Age: 22

Birthplace: Auckland, New Zealand (that's why I'm Kiwi Musume - NZers are called Kiwis.)

Location: Ariake, Saga Prefecture, Japan

Current Job: English teacher with the JET Program. I teach English to various grade levels (one junior high school, 3 primary schools and 4 kindergartens) in Ariake, a little town in Saga Prefecture (in the north-west of Kyushu, between Nagasaki and Fukuoka Prefectures, famous for this here song. :D) At this stage I am here until next August, but I may be able to get my contract extended until August 2009.

What I want to “Be When I Grow Up”: Professional translator. I used to really want to translate anime like my friend, but now I don't really mind what I end up translating. I've been working on some voluntary translation projects while I'm here (ranging from medical research reports to the script of a, shall we say...interesting video game) and then once my contract ends I'll be looking for permanent work, probably here in Japan.

How I got into Jpop: I was hanging out with these Japanese exchange students at my high school’s sports day, justifying my lack of activity with the fact that at least I was exercising my Japanese (which was still pretty basic then) and one of them ended up letting me have a listen to the CD she was playing in her discman (Morning Musume’s “Best! Morning Musume 1”, which to this day is still one of my favourites.) And the rest, as they say, is history. :D

You may remember me from such Jpop websites as: Megchan's Jpop Pages and Cori's Jpop Lyrics Homepage. I started submitting translations and things to Megchan’s site in late 2004 and doing the occasional translation or part translation for Cori’s site in early 2005, but after awhile I decided I'd done enough songs to branch out on my own, and so at 11:27pm on October 26 2005, Kiwi-Musume.com was born. :D

Favourite Artists: I'm going through a funny stage right now; there aren't really any artists that I'm consistently liking at the moment. Some whose music I've quite enjoyed recently have been (in no particular order) Yui, Katou Miliyah, Ikimono-gakari, Melody, GLAY, Shimatani Hitomi, Amano Tsukiko, Ketsumeishi, Jyongri, L'Arc En Ciel, B'z, Eu Phoria, Utada Hikaru, Metis, Diva X Diva, Golf & Mike, Oda Kazumasa, Bennie K, Chemistry, Arashi, AI, Bonnie Pink, Tackey & Tsubasa, Kuraki Mai and Kitahara Aiko. I also love a lot of older artists like Lindberg, Ooguro Maki, Pink Lady, Speed, WANDS, Pool Bit Boys, CoCo, Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi and Princess Princess, and a lot of the older stuff by Morning Musume (and other Hello Project artists), Hamasaki Ayumi, BoA, Aikawa Nanase and Tamaki Nami.

Hobbies: Working on my website, exploring Japan, hanging with some of my friends here, studying Japanese, reading, shopping, watching Japanese dramas/movies/anime, surfing the net.