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Meet the Team
The Hosts
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Peter Galante A resident of Japan for over 9 years and candidate for Phd. at a prestigious Japanese university, Peter began JapanesePod101.com in December 2005 to bring his passion for Japanese, Japan and its culture to students of the language throughout the world. He has been student of linguistics and teaching for over 9 years. |
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Natsuko Kawamoto The founding member of JapanesePod101.com, Natsuko is a translator at Erklaren, Inc. She lived in New York for four years when she was in elementary school, and is a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University. She joined Erklaren Inc. in April 1998 and has been with the company since. |
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Sakura Suzuki One of the original members of JapanesePod101.com, Sakura is also a translator at Erklaren, Inc. She lived in Ireland as a child, which is the source of her adorable English accent. Sakura is also a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University. |
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Chigusa Yamaguchi The host of a well known radio show in Tokyo, and has appeared on many other radio shows and television programs. |
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Naomi Kambe Naomi is a qualified Japanese language teacher. She has experience teaching Japanese at secondary schools in Australia and the US. Since returning to Japan, she has also been involved in Japanese language training for exchange students and trainees from overseas. She is also a government-approved interpreter/guide and she possesses credentials of certification in tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and kimono dressing. |
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Hiroko Nakamura Hiroko has been working as a freelance translator and simultaneous interpreter in and outside of Japan since 2004. She graduated from the Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas in 2007, obtaining a BA there. Since returning to Japan, she has been teaching at an international school while continuing to work as a translator and interpreter. She has obtained an ESL certification recognized by the Southern Baptist Convention. She has scored a 970 on the TOEIC test. |
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Jessi Nuss Jessi was born and raised in California in the U.S., and currently resides in Tokyo, Japan. She hosts the Lower Intermediate Series and also develops and edits content for numerous other series at JapanesePod101.com. She holds a degree in Linguistics and Asian Languages and Cultures with a focus on Modern Japanese from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Besides Japanese, she is also fluent in Spanish, and she enjoys sharing her passion for languages with language learners from all over the world. |
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Yuuki Mori Yuuki lived in Vancouver, Canada for two years and obtained certification for teaching Japanese at Yano Academy, in Vancouver, Canada. He is teaching Japanese as part of the Premium Plus Skype lesson at JapanesePod101.com. He is also a snowboard instructor at Gala Yuzawa in Yuzawa, Nigata. He has been learning Shorinji Kempo, martial arts for over ten years. |
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Anthony Cannon Walker An artist and linguist and translator, Anthony has lived in Japan for 9 years. He first came to Japan on a 1 year exchange program as a high school student and went on to get a BA in Japanese language and an MFA from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. News and examples of Anthony’s artwork can be viewed at www.walker-art.net |
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Yuuichi Suzuki Yuuichi is a graduate student at a university in Japan, majoring second language teaching. He started working at JapanesePod101.com in 2007 on internship. He has experience teaching Japanese at secondary schools in Australia and universities in Asian countries. |
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Katherine Crosbie Kat was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, and began studying Japanese at the age of 18. She has lived in Japan for a total of just over two years, including a year of study abroad at Seikei University, Kichijoji, Tokyo, as one of a total of just twelve international students. She currently lives in Yokohama. She is a graduate of Edinburgh University with a first-class honours degree in Japanese Studies with Distinction in spoken Japanese, and is due to enter Tokyo University in April 2010 to read a Master’s degree in Sociology with a focus on gender studies. Kat has had a variety of interesting job experiences in Japan, including but not limited to izakaya waitress, maid cafe maid, and tour guide - all of which she says had ’sociological value’! Kat puts her Japanese prowess down to the simple fact that she loves to talk - in any language - and believes that anyone can become fluent in a foreign language with self-confidence and the right motivation. |
