Age 0-4   

I was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka (Japan).  I was a really cute baby.  I started running before walking, started reading at the age of 2, and before I tunred 3, I had IQ of 150.  So my mom took me to take this lesson to improve my IQ even more. 

When I was 3 or 4, my parents got devorced.  Ever since that day, I hadn't seen my dad or my half brother from my dad's previous marriage.

Age 5-7

I went to 3 different pre-schools due to my mom's moving.  We moved to Soka, Saitama to stay with my uncle's family, but that was what changed my life.  They were very abusive, and when I was about 10 years old, I started suffering from depression.  when I was 6, my mom got remarried to my current step dad, whose marriage was also his second time.  After that we moved out to Kawaguchi, Saitama.

Age 7-12

I got picked on althrough pre-school and elementary school.  However I kind of liked school until the very end.  My mom took me to swimming, caligraphy, choir, drawing, English, and piano lessons every day.  I managed to achieve to 2 dan in caligraphy after 8 years and almost made it to junior olympics after 8 years also.  I've once settled a japanese record for youth too.  When I was in 4th grade, she took me to this afterschool-school so I can get prepared for getting into a famous private jr high school.  When I was in 2nd grade, I was on air for like 2 months and once became the idol in school.  Since my mom was always busy trying to improve my talents, I was best at art, running, music, math, or anything in school, but on the other hand, a lot of my classmates ignored me, and by the time we graduated, they got to the point that they would lynch me every day that I had to take pills and shots for my nervous breakdown.

Age 13-16

As soon as I got into this very high leve, private school in Tokyo my mom wanted me to go, I stopped studying all of a sudden.  I guess I exploded.  It was the most harsh time of life I had, I think.  I was having so many problems.  I joined their soccer club but quit after a year.  Then I joined the film making club which I loved.  A year after I also joined the rock band club where I played guitar and sang in my own band.  It was so much fun until all the members in my band got suspended from school and got kicked out from the club.  I didn't have real friends except for one and another one outside the school, and the teachers hated me.  So I started skipping school like 3 days a week until I couldn't move onto the next grade. 

Age 17-19

So my mom decided to send me over here, in Memphis, for a change.  I just came as an exchange student for the first year.  I went to Craigmont high School where I started playing trombone for the first time in my life and met my best friends of life.I liked here so much that I decided to come back.  I did so well in school too.  But next year I couldn't come back to a public school with my visa, so I went to and graduated from Memphis Harding Academy. While I was in high school, I made All West Band twice, jazz band,  first alternate for all west and all state orchestra, and U of M top honor band twice. 

NOW

As soon as I graduated from high school, I started school in summer of 2001 at the University of Memphis.  It was the only school I wanted to go and ever applied for.  I started off as a music(trombone) performance major.  I was in 8 different bands in the first semester.  Spring of 2001, my depression got to the point it couldn't get any worse.  I had so many experiences with the doctor, hospitals, counselling, taking 600 question psycology tests, going to meetings, and stuff.  But thanks to celexa, anti-depressant, I'm still alive happily till now.  I studied music for the first 2 years, and starting in fall 2003, I've switched to an international studies major / music minor.  In fall of 2002, I joined Japanese Culture Club on campus and made majority of my college friends.  I also started working on my dream again.  I made my own rock/pop/rap band with my college friends.  Check out our web site at http://www.angelfire.com/band2/melodywave .  I got jobs too.  I work at Tiger Den on campus where I make and sell smoothie and all kinds of coffe, espresso, and capuccino, back and cut pizza, clean, and stock potato chips.  I'm also tutoring trombone, English, and piano.  Sometimes I have a music gig in a downtown cafe or at the church, Temple of Deliverance.  I'm also trying to sell my art works, but I only sold 3 of them so far.  Check out some of my art works here at http://photos.yahoo.com/namihirama .  I think right now I'm having the best time of my life.  I'm currently a junior.  If you wanna read my live journal check out at http://www.livejournal.com/users/melodywave .