LEZA LOWITZ is the director of Sun and Moon Yoga. After decades as a successful freelance writer, editor, and university instructor (Tokyo University and Rikkyo University), she came to the realization that her hectic lifestyle was burning her out, and that she wanted a more spiritual relationship to the world. Was there a way to “do” less and “be” more? Was there a way to heal oneself and re-connect with herself and others in the world? Looking for answers, she took her first yoga class in 1989. Five years later, she began to study with Veera Wibaux, an Iyengar-trained French mime, and in 1996, she began intensive study with Jill Minye, a powerful Kripalu teacher.
Lowitz began to teach in 1999, and became certified at the White Lotus Foundation in 2000. Since then, she has studied with many amazing teachers. Among her main influences are Ganga White and Tracey Rich, who pioneered the art of Yoga Vinyasa flow, Jill Minye, Max Thomas, Steve North, Simone Simon, Gaye Abbott, Shiva Rea, Georg Feuerstein, Ted Lafferty, Yvonne Jacques, singer Gina Sala and Dharma teacher Amy Skezas. She has also completed teacher trainings with Shiva Rea and Srivatsa Ramaswami in Vinyasa Krama, and Paul Grilley and Suzee Grilley in Yin Yoga. Lowitz has been to India twice to deepen her yoga studies. In the 1990s, Lowitz was Director of the Dillon Beach Yoga Circle and Manager of the Yoga Research and Education Center (YREC) and studied yoga philosophy, history and scripture with scholar Georg Feuerstein, YREC’s founder. She taught at Asana Yoga and wrote for Yoga Journal and other publications. Through Yoga, Leza rekindled her long-standing interest in Buddhism, meditation and Eastern philosophy, which she first encountered as a teenager in Berkeley, California, and which she maintains to this day. Her interest in healing and serving others (Seva) led her to study more about the subtle energetic body. She took many master courses with Roselight and graduated from the Light Body Training, learning to work with the subtle energies of the body. Lowitz is also a certified Level II Reiki practitioner and studied Qi Gong with Master Xi Jing Li and has completed basic Thai Yoga Massage training with Jonas Westring. She is a registered instructor with Yoga Alliance Asia Pacific and leads workshops and teacher trainings internationally.
While running Sun and Moon Yoga, Lowitz continues her work as a writer, seeing the creative path as one of healing, teaching, evolution, and divine inspiration, much like yoga. Lowitz has published a dozen books, including the best-selling book, Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By, and Sacred Sanskrit Words: For Yoga, Chant and Meditation (with Reema Datta). She is also an editor of Buddhist and spiritual books for a major publishing house in Tokyo. Her yoga classes are inspired by many schools and influences, delighting in a non-dogmatic, healing and creative approach that is deeply rooted in Advaita (non-dualism). This interplay of the physical, spiritual, devotional, intuitive and creative is a reflection of her belief that life is a work of art that is always expanding and evolving, and that our birthright is freedom, bliss, and union with the divine. She encourages students to open to life and then to devote themselves to helping others. To read an interview with Leza, please see:
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/20-inspiration.html
STACEY KRUMENACKER
Stacey was first introduced to yoga in 1997 when she took a Hatha Yoga class as a student at Boston University. After graduating and moving to NYC she practiced Jivamukti Yoga with David Life and was introduced to a more spiritual yogic experience. She began to witness a transformation within herself from her yoga practice. Her interest in yoga and love of travel brought her to India in 2000. She went to Mysore where she learned Vinyasa Ashtanga Yoga and Pranayama from BNS Iyengar, and completed her first Goenka Vipassana Meditation course in Bangalore. She completed her second course in Kyoto in 2004. Stacey moved to Japan in 2002 and found that no matter how unfamiliar her surroundings, yoga offered her a sense of being at home. She completed her 200 Hour Yoga Alliance Certification at It’s Yoga in San Francisco in 2006 and her Restorative Teachers Training at Sun and Moon Yoga in 2007. She completed a basic Thai Massage Training with Jonas Westring in 2007, and has studied Anusara yoga with Lois Nesbitt and John Friend in Tokyo and Taipei. She has been deeply touched by the heart-opening practice of Anusara Yoga. Stacey brings this experience of Vinyasa, Ashtanga and Anusara to her teaching, which is a continuous evolution based on her experience of yoga both on and off the mat. She believes that by finding greater personal peace through yoga, we can contribute to greater peace throughout the world.
