Nara native Atsushi Takagi and Mihaela Serbulea from Bucharest met in 2003 when Mihaela gave a lecture on SARS for an international exchange organization in which Atsushi is a member.
They hit it off at a social gathering after the lecture, when they found out they have a mutual interest in mountain climbing. They went on an overnight trip to Mount Gassan in Yamagata Prefecture, then started dating four months later. The couple married in June 2005, holding a wedding party in Togakushi, Nagano Prefecture, followed by a church wedding in a small town in Prahova County, Romania.
Atsushi, 44, works as a color printer engineer.