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Christopher Nelson Chris first came to Japan as an exchange student from the University of Minnesota. After graduating with a bachelors degree in Japanese language and literature, he returned to Tokyo to live and work full time. Chris now fills his time as an English teacher, voice-actor, Master of Ceremonies, and amateur musician. |
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Motoko Obata Motoko was born in the US and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She is interested in languages— especially English because of her origins—and has found that Japanese is the most interesting language. She completed a course in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language at the International Christian University in Tokyo. After graduating, she went to Melbourne, Australia and participated in the Assistants to Teachers of Japanese Program, sponsored by the Department of Education in Victoria. She cultivated her passion for Japanese while teaching the language to energetic Australian kids for one year, and then joined the JapanesePod101.com team in 2010. |
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Tomoyuki Tsuchiya Tomoyuki Tsuchiya was born in Tokyo. After living in Texas for 2 years during his childhood, he forgot some Japanese and had to study it from the beginning. After a long effort, he is now a researcher of Japanese linguistics, and is conducting research about Japanese idioms and proverbs while teaching at a university. |
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Natsuko Yamamori Natsuko is a native Japanese speaker. She’s currently working as a freelance interpreter/translator of English and Portuguese. As a longtime big fan of soccer, she wanted to become an interpreter for soccer players when she was 16 years old. To that end, she studied Portuguese at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. She recently worked for the international championships of volleyball as a team interpreter. She also took a one-year postgraduate diploma course in teaching Japanese in London. Describing herself as a language/linguistics maniac, she’s very happy to meet the listeners at JapanesePod101.com and help them learn Japanese.. |
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The Voice Actors
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Yasuko Ushijima Yasuko presides over a theatrical group called GLENS in Tokyo. She draws on her experience in radio broadcasting for her work at JapanesePod101.com, to which she lends her clear, easy-to-understand voice. She hopes to continue working on the fun projects at JapanesePod101.com that are similar to the comedies she works on in the theater group. |
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Takeya Kodama Takeya was born and raised in Tokyo. He has a passion for nature, the mountains, and the ocean thanks to his parents who put a lot of emphasis on enjoying nature as he was growing up. After graduating high school, he aimed to become a musician and devoted himself to performing live shows (where he did guitar and vocals) for 12 years. He was introduced to JapanesePod101.com by Natsuko-san, and has been doing voice acting for the site since 2006. He is also a qualified Japanese sake advisor. |
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Go Katsumoto Go is a stage actor who mainly acts with the theatrical group Tokyo Geo Grande. As a part of this group, he appeared in “The Second Class of Approach Performance - Mission in the Office” in June 2008 and “The Third Class of Approach Performance - Mission of the Future” in January 2009. He has also appeared on a TV show called “Noriyuki’s Talk in Hokkaido” broadcasted by Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting Co., Ltd. He has been doing voice acting for JapanesePod101.com since January 2009. |
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Chihiro Nagai Chihiro works mostly as a voice actress, but in addition does narration, stage work, and also works as an extra. Her previous works include Yusha no Kuse ni Namaiki da, Sugar+Spice!! Ano kono suteki na nanimokamo, O-chaken Hotto Medaru, Lair Land ~Shojo no Yakujo~, Spectral Force 3, Bokura no Pererandia!, Senchimento no Kisetsu, Card Battle Game “Gakuen Burai”. |
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The Team
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Mayumi Kishimoto Mayumi was born and brought up in Tokyo, Japan. She is Project Manager and a content creator at JapanesePod101.com. She became interested in teaching Japanese as a foreign language and studied how to teach it while working for another company. She passed the Japanese language teaching competency test and joined the JapanesePod101.com team in March 2007. |
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Noriyuki Noriyuki lived in Seattle, Washington in the U.S. for four years, and learned English, American culture, and CIS (computer information systems). With great reluctance he left the U.S., and shortly after scored a 980 on the TOEIC test. In November 2007, he joined the JapanesePod101.com team and has been working as an engineer/audio editor and occasionally as a voice actor. He is also a scuba diving maniac. |
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