Motoko has enchanted audiences of all ages since becoming a professional storyteller in 1993. She trained with the master mime artist, Tony Montanaro and the renowned Appalachian storyteller, Elizabeth Ellis. Her repertoire includes Asian folktales, Rakugo and Zen tales, ghost stories, mime vignettes as well as oral memoirs from her childhood in Osaka and her life as an immigrant in the United States. In 2017 she won the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award.