Fresh from their student days in Japan, Todd Geers and Erika Hoburg wrote the first edition of Making Out In Japanese in the late 80s because the Japanese they learned in textbooks wasn't the Japanese they were hearing spoken around them. This book has been a contribution to the real education of non-native speakers ever since. Their daughter, Elisha Geers, has been studying and teaching in Japan for the past three years. Illustrations by Akiko Saito who graduated from Musashino Art College. She lives in Tokyo and creates most of her illustrations with her cockatiel, Romeo, perched on her shoulder.