Yoichi Kubota, a scholar in environmental planning and design, met Patmakorn Suntharothok, who was to become his future wife, for the first time when she was studying business management in the United States 12 years ago.
Pat (short for Patmakorn) happened to be researching environmental management, and she came across a website of Saitama University, where Yoichi was serving as professor at its graduate school of science and engineering. She contacted him, and made an appointment to see him when she had a chance to visit Japan.
The couple soon took an interest in each other, exchanged emails and met up several times before they got married in 2001. Pat quit her studies in the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and came to live with Yoichi in Japan.