Gavin received a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and came to Kyoto in 2001 to take his current position as a tenured university professor of history, religious studies, and American Studies. Since 2016, he is also a Fellow at Harvard's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. His teaching and research revolve around Japan's cultural encounters with the West, particularly during the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and early Showa periods (1600-1940), and he has published on the history of foreign tourism, Protestant missionaries in Japan, and the history of Japanese fashion. He is also an expert on Kyoto geisha culture and a frequent participant in geisha entertainment. He enjoys reading, spending time with his family, and exploring with clients Kyoto's endlessly fascinating culture and history.

Karin has an M.A. from San Diego State University in Japanese Art History and is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Kansas, focusing on Edo-period paintings and prints, woodblock printed books, and 17th-century painting. She has lived in Kyoto since 1993 and has held lectureships at a number of universities, including the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, where she worked with Columbia University’s program. She is a member of Kyoto Asian Studies Group as well as a Kyoto Townhouse Association, which promotes this classic but unfortunately rapidly disappearing form of Kyoto architecture. When not lecturing, Karin enjoys attending art exhibitions and auctions as well as both rural and urban hiking.

Daniel is a Ph.D. candidate at Kyoto University studying the Sociology of Tourism. A continuation of his master's thesis, which he also completed in Kyoto, Daniel's Ph.D. studies examine how touristic ideas of Japan have evolved from the 19th century to contemporary times, and what historical events, artistic, intellectual and consumeristic movements have played a role in shaping ideas of Japan. Beyond looking at tourism through a critical lens, he also teaches about the problems of intercultural communication at Doshisha Women's College, as well as being active in organizing Japanese cultural events for international students in Kyoto. A nine-year Kyoto resident, Daniel is hugely interested in food culture both in his native Melbourne and in Japan, and is studying the latter by going to food seminars and eating out as much as possible. He has studied Japanese tea ceremony for nine years and has been learning <i>aikido</i> for eight; both practices have taught him much about Japan's spiritual side.