ABOUT THE PAGE AUTHOR
My name is Nami Kasuya, and I began working as the Coordinator for International Relations at the city hall in August 2006.
I am a US Citizen, born in Japan and raised in California’s San Francisco Bay Area since the age of four. My hometown in the South Bay is also the center of the Silicon Valley, and is home to the headquarters of thousands of major IT companies including Apple, Adobe, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo.
Prior to arriving in Chiba, I was a student at Boston University, where I majored in business administration and minored in philosophy. As you may know, Boston is across the country from my home, so it was quite an adventure for me to move there after 15 years of growing up in the quiet California suburbs. However, once I got used to the extreme weather conditions and busy city streets of Boston, I grew to love it. Moving there for college turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made in my life, and it sparked my curiosity to experience living in other areas of the world as well. Had I stayed in California (as originally planned), I probably would not have had the courage to be in Japan today!
Although I was raised by Japanese parents and am comfortable with the language, I consider myself culturally American (or more specifically Northern-Californian) and have little experience with life in Japan. I feel very lucky to be working here in Chiba City, and will use this opportunity to explore my cultural roots for the first time. Through my work, I also hope to provide information for both foreign residents and visitors to make their stay in the city as enjoyable as possible
Please feel free to contact me if you have any feedback or suggestions regarding the information covered in the English city website!
*This article was first written for the CCIA Gateway
Can you guess which one I am?

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