ACO was born in Nagoya, and graduated from Aichi University with a degree in Economics. She also has a degree in Psychology from Portland State University. After studying Hatha Yoga at a yoga studio in Japan, ACO studied Iyengar Yoga, Power Yoga, Raja Yoga and various types of bodywork at many studios and workshops throughout Japan and internationally. In addition to teaching yoga at Sun and Moon and Gold’s Gym, she also teaches original-method private lessons that are a fusion of yoga, Mat Pilates, chiropractic work and other disciplines. Her forte is teaching Hatha Vinyasa flow. Her original classes always incorporate what she has learned from bodywork workshops -working to increase strength by activating the core muscles and avoiding injury to the body. She teaches in both English and Japanese.
ACO is also active in both the print and TV media, and is editor of a yoga book for women office workers called “Office Yoga Anywhere, Anytime: A Shape-up Guide for Women” from YU-MOOK, Yu Publishing (Japanese), a DVD set entitled “ACO YOGA” with 4 discs, text, yoga mat and incense. (In Japanese) which can be found at: www.acoyoga.com
AKIKO MIURA Akiko has practiced traditional hatha yoga and pranayama since 1996. She has a wide range of experience and ability in many styles, and has pursued intensive studies and training in Bikram yoga, traditional Hatha yoga, Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, power yoga and Gyrokinesis. She was first introduced to Kripalu yoga in Tokyo in 2004 and discovered that she felt a natural connection and attunement with the Kripalu style. Inspired to want teach the Kripalu method, she went to the Kripalu Center for yoga and health in Massachusetts and received her 500-Hour Kripalu yoga teacher certification in 2007. Her experience with Kripalu has led her to the clear understanding that yoga is more than a purely physical pursuit, but rather, the development of inner awareness. She has been able to apply all her yogic knowledge to shift her focus from the aim of achieving “perfect” postures to exploring a more meditative and spiritual inner process. Through moving meditation, she feels she can obtain an objective, in-the-moment perspective. Akiko feels this the most holistic and beneficial process in the practice of yoga, and she wants to share this knowledge with others, helping her students live healthier lives.
SHOGO OKETANI (Self-Defense/Ki Energy Healing and Power) was born in Tokyo and graduated from Keio University with a degree in Philosophy and Literature. He studied Judo and Kendo from childhood, and began studying Karate as a teenager. Later, he received his black belt from the Gensei School of Karate in Tokyo, where he also taught Karate. (He is a Third Degree Black Belt). He also studied North Shaolinquan Martial Arts from the Japanese master Ryu Meiko who was born and grew up in Taiwan.
In 1995, Oketani moved to Northern California, where he worked as a freelance translator, poet and fiction writer. He worked in the high-tech field and taught translation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. With Lowitz, he received a fellowship in translation from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature from the Donald Keene Center at Columbia University for their translations of the poetry of Ayukawa Nobuo (Kaya Press, 2006). His deep understanding of Buddhism and martial arts philosophy, combined with his love of language and words led him to write Designing with Kanji: For Surface, Skin, and Spirit (Stone Bridge Press), co-authored with Lowitz. He moved back to Tokyo in 2003, when he and Leza opened Sun and Moon Yoga.
HATSUMI ISHIKAWA (StudioManager) was born in Nagasaki. After working as a florist in Fukuoka for a decade, she moved to Tokyo. In 2003, she traveled throughout America for several months. A long-time ballet practitioner and exercise buff, Hatsumi discovered yoga at Sun & Moon in 2005 and quickly fell in love with it! She became the Studio Manager in the fall of 2006 and appeared as a yoga model in the ACO YOGA DVD. She has been to Mysore, India where she studied Ashtanga yoga with Sri Pattabhi Jois and his grandson, Sharath. She continues her daily yoga practice and is also currently studying English.
