I was born in Oizumi, Gunma, Japan on April 28, 1957, as a fourth son to parents Izumi and Tori. I graduated from Gunma University in 1981 (dept. of English and English-American Literature, college of education) with a bachelor's degree in Education and teaching credentials for elementary (basic), junior-high (advanced), and senior-high (basic) education (subject: English). When I was a junior in college, I was granted a special Monbusho (Ministry of Education) scholorship and studied at San Diego State University in California, U.S.A. (1978-1979).
I taught English at Kiryu Nishi senior high school for four years (1981-1985), then, I quit for pursuing post-graduate studies in linguistics. I went back to SDSU again and did my research for two and a half years there (1985-1987). I was a recepient of "University Scholar Award 1987-1988". In the meantime, I taught basic and intermediate Japanese conversation at Mira Costa College. I graduated SDSU with a Master's degree in Linguistics and an advanced certificate in Applied Linguistics and TESL in December, 1987.
After returning to Japan, I started to teach at Maebashi City College of
Technology in April, 1991. The college has grown into a four-year university
in April, 1997, with a new name Maebashi Institute of Technology, or Maebit
in short. I am currently an associate professor at the department of Information
Engineering.
In the summer 2002 I started my Doctoral
program in Applied Linguistics at Macquarie
University in Sydney, Australia. I'm burning
the midnight coal for it, losing lots of
sleep.
My research interest is in how we can utilize
computers and the Internet for foreign language
learning/teaching, and in online learning
material development. Exploring e-learning.is
my main focus of activities.
I am married to a sweet wife Keiko, who is a dental hygienist. We are proud parents of our only daughter Irene who was born on February 7, 1996.