International Yoga Asana Champion 2011

Yukari Miwa is no stranger to Mika Yoga Wear, but her recent world wide tour has finally brought her back to California for the International Yoga Asana Championship 2012. For those who don't know, Yukari is the female International Yoga Asana Champion for 2011, a bikram yoga teacher, product development adviser with Quick Silver Japan, and all around awesome person!

Demonstration at Bikram Yoga SLO

Anyone who sees her performances are dumbfounded by the skill, balance, and flexibility that she possesses. We were lucky enough to have her teach a special class in Japanese & receive a quick preview of her Asana demonstration at Bikram Yoga SLO.

The class  was PACKED with delighted yogis & yoginis. Her enthusiasm and passion for yoga is contagious & left so many of us at the studio feeling totally inspired & eager to learn more. She even took the time to break down many of the postures and explain the importance of form & precision."Stomach in, stomach in, stomach in!"were her favorite words of choice! And it shows- she may be teeny but her abs are STRONG. She definitely lives by this motto!

When asked what her yoga philosophy was, I'll never forgot what she said, "I like to always listen to the teacher & learn more every day because sometime we need guidance & corrections & it is very important to listen to instructors in every class."  Her humble approach is something that should be truly admired. No matter where we are at, there is always MORE to learn...   Watch her demo video below:

Pretty impressive right? The more we got to spend time with Yukari the more we fell in love with her and the more we were impressed. How many people do you know that can do this!? Did you notice the leotard she was wearing in the demo?!? That is actually our very first leotard design! Thank Yukari for being the 1st to test it out & for inspiring us to create a leotard! We will launch this style later this fall.

Outdoor Photo Shoot

While we had some time with Yukari, we wanted to get some photos of her in Mika out in the wild. So we headed out to the hills of San Luis Obispo and shot some awesome photos of her doing her thing.

Thank you again Yukari for sharing your time, spirit & passion for yoga with us!