Nitobe Inazō
Upon her return to Kokusei Jogakko, Nitobe Inazō encouraged Kawai to travel to the United States to study. She first spent time in Tokyo studying with Tsuda Ume and was awarded a scholarship from an American committee which Tsuda had founded in Philadelphia. Kawai moved to the United States at the age of 21 and enrolled in an American preparatory school. She entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania 1900, graduating in 1904.