RLI Taking the Lead Podcasts

Did You Know?

I have been married to my husband for 31 years. We met in medical school. He was a class behind me. I did not know him in the beginning, but I heard from someone that there was a genius in the class. When I was a first-year radiology resident, our department wanted to recruit him as he had published three computer graphic books during medical school. Radiology needed someone savvy in computational work. I was told to sit beside him and recruit him to Radiology. He initially wanted to be an internal medicine doctor, but for whatever reason, he changed his mind and chose radiology.

We have one daughter, she is 23. We are very close. We do things together, shopping, spa, girls’ night out, movies, concerts, etc.

In addition to spending time with my daughter, I love taking care of plants. I have 20-plus indoor plants in my condo. They are like my children. Everyone is different, some need more TLC than others. But I enjoy seeing them thrive and grow. I am a nurturing person. I also exercise; I do a Core Exercise, Pure Barre, a mixture of Pilates, yoga, and ballet. I am building deep core muscles, not being muscular. It gives me strengths, not necessarily losing weight, though. I am the oldest in the class, many are 20’ and 30’. I am very proud of taking the class with people my daughter’s age.

I love traveling and I am so happy that we are back to traveling again after 3 years of the pandemic. Besides Japan, I love Italy and Spain. Beautiful foods, very relaxing.

Ever since I was a medical student, I was always interested in the complex anatomy of the head and neck, face, and skull base. I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, not a cosmetic plastic surgeon, but to create a new ear or nose for someone with a developmental disease or injury. I thought those were a very creative jobs, rather than a big surgery, taking out a big liver tumor or cancer. Restoring function and making people happier- what a great profession. I visited the Tokyo University Plastic surgery residency program but was rejected because I was a woman. They said they do not take women. In fact, I went there with my friend, who was a man, he was not anywhere at the top of the class, but he was good looking. They took him and he became cosmetic plastic surgeon, doing face lift, lip and cheek injection, etc. 

I was recruited to the Department of Radiology, as Radiology training in Japan also combined Radiation oncology. They convinced me that I could diagnose and treat patients with HN cancer. Besides, they did not have any female residents; I was the first female radiology resident at my university. Professor Arimizu was super excited that I chose Radiology. He was my first mentor and sponsor. He gave me lots of opportunities and encouragement. Create your own niche, not follow the crowd. That was a lesson learned from him.

My favorite cuisine is Tapas, kind of small plates. Not a large quantity but creative, healthy foods and flavors. Quality over Quantity. I love the Japanese course dinner called Kaiseki. It usually has 10 courses of small plates; many are based on vegetables and fish. 

I believe that beverage and food go together—Cheese and Wine, Sake and Sushi, Donuts, and Coffee, etc. I drank lots of wine in the past, but now I like Old Fashioned with Bourbon, orange peel, and dark cherry. When I feel like avoiding sugar, then I go to Gin Tonic with a piece of lime. 

On rainy days, I like listening to audiobooks, podcasts, Ted talks, Headway, etc. I usually listen to Audiobooks while getting ready in the morning. It is relaxing and I learn something while I am doing a morning artwork which is called Make-up.  When weather is nice, we like to go low-key hiking.