Elina G. Hamilton 's maternal grandparents moved to Japan in the 1950 s as missionaries. Her grandmother, Eleanor , was one of the first to teach at the Yokohama International School and raised three daughters in the Yokohama region.
Her mother, Ronaele , inspired no doubt by her own mother's teaching, studied to become a teacher herself. After completeing college, she returned to Japan where she taught elementary school at a language school in Karuizawa. It was here where her mother met her father, Daniel , who was learning Japanese. They were married in Karuizawa in 1983 .
Their first-born daughter, Elina grew up in the mountains of Nagano . She attended Japanese School and learned to love the beauty of this culture deeply. She won many school awards for her Japanese calligraphy and often came home with perfect scores on her Kanji tests. Spelling, on the other hand, was a little less successful.