She did her undergaduate degree in Oriental Studies at the Australian National University before moving to Japan in 1975. She did her Masters degree at Sophia University in Tokyo (1990) and her doctorate at the University of Cambridge (2000). She spent a year at SOAS (University of London) before returning to Japan at the end of 2001. Shugendo is both her research topic and her own practice. She is married with two children (the younger of whom will do the Akinomine for the first time in 2004).