After training under a dyer for six months in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, art student Satoko Yamagishi decided she needed a break. In October 1998 she went to Montreal, where she met Philippe Lavoie, a Canadian computer chip designer studying Japanese.

One day in March 2000, Philippe was invited to a French language class taught by his friend. As it happened, Satoko was taking that class. "If she didn't go to that class that day, I would not have met her. This is all just by chance," Philippe says.

The two, who shared an interest in punk music, agreed to do a language exchange, and before long their relationship grew into love. The couple married in April 2001 in Montreal and moved to Sendai the next month.