After Natsuko graduated from Waseda University, majoring in Japanese Language and Literature from the Education Department, she began her teaching career in Japan, teaching Japanese Language and Literature to high school students in Yokosuka. After several years of teaching there, she married and moved to the U.S. She then began teaching at Rutgers University. Prior to this, she had taught from the elementary to college level and had also been involved in middle management at a Japanese company. She later launched Japanese programs at Matamoras High School in PA, Grand Valley State University, Johnson Controls, and at the local Army Reserve Unit in Michigan. While living in Michigan, she obtained a master's degree in Secondary and Adult Education from Grand Valley State University.

In the summer of 1999, her family moved back to the East coast and settled down in New Jersey. The following year, she started to teach at Rutgers University and Raritan Valley Community College as an Adjunct Professor of Japanese Language. She then began teaching at Princeton High School in 2003. There she was able to develop new programs in Japanese Language from Level 1 to Level 4, forge a sister school relationship with Izumigaoka H.S. in Kanazawa, create a community-wide annual Asian Festival, and design both the East Asian Studies program and the AP Japanese program.

Natsuko now resides in Massachusetts. She enjoys walking dogs, and her newfound interest is wearing kimonos– sometimes she even wears a kimono in the classroom. She loves reading and cooking, and mostly EATING!