By Sara's side is her three-year-old son Eli. The image on the picture book reads “shimauma” and “zebra” and when Sara presses the image, a lively voice answers “SHIMAUMA.” Thanks to this book, although he cannot yet read Japanese, Eli is able to remember the names of his favorite animals and vehicles, and his four-year-old sister Seyshelle can say the Japanese terms with expert pronunciation. The siblings take lessons from Japanese instructors for two to three hours a day, five days a week.

“Spending three years in Japan as a married couple was filled with surprises and learning experiences,” Sara reflects, “they were truly special  days  in which we cultivated a “perspective of an entirely new world.” She says that the incredible smoothness with which everything runs in Japan made a lasting impression on her: “the railway system always ran exactly on time.” Before her children were born, Sara and her husband often used the train to go on trips, touring the temples of Kyoto and Kamakura, and the Sapporo snow festival. “It’s that my husband has a rule where we devote money to experiences rather than things,” she explains.

The family has steadily collected Japanese children’s books not only from bookstores in Japan, but also from Japanese residents in Houston. Amongst their numerous children’s books, Seyshelle and Eli’s favorite Hajimete Zukan 415 (My first Picture Book #415) has Sara’s number one seal of approval. “Just by looking at it, the book brings up fond memories of Japan. My daughter’s first Japanese word was tanpopo (dandelion), so I always think of happily picking dandelions at the start of spring. Because the book can be enjoyed in this way, I absolutely want beginning Japanese language learners who have experience with Japan to read these books.” Sara continues, watching Eli play with the book, “we are paying our respects to Japan, the country in which our daughter and son were born. Choosing Japanese as our children’s second language came as an obvious choice. We hope that, by acquiring Japanese, our kids will grow up to have confidence and to be open minded toward many other cultures. We’re also hoping they’ll have the possibility to work in Japan or in the world in the future.”