EM BETTINGER Em has always been fascinated by the body and movement, and by exploring how far the body can go. She studied contemporary dance and choreography at The Laban Centre for Movement and Dance and Middlesex University, gaining a B.A (Hons) in Dance Performance. It was while studying dance that she was introduced to yoga. Em returned to yoga when she hit a dark period in her life, and wanted to make positive changes. She walked through the door at Sun and Moon and knew she had found her sanctuary. Returning to the yogic path has brought an overall life transformation, including becoming a raw vegan foodist. The teachers that have inspired her include Leza Lowitz, Basia Lipska and Paul Dallaghan. She is a graduate of the Sun and Moon’s restorative teacher training and Sun and Moon’s 100-hour teacher training course. She also graduated from David Swenson’s Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training Course, and completed a basic Thai Yoga massage Training with Jonas Westring. Her own practice draws on Ashtanga, Vinyasa Flow and dance. Em would like students to explore, release, experience inner and outer transformation–and have fun!
TOMO KOBORI
Since 1994, Tomo traveled around Japan as a snowboarder, then discovered yoga in 2004. She has been practicing yoga for 3 years at Sun & Moon, and wants to continue to live and grow with yoga. Through her practice, she noticed that she changed everyday, and she learned the importance of being in the moment. Her hope is to inspire others to enjoy yoga through her classes. Her intention as a teacher is to set a meditative enviroment in which people can observe their own subtle changes. Tomo attended her first 10-day Goenka Vipassana meditation retreat in 2005, graduated from the 2007 Sun & Moon Restorative Yoga TTC, and completed the 200-Hour Sivananda Yoga TTC in the Himalayas in 2007. She is a certified Yoga Instructor registered with Yoga Alliance and has attended four Vipassana meditation retreats.
SANTIAGO LAUTZ (Pilates) Santiago was born in Argentina and has also lived in Germany. For the past ten years, he has been working as a personal trainer in Madrid. He taught at several gyms and institutions including the sports center of the Spanish senate, as well as working as masseur in his own studio and teaching physical activity to senior citizens. He discovered the Pilates system in Madrid and become fascinated by this training program and the changes in the body that occurred through this practice. He got his Pilates PPS1 certificate in Spain and later moved to Japan. In addition to Pilates, Santiago is also a grey belt (First Instructor level) in Pakua Kung Fu and has a First Aid Degree issued by the Spanish Red Cross. He also currently teaches Pilates at EFFIE and Mellow Beaute studios in Tokyo.
MASAAKI NAKAJIMA
In his quest for a “natural lifestyle,” a main theme of his life, Masaaki was introduced to yoga while working for environmental organizations as an officer on climate change issues. He was entranced by the profundity of yoga, not only as a blueprint for one’s personal life quest, but also as a means to nurture a peaceful and compassionate mind, which can help one live in harmony with people and nature. Through this awakening awareness, he became totally committed to working with yoga to contribute to the amelioration of social and environmental problems and promoting individual personal development.
Masaaki’s aim is to provide yoga classes, freely integrating elements from various Hatha yoga styles. He hopes his classes help people feel a sense of peacefulness inside and compassion to others.
He completed various teacher training courses, and is a certified Kripalu Yoga, Green Yoga, Sivananda and Tibetan Heart Yoga teacher. He graduated from Sun and Moon’s 100-hour teacher training. He is also a certified Organic Concierge, and an English/Japanese translator. His website is “purna flow”.
