I had the opportunity to work with a lovely new translator this year: Sahoko Matsuo “Sari,” whom shares unique traits seemingly inherent to other yoga translators: she is a yoga teacher, well-traveled, and speaks more than one language.  Sari has been practicing yoga for approximately seven years, completing a 200 Hr.  teacher training in NYC in 2011 and currently teaches at Yoga Plus, Tokyo. I was fortunate to have her translate for my classes at the Yoga Plus, Gotanda and Shinjuku studios.

Prior to pursuing her current profession, Sari was a researcher in Japan and then moved to New York  where she spent  2 1/2 years attending English language school and a yoga teacher training.  Additionally, during that time Sari volunteered at Soup Kitchen and NY de Volunteer,  a great experience where she was able to make lots of friends. Her work at these organizations was an effort to fulfill an ongoing special interest in social work and social welfare that she has had since high school.  She is always thinking of a way for everyone to be affluent and happy.

Sari is from the Aichi prefecture and speaks Japanese, English and loves cooking,  baking,  and traveling.  Although very young, she has also journeyed to: Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Mexico and Jamaica.

Lithe, with a graceful & calm demeanor,  I found Sari to be impressively hard-working and tenacious; translating two classes a week at the Gotanda studio and once a week at Shinjuku, all while maintaining her full-time teaching schedule.  Nevertheless, she was a delight to collaborate with–and very generous–I really enjoyed her thoughtful gifts of home-baked fruit breads!

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Last year I profiled the translators for my classes and the teacher training: Yuri Nakamura, Kosai Kato, Mayumi Yamashita “Souffler,” and Tomoko Kawahara who are all, with the exception of Tomoko) were working with me again this year. You can read their stories in previous posts under, The Tokyo Diary, 2012.