Certified Native Japanese Instructor with 22+ Years of Experience | Personalized Lessons for Real Results

Prior to my lessons with Toshi, I'd been taught Japanese for 2 years in high school. I'd learned many nouns and sentences, but all were very basic, and I mostly learned how to repeat what was told to me. Toshi 100% catered his lessons to my goals, and taught me far more about sentence structure and language forms than I had in a large class. Definitely recommend!

Toshi sensei makes every lesson unique and fun! He is engaging and it is such a joy to work with. I can not imagine having to work with anyone else through my Japanese journey. ありがとございました。

I've been taking lessons with Toshi for almost two years now, and have enjoyed every lesson we've had. Toshi does a great job at teaching the full spectrum of Japanese: grammar, vocabulary, hiragana/katakana/kanji, and the differing forms based on level of politeness in a conversation.

Toshi is an excellent teacher for students of any skill level! He's very knowledgable, friendly, and does a great job including information about Japanese culture to help teach the language.

Toshi is fantastic. My 11 year old daughter has learned so much in just one month's time, with only one 45 minute lesson per week. He is kind and patient, and when she gets off topic, he knows how to reel the student back in to the Japanese lesson at hand! Definitely recommend Toshi Sensei!

Amazing and very patient! He explains grammar and context very well and extremely helpful with everyday Japanese word usage. Highly recommend and appreciate him!

So cool and personable, and you can tell he genuinely cares and knows what he is talking about. The best possible first lesson I could have asked for. I loved it! So looking forward to see how this goes!!!

I’m totally new to Japanese and I was very nervous. I'm finding learning Japanese is fun! Toshi is very patient and he is helping me create a plan forward. I have been working hard and have kind of gotten Hiragana, but I need a lot more practice. I am able to read and write some words and in our lesson today I spoke my first complete Japanese sentence. Thank you, Toshi for your help and for making my Japanese journey fun! :D

Mr. Morikawa is a very understanding and great teacher I could not be more happy with any other teacher

Toshi is the best teacher in the world and I recommend having him as a teacher, he is really funny and kind to hang out with and overall Japanese is really fun.

I feel very fortunate to have Coach Toshi Morikawa teaching e Japanese. I am very senior and was not sure whether or not this was a foolish undertaking. Coach Toshi has made the process a lot of fun, and to my surprise i find I am able to speak a little Japanese, which the Japanese student staying with me actually understands 😊. I have found Coach Toshi very encouraging and supportive and I really appreciate the lessons that are specifically designed for me. I also enjoy the information he includes with each lesson about the Japanese culture. I can wholeheartedly recommend him as your coach,

I met with Toshi-sensei weekly for a year and a half and every single week was a blast. I have never had a 1-on-1 tutor before so I was a bit scared at the start, but he is incredibly friendly and welcoming. We started out with basic conversations and scenarios but soon moved on to grammar, kanji, and more. I will be going to Japan this winter (open borders woo!!!) and spend quite a while by myself. Thanks to Toshi-sensei I feel prepared and comfortable doing this trip. I am going into my first year of university this year minoring in Japanese, all because I had so much fun learning with Toshi-sensei. I couldn't recommend anyone more if you are looking for an excellent Japanese teacher. ありがとうございます！敏先生は一番先生です！

Very informative and really tries to get you to the level you want to be at. From business standpoint to casual. Always trying to make me understand that switching from polite to super polite and casual depending on the situation is key for my requirements. Also he tries to make the lesson's intriguing and fun as possible. He likes to gauge the level you want to be at first then progresses to it at a reasonable pace depending on how comfortable you are! とし先生、ありがとうございました。よろしくお願いします！

I've been taking classes with Toshi since Summer this year and he's been great! He teaches in a way that makes it easy to follow and keeps each lesson organized. He listens and works with you to reach your goal, whatever it may be. I'm really happy!

Very informative, iv been taking Toshi’s one on one classes along with a college class and I usually learn more from one class than I do from 2 of my 2 hour college classes. Toshi is also very supportive and will make sure that you can reach the level of Japanese fluency that you want at the space that you are comfortable. ありがとございます、とし先生

Out of all the tutors I've been with over the years, Toshi is by far the best. He is able to take the most difficult concepts and break it down to where anyone can understand which is something that most teachers aren't good at. All and all Toshi is very knowledgeable at what he does as well as understanding and accommodating. Toshi is celebrity tutor you can't go wrong with.

Toshi was a great teacher! Very patient with teaching and answering all the pop culture questions I had throughout the months!

Really great teacher. Easy to learn with and is very good at explaining the cultural aspects of the Japanese language.

This review is an update from our last review 2 years ago... 2.5 years ago we were fortunate enough to find Toshi to teach our son Japanese. Our son started out as a high school student wanting to understand anime and his video games in their original language. Our son is legally blind so a talented and creative teacher was needed. Since then he has enjoyed learning the language with Toshi so much that he has formed professional goals to become a translator. Our son is now heading to university in the fall and will be majoring in Japanese Studies. The program includes a semester abroad in Japan and an internship with a major Japanese corporation. His goal is long term so he will continue to work with Toshi alongside his college studies to reach his goals. Toshi has always taken our son seriously and has adjusted his teaching program as his goals expanded. Toshi’s lessons are still a highlight of the week and it continuously surprises us to hear our son speak the language so beautifully. Our long term investment of lessons with Toshi has been very successful and such a positive experience. We highly recommend Toshi!

Toshi is a great teacher that not only teaches regular Japanese, but about Japanese cultures and things you may not know or find in textbooks. Out of any of the Japanese teachers, I recommend him.

Our son loves working with Toshi! He looks forward to each lesson. Toshi does a great job making the lessons fun and integrating material that our son shows an interest in. He is awesome!

The lessons are carefully suited for your individual level, which is greatly appreciated. They're also fun, and practical, rather than too conventional. However, depending on your goals, he is open to teach you in various ways. If you want to learn practical conversation, you can do that with him, if you want to learn textbook stuff to pass JLPT etc., you can do that with him too. His investment is clear from things like his videos and careful organization of your personal curriculum. Like any study, you will have to study a lot on your own to reach fluency, but the carefully-tailored guidance is invaluable and very respectable. There are many things I've encountered on my own that I wouldn't be able to understand without being able to ask and talk about them, and I can know if I'm on the right track in general. Be open about what you need and it'll be very helpful.

My son is learning words, writing, and reading and he loves Toshi. He gets very excited when he knows it's tutor day and we have not seen this excitement out of him since he was in a Japanese school... Thank you, Toshi

My son absolutely enjoyed his Japanese lesson with Toshi and is looking forward to his weekly lessons with him. He is well prepared, patient and very knowledgeable. We go lucky with Toshi.

My 12 year old son takes Japanese with Toshi weekly for an hour. He has enjoyed the lessons from day one. Toshi is a gifted teacher, and my son appreciates quick breaks during the lesson (it keeps him engaged for longer). My son says Toshi is a nice balance of serious and fun, and he also says what a great teacher he is. Toshi is supportive, encouraging and fun. What more could you ask for?!

Toshi is very knowledgeable and very patient with my 12 year old, he's always happy and smiling and leaves my daughter excited for the next lesson :)