SARA SHIVANI
Sara-Shivani is a certified yoga alliance instructor, creator of a holistic health program for women, certified relaxation body-worker, musical theater performer for children, and television actress. She was born and raised in Australia but has lived in Japan for the last decade. She has trained in India, China, Australia and Japan and is known for her innovative guidance in presenting eastern modalities of health and fitness in a simple, fun and practical way. Shivani`s lifework is “living yoga~`Living Shizen“`. She specializes in creating holistic health programs based on the theme SHIZEN-which means nature and natural in Japanese. Her approach is featured in many national yoga, health and business magazines and newspapers and she also leads workshops and retreats internationally. In her classes and workshops Shivani draws upon all the different styles of yoga she has trained including ashtanga, vinyasa, restorative and yin yoga. She guides participants beyond the common poses and breathing techniques and shows how the philosophy and science of yoga can be used in daily life for holistic wellness. She draws on her personal experience of creating and cultivating her health after years of suffering from asthma, allergies, chronic back pain, and poor circulation. Whenever possible Shivani teaches outside on the beach or in the forests near her home in Kamakura or energy spots around Japan. She is also passionate about sharing with people ‘life force energy’ (prana) techniques inspired by Tantra and Toa Yoga practices. Her `lifeshops` include various exercises that enliven the sensual nature of the body, increase energy and create deeper states of relaxation, pleasure and emotional stability. For more information about Shivani see www.livingshizen.com
JUNG GWEON
Jung Gweon has been teaching yoga for 7 years. She is a certified Yoga Alliance instructor, specializing in yoga for pregnant women, healing yoga, Thai massage, Tai Chi and Bikram yoga. She has also worked as a counselor, helping people in various challenging educational and social circumstances. Like most others, Jung’s journey into yoga has been a process of personal growth and self-discovery. Seven years ago, as a university student in South Korea, Jung began her relationship with yoga on the physical level, but became disillusioned with teaching the physical elements of asana only. She eventually began to feel as if she were lying to her students and moved towards dance therapy while in post-graduate studies. One day in a body therapy session, Jung found herself in tears, distraught about the lack of meaning in her life. In October 2007, Jung came to Japan in search of herself at this turning point. Soon she returned to yoga and began to explore her own deepest feelings about herself and everyone around her. Her experience of freedom and communication has grown ever further now that she has begun teaching in Japan. Immersing herself in yoga, Jung still maintains a balance by practicing yoga with different teachers in Iyengar, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga traditions. Jung’s teaching style is loving, supportive and creative, incorporating a balance of yoga postures, movement, Tai chi, healing yoga and breathing.
MILES MAEDA
Miles Maeda has been a teacher of yoga and meditation for the past 14 years. He has developed practice centers in Chicago, San Diego, Portland and Long Beach, and has worked with students all over the world. Miles specializes in the practical application of yoga in daily life, creating with his students intentional focus in health, education, creativity and community.
Miles’ comprehensive training encompasses the evolving styles of yoga as they have existed on the planet over the past 18,000 years. His intensive studies range from the classical Indian yogas (Hatha and Kundalini Yoga) to the East Asian traditions (Tao Yoga) to the ancient schools of Central Asia (Tibetan/Bön Yoga, Tantra, Sufism). He continues to enrich his education and experience through modern movement systems like Pilates, GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS®.
As an educator, Miles offers teacher training through the World Evolution school of yoga as an E-RYT/RYT 500 certified teacher with Yoga Alliance. His current classes and workshops introduce the rich diversity of yoga styles and provide useful applications for practice in every day life. Ultimately, as a teacher, Miles’ goal is to be an example of what he teaches as well as to create opportunities for students to deepen their own experience, understanding and connection to practice.
TOMOKO KAWAHARA
(Staff Interpreter/Translator)
As a child, Tomoko lived in France for several years, and has been intrigued by different cultures ever since. When she was in high school, she lived in the US as a year-long exchange student, and later went to the UK for another year of studies in college. Using her English skills, Tomoko built a career in planning, sales and marketing. Due to overwork and stress, she was hospitalized for a lumber hernia and began to practice yoga seriously as rehabilitation. It didn’t take long to realize that yoga worked not only for the body but also for the heart and mind. Yoga provided a major turning point in her life. Tomoko’s understanding and perceptions towards yoga completely changed after she started taking classes at Sun & Moon, and she realized in a direct, experiential way that yoga was not just what we do on the mat.
Tomoko is currently working for a major advertising agency as a marketing planner and is also an interpreter and translator in the yoga industry. Tomoko sees interpreting as a ‘union’; a union of the speaker and herself, and a union of the speaker and the audience. For her, yoga interpreting is another form of yoga ‘off the mat’. It has become one of her most important spiritual practices.
GUEST TEACHERS/TEACHER TRAINING FACULTY
LUCY ROBERTS
Lucy has been practicing yoga for 10 years, her most influential and long-term teachers being nature and silence. She teaches Yoga Arts international teacher trainings as well as holds workshops, retreats and general classes in Japan. For the past 4 years Lucy was co-directing Funky Forest retreat centre in Byron Bay, Australia, facilitating monthly 3-day silent Retreats combining organic juice fasting with yoga and meditation.
Lucy is currently studying craniosacral bodywork and through it discovering a new level of sensitivity in both her practice and teaching. Lucy’s teaching style is dynamic, fluid, feminine and creative. She empowers students to discover beauty and joy in their practice through the balance of strength and grace, flexibility and stability, spontaneity and discipline.
