Misa Sugiura: Hello. My name is Misa Sugiura. My last name, Sugiura, can be difficult for English speakers because the letter combinations are really unusual in English. In fact, for the first 25 years of my life, I was so used to hearing other Americans say my last name incorrectly that I didn't know how to pronounce it correctly myself. I could only say it in Japanese, Sugiura. Finally, I had to ask my mom how she pronounced it. The trick is to break it up into two parts and say all the letters, Sugiura. Sugi means cedar, like the tree, and ura means bay, so Sugiura, Sugiura, cedar bay.