In 2002, she realized that she wanted to help people and decided to go back to Pima Community College to study nursing. She retired after working as a CNA in the hospital and home health care setting for 15 years.
Now she is enjoying babysitting her grandchildren. She loves children so she is very happy to interact and to volunteer at Tucson Japanese Language School.

Miharu Lee was born and raised in a rural area in Japan. In 2000, She came to the United States to study English at Arizona State University. After three years of living in Tempe, her husband’s job took them to many places around the world. She returned to Arizona and settled down in Tucson a few years ago. She has a daughter who attends at Japanese school. 

Only after she had left Japan she finally realized the beauty of her home country and its culture, and she is excited to share this with others. She believes learning another language helps to better understand the culture and the people and to appreciate differences. She also likes working with children, and she has volunteered at her daughter’s schools. At the Tucson Japanese Language School, she is now able to enjoy working with children in her mother language, Japanese!

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Meg is a senior at a local public high school. She was born in the Philippines and raised in Japan, she moved to Tucson with her family in 2019. She met Ms. McKnight at her high school, and she wanted to get to know more Japanese people so she started volunteering at the Japanese School. She is still learning English. She loves playing piano, playing with kids, doing crafts, exercising, and participating in events. She is enjoying helping students and talking with other staff through her volunteer work.

Kimiho is a sophomore at a local public high school. She was born and raised in Japan, she moved to Tucson with her family in 2019. In her first year of high school, she had Ms.McKngiht's Earth and Space Science class. She is taking ELD classes. It was hard at first, but recently she has become more comfortable speaking to her classmates and taking classes in English. She is a skilled piano player. She also enjoys drawing pictures. She is learning new things every day at her High School and at the Japanese Language School.

My name is Manami, and I’m a nisei. I attended Penn State University for my Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation and Human Services. Afterwards I graduated from Salus University with a Master of Science in Low Vision Rehabilitation. I moved to Tucson for a job in 2020 during the start of COVID-19.  After a couple years of adjusting and enjoying Tucson, I decided to volunteer at Tucson Nihongo Hosyuko to meet other Japanese people and practice my conversational speaking.”

Coming soon!

Coming soon!

Jennifer is nisei (second-generation Japanese American), born and raised in California. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Computer Science and starting her career in San Jose, she moved to Tucson for her job at IBM in 2004, where she met her husband. In 2018, she enrolled their daughter in the Tucson Japanese Language School, and around the same time, started pushing herself to improve her basic Japanese skills, as well. When covid-19 pandemic hit and Nihongo Cafe shifted to virtual meetings with a group of volunteers in Anjo, Japan, Jennifer started participating in various conversation groups. She has been thoroughly enjoying meeting and getting to know the people in the group, as well as practicing her Japanese conversational skills.

Megumi studied Japanese linguistics at the University of Arizona to further her knowledge and perspective of the field and to become a better Japanese language teacher. Her goal is to contribute to our academic communities and the world by encouraging members of different communities in their pursuit of success and happiness. Aside from her teaching duties at the University of Arizona, she volunteered at the Tucson Japanese Language School. In addition to helping young heritage learners, she has organized weekly Tucson Nihongo café meetings to provide a learning space for those outside of the formal classroom setting. Taking advantage of the online format, she invited volunteer conversation partners from the city of Anjo, Japan to provide an even more diverse environment. Now she joins Washington College in St Louis in fall 2021 where she will teach the Japanese language.