It was summer 2000 when Matthew Wortley, on the Japan Exchange and Teaching program and living in Mie Prefecture, met his future wife, Hiromi Fujii, at a festival.
Hiromi, a City Hall worker from the prefecture, had met Matthew, who is from Coventry, England, before but it was the first time that they had a chance to have a long conversation, and they found each other interesting.
It's been about nine years since their first date, to see the movie "The Perfect Storm." After living in Edinburgh for four years, they came back to Japan in 2007 and now live in Tokyo with their 1-year-old daughter, Emma.