My martial arts training started when I was 9 years old in the Kaizen Shotokan Karate dojo under Sensei Bobby in Bonney Lake, Washington. I wanted to take karate because I was a half-Japanese girl raised primarily by my Caucasian mother, in an almost entirely Caucasian town, and I wanted to become more connected with my ancestry. I trained in Shotokan for about two years and competed in two tournaments placing 1st and 2nd in both the kata and point sparring divisions. After two years I left Shotokan and stayed away from martial arts until the summer of 2010 when I first trained at the Ellensburg Kyokushin dojo. I loved it and thus began my training in Kyokushin Karate. I have trained with Shihan Quitadamo and Shihan Campbell at the Ellensburg and Eastside respectively. I tested for yellow belt (2011) and brown belt (2011) and received my shodan (2012) under Shihan Quitadamo at the Ellensburg dojo.