Eric and Tomoko first met on July 12, 1996 while attending the L.D.S. Temple pageant in Manti, Utah. A friend of Eric's invited him to go with her in an attempt to save him from all out, complete boredom. Tomoko and her friend just happened to be there on that same night and just happened to be at the translation desk asking for help in Japanese when Eric and his friend passed by. Eric looked over their shoulders and recognized the writing on the help sheets they had received as Japanese and offered his assistance. It was later decided that, since they both wanted to improve their language abilities, that they would get together every now and then to help each other out. After about a month of this relationship, Eric's feelings for Tomoko had grown very strong and he decided it was time to let her in on it. It came as quite a shock at first but she then informed him that she too had began to have feelings for him but wasn't crazy about American guys and didn't really want a boyfriend. Apparently there was really something there, however, because Eric was able to win her over in only one day.

Their relationship continued to grow more and more each day along with the love they had for each other. Then, on the 28th of September, after knowing more than anything that it was the right thing to do, Eric got on one knee, opened the ring box, and knocked on the door which was opened by a very surprised Tomoko only seconds later. She, of course, accepted his proposal and, to make a long story short, they were married that December 20th.

Eric was born on March 24, 1975 in Corvallis, Oregon. Before reaching his first birthday, however, his father had found a job and they found themselves in Anchorage, Alaska. They lived there for six years, another three in the fairly nearby city of Eagle River, and then found their way to Meridian, Idaho were Eric lived from the age of ten. He left home for the first extended period of time in the fall of 1993 to attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. After one year of college and at the not so ripe year of 19 he hopped on a plane for Sendai, Japan after only 2 months of actual language training. There he served a 2 year, full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He returned home in May of 96 and returned to Provo to find a job after only one month. His parents followed him to Utah a couple months later and now live an hour away in Kaysville. Eric's parents, Kent and Karen, also have three other children, Kristen (18), Scott (15), and Matt (14).

Tomoko was born on April 11, 1970 in Komaki, Japan (a small city near Nagoya located in the southern part of the Aichi prefecture) At the age of ten her family moved to the ajoining city, Inuyama, into the same house that her uncle had just been living in. After graduating from High School she worked in a bank for three years and then for a company called Daifuku. She saved up the majority of her money and looked towards the future. She met the L.D.S. missionaries in April of 92 and was baptized into the "Mormon" Church the following December. After only a little over a year she too, using the money she had saved up, served the church as a full-time missionary in Hokkaidou, Japan (a lot colder than she was used to!) for a year and a half. She returned home to Inuyama in October of 95 and then headed for America that following December 19th (A year and a day before the wedding). Tomoko's parents, Kazuhiro and Hiroko, have one older son, Masayuki, who was married in June of 96.

Come December of 2004, Tomoko and Eric will have been married for 8 years and currently have 4 children. Zach (6), Justin (3), Kristelle (2), and Tyler (newborn). Yoroshiku o-negai itashimasu.