About Me — Akemi Sagawa
Continuing my Life ver.2.0
Hi, I’m Akemi Sagawa. Nice to meet you!
My Life version 1.0
I was born and grew up in Japan, and moved to the US in August of 1994. Remember a product called Microsoft Windows 95? I was transferred from Japan to Seattle to be part of the product launch group for the Asian market. I was originally supposed to be in Seattle only for 2 years, but here I met my husband (not a Microsoftie — an environmental engineer) and ended up living here ever since then.
After Microsoft, I started a Bluetooth software company and worked there for seven years until we sold it to a major semiconductor company in 2007.
My life version 2.0
I now teach Sogetsu School of Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arrangement) and practice Urasenke tea ceremony. Those two practices occupy 80% of my time. I also founded the Five Senses Foundation in 2017 to share the universal value of Japanese traditional cultures with the world by making them relevant within the context of today’s lifestyle.
As you noticed, the gap between my life v1.0 and v2.0 is rather drastic. How and why it happened… I think It’s worth sharing my story with you because mine might resonate with yours. That’s why I started to write on Medium.
