Celeste Heiter
With her lifelong love of Japan, its people, and its culture, Celeste Heiter believes that she may have been Japanese in a previous incarnation. Inspired by a lifelong dream to visit the Great Buddha at Kamakura, she moved to Tokyo in 1988, where she spent two years teaching English conversation. Celeste now makes her home in California’s beautiful Napa Valley, with the most treasured souvenir of her life in Japan: her son Will. She is the author of Vignettes of Japan, Ganbatte Means Go For It, The Sushi Book, and Five Seven Five. She writes about her adventures in Asian food and film on her blog, Chopstick Cinema.

Robert George
During his eighteen-year residence in Japan, photographer Robert George worked in film and video production while traveling extensively throughout Asia honing his craft as an international travel photographer. Robert returned to the U.S. in 1999 and now lives in Sacramento with his wife Mayumi and his son Alex, but continues to travel to Asia for his work.