Nick Hsu– “Chops”
Born in Chiayi, Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, Canada, “Chops” (Nick Hsu) returned to Taiwan in 2002. His background in competitive sports led him to a job as a personal trainer. After a few years and more than a few injuries, Chops was introduced to yoga and immediately felt a deep connection to the practice. By replacing “competition” with “connection,” Chops continued to enjoy the intensity of physical practice while finding the joy of self-understanding that yoga provided. Through his first teacher John Ang, Chops learned to see beyond the physical mechanics of the body and to feel the possibilities that the journey of yoga and self-discovery could provide. In the years since, Chops has become both an avid student and teacher. He currently teaches at Pure Yoga in Taipei, and travels around Asia attending workshops and teacher trainings. Chops’s practice is deeply rooted in the heart-centred and alignment-based philosophy of Anusara Yoga, and he is currently studying with Patrick Creelman and Chris Arcucci. Chops feels blessed to be on the path of yoga, to be in the service of empowering others to improve their lives, open their hearts and gain a truer understanding of life.
TED LAFFERTY
Ted Lafferty is a teacher with the Yoga Studies Institute and is certified in Jivamukti Yoga and Tibetan Heart Yoga. He has taught both yoga asana and yoga philosophy in Europe, Asia and North America. He also teaches nutrition and runs a weight-loss program that allows people to use their spiritual path to achieve their physical goals. He is the teacher in a Yoga DVD by “Good Balance.” Ted spends his time between his home in Canada and traveling to study and teach. For more information about the Yoga Studies Institute, please see: http://www.yogastudiesinstitute.org/
YVONNE JAQUES
Yvonne Jaques is a faculty member of Diamond Mountain University in Arizona, a graduate of the Asian Classics Institute’s eighteen courses paralleling a course of study at a Tibetan Buddhist monastic institution, and a registered yoga teacher and Staff Instructor of the Yoga Studies Institute. She is honored to teach Tibetan Heart Yoga in the lineage of her Heart Teachers Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally. A movement therapist and C.H.E.K Practitioner (Level 3) in Vancouver since 1991, she is the founder of Wellness Works Integrated Health Services where she seeks to serve others by looking at the entire being as a holistic entity. Through an understanding of how control systems integrate and produce our moment to moment and long term physical, emotional, mental and spiritual reality, Yvonne creates workshops and customizes movement therapy and yoga programs based on individual assessment. She also teaches motor control re-education and functional movement including Diane Lee’s “The Pelvic Girdle” and Linda-Joy Lee’s ‘Connecting to Your Core’ and “Postpartum Health for Moms’ course.
ANATOLE NGUYEN
Anatole Nguyen received his first yoga certification from Bikram and Rajashree Choudhury and continued to study with Shri Dharma Mittra, completing four teacher trainings, teaching and assisting at Dharma Yoga Center and receiving a blessing to teach directly from Dharma Mittra. Anatole is in the fifth year of a six year advanced Buddhist studies program and has also been training in Tibetan Heart Yoga since 2005. An accomplished raw foods chef, he is a passionate dj, and has been a martial artist for seventeen years and completed a traditional apprenticeship in dance with Odissi master Asako Takami. Known for his vibrant, intuitive teaching style, Anatole has taught extensively in New York and around the world. He is currently based at Diamond Mountain in Arizona, where he teaches yoga, meditation and dance and codirects The Delicious Evolution, a project that educates and promotes the pleasure, transformation and values of healthy eating.
LAUREN PETERSON
Lauren Peterson is a nationally recognized yoga practitioner, yoga model, and teacher living in Malibu, Calif. She is one of the few advanced (Fourth Series) Ashtanga yoga practitioners in the U.S. Lauren had the privilege of studying with and assisting Chuck Miller for over 10 years. In addition to her open asana classes, she also started a yoga program designed for women struggling with eating disorders. She has been featured in many magazines such as Yoga Journal and Cosmopolitan, and on television in the PBS series “Healing Quest.” Lauren is the creator of “The Yogi’s Companion,” a yoga practice CD, which was chosen “Editor’s Choice” by Yoga Journal. She is honored to have modeled for a Yoga asana book including Rodney Yee, Richard Freeman and Patricia Walden, as well as in and on the covers of yoga calendars and magazines. Her client base includes many entertainers and athletes. She sees yoga as a lifelong journey with incalculable benefits.