Etsuko Kawamura

Etiquette teacher Etsuko Kawamura’s father is a Japanese house architect, and her exposure to Japanese housing and building gave her an interest in Japanese courtesy and traditions. After resigning from her work at a travel company, she studied Japanese etiquette and the art of kimono, specializing in the juunihitoe, which is an extremely elegant and highly complex kimono. Since she …

JP Yates

JP Yates has been in international education since 1998, and has lived in China, Vietnam, and of course Japan (and visited 86 additional countries to work with students). He has served as the head of admissions at several institutions (including Temple University, Japan Campus), and now helps students find their best fit university…no matter where in the world that may …

Someta Hayashiya

Someta Hayashiya was born in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture. After graduating from Kansai University, he was apprenticed to Somemaru Hayashiya IV. Currently he is based in Tenma Tenjin Hanjotei in Osaka, and has appeared on nationwide rakugo shows, television and radio. Early in his career, he won Grand Champion at the young rakugo performers contest. Mr. Hayashiya is skilled in …

Sho Asano

Under the influence of his grandfather, Sho Asano started playing Japanese drums at the age of 3 and the Tsugaru shamisen at the age of 5. After that, he studied the Odajima Ryu under Tokuo Odajima II(the second person to use the name Tokuo Odajima). At the age of seven, he became the youngest participant in the Tsugaru Shamisen National …

Trish Ledoux

Writer, translator, actor, producer—ANIMERICA founding editor Trish Ledoux has been active in anime and manga since the earliest days of the U.S. industry. Before becoming editor of ANIMERICA, Trish was editor of the Berkeley-based ANIMAG, one of the country’s first “professional” anime magazines. As a writer, Trish has either written, translated or adapted hundreds of projects from Japanese into English. …