I'm not the person who's sure. I'm the person who tries when it matters, even when it looks hopeless, and then I make it mine.
That sentence is the shortest honest version of my story. The longer one starts on the other side of the Pacific, in a classroom where I couldn't read the board.
01Japan
I moved to Japan at eleven, in 2016, with zero Japanese. Not conversational-but-rusty zero, actual zero. I went into Japanese public school anyway: every class, every test, every hallway conversation in a language I was learning in real time, in a system with no lane for someone like me.
It was the first time I learned the move that now defines everything I do: I get fluent fast in systems that weren't built for me. Not because I'm fearless, but because staying lost was the only alternative on offer.
02University
I got into a national university the domestic way, the same entrance path as everyone who grew up here. No exchange-student lane, no international-admissions side door. I'm now at Yamaguchi University in the Faculty of Global and Science Studies, graduating March 2027, fully bilingual in English and Japanese.
Doing school in a second language teaches you something no curriculum does: what it feels like to be capable and still locked out, when the barrier isn't your ability but the interface between you and the institution.
03Why I build
That experience is the through-line in everything I make: human communication, institutional failure, and AI as a tool for handing people back some agency. I build both the front and back ends of the systems I make, and I test them with the people they're actually for.
A burnout predictor with a vision model I trained myself, a course-feedback system my team pivoted under deadline that earned a university press release, an AAC communication app tested with the people it's actually for.
When my understanding deepens, I go back and rebuild my earlier work in the open instead of hiding it. The mixed results taught me more than the wins: listen more before building more. see the build log →
04What I believe
05Off the screen
I run. I started from genuinely terrible. The dreaded PE distance run was my nemesis, and picked it up anyway because it felt impossible. Now I'm training through scorching heat toward a 5K, a marathon eventually. Same move as everything else here: pick the hard thing, start from zero, make it mine. the rest lives off-screen →
06Now
I'm headed toward early-career roles that blend technical depth with human-facing work. Solutions Engineering, Technical Account Management, AI implementation, Developer Relations, AI product. I'm a US citizen, so no visa sponsorship is needed for US roles.
If any of this sounds like someone you want on your team, get in touch →