Work hard! Just keep working hard until you can do something you want to do! We all progress at different speeds and in different ways, so be patient and keep working hard!

My biggest musical dream is to keep playing all my life. There's nothing bigger than that and that's very challenging because you have to satisfy yourself at every stage.

The way to respect all the people I love is to eat the music, have it in my blood and bones, and try to explore it in as much different ways as possible to create my own identity.

Satisfying yourself requires challenges because when you come to a certain point, you're not happy anymore. You don't feel happy with the way you played one year ago, you have to always make progress. So that's a challenge.

I started to listen to Japanese jazz musicians when I went to high school. Some people I listened to were Yosuke Yamashita, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe.

Once I meet the piano, I have no other choice, because I need to have a good date right! So I am trying to please the piano to have the best outcome.

Whenever I do a performance I always hope it is the best day of my life. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.