Yoshiki of X JAPAN did it again.

This time Yoshiki composed the theme song for Golden Globe Award of the United States for the first time in the history of Golden Globe Award.  Yoshiki says that it’s such an honor to do that, and he added that he never dreamed this kind of event over himself when he started X JAPAN.

Yoshiki is already recognized as the icon of Asian rock stars, but fans and people around him know his talent is not limited only in rock music.  Yoshiki’s talent has no border.

Together with the increasing popularity, Yoshiki once composed a song for Emperor of Japan.  It means, at that moment, nobody in Japan can deny his irreplaceable talent of music. Also Junichiro Koizumi, the ex-prime minister of Japan, often said he is a fan of X JAPAN. After all, Prime Minister Koizumi invited Yoshiki to the welcome meeting for American President, George Bush in Japan.

As we all know, X JAPAN broke up in 1997. However, their fans never forgot their music.  When they got back in front of us as X JAPAN by reunion, lords of fans filled the concert stadiums of Japan in 2007.

More than 35 countries gave them concert offers soon after the reunion. This is really incredible.  Who imagined this phenomena when they said ” that’s it ” in 1997?

Yoshiki writes super hard rock music, moreover, he also writes tear-dropping beautiful songs that never leave from human heart.

He is already in the middle of 40′s in his age.  But he never looks old.  Anything related with Yoshiki, or X JAPAN never gets old.  Fans know it.

Today a Sumo wrestler, Baruto ( Balt) got the victory in the 1st season of Sumo series in Japan. It’s the first championship for Baruto, also for Sumo wrestler from Estonia.

It’s still in the middle of the champion battle race, as today is the 13th day of 15 day competition,   he won championship with no loss without waiting for the final day match.

Congratulations !

It’s easy to suppose how his life was hard in this far east land without knowing language or custom of Japan.  Now he speaks fluent Japanese and behaves like a champion in a gentle and traditional way that Sumo champions should be.

I hope fans in his country, Estonia, also is glad to hear this news.

News says that a Japanese baseball pitcher, Yu Darvish, finally had an agreement on the contract with Texas Rangers with 60 million dollars for 6 years.

Japanese fans seem very glad to know this news,  although some of his fans would miss him as they can’t see his pitching live in Japanese stadiums.

Many Japanese players went across the Pacific Ocean to Major League Baseball of the USA.  Among them, I personally think Darvish is the most expected player with such ability on both sense in physically and mentally.

He controls himself to construct ideal body structure for best pitching form, and it’s carried out under perfect planning targeting on the playing term in a year.  He is a given talent player indeed, but we know he is at the same time smart in achieving his ideal results.

It’s fact that we are deeply impressed to see his play.  He has various types of pitching.  Fast ball is amazing, also carve, slider, sinker, and more wondrous breaking balls leave us stunned.

HIdeo Nomo was also a fabulous pitcher,  however,  Darvish could top the record of Hideo Nomo in the Major League baseball.  Daisuke Matsuzaka went to Boston Redsox with high expectation some years ago but no good result since then.  I didn’t expect him at all, at the time, I wondered why many said Daisuke Matsuzaka would be great in the USA.  Apparently Darvish is far greater than Daisuke Matsuzaka.

We all expect Darvish with much loving support.

To be honest, I didn’t know until recent days about Sora Aoi.   Recently she often appears on international news on internet and she seems to be very famous ( or popular ) especially in China.

I don’t often watch TV in Japan, so she might be on Japanese TV programs sometimes but as far as I know, I’ve never seen her on TV.

A news says that she has career as a  Japanese AV ( adult video ) actress in the past, and if it’s true, that might be a reason for less exposure in Japanese TV programs.

Probably she has been focused in the magazines or some fans’ media also in Japan.  Actually I found some videos of her works on YouTube. They seem to have been uploaded by Japanese fans.

If the news is true, she is the most famous or popular Japanese girl in China now.  I don’t know the reason for that popularity in China.

I remember that in China some Japanese stars, such as Momoe Yamaguchi and Noriko Ssakai, became famous through TV programs of Japan.  But the news says that Sara Aoi is the most famous ever in China among Japanese girls.

I will try to collect more information about her from now on.

Ayumi Hamasaki, a Japanese female singer, was reported today to divorce her husband soon.

Detail of the news is not enough.

About a year ago, she got married an Austria born actor. The happy time for two of them were for 1 year only, and Ayumi Hamasaki expressed the reason for this result is because she does not want to leave Japan especially in this timing after the heavy damage of earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

They seem to have been planing to live in the USA together.  Ayumi says that for the first time, it could be a kind of matter of place to live.  If so, it could be overcome by traveling between Japan and the USA.  But at the end, she says she noticed it’s an issue of minds of the two.   It means she and her husband are no longer in love for each other.

I’m not sure about this news in the detail,  so this information is just a quotation from Japanese news service.

Some months ago last year, a news arrived from L.A and it said that Yoshiki of X JAPAN would have a radio program in L.A.

I think it already started, as I didn’t check it, I hope it’s still running OK.

I found one of the radio programs which was  recorded with Toshi, the vocalist of X JAPAN, as a special guest.

As far as I hear that, it seems a good program for X JAPAN and Yoshiki fans.  The talking style is pretty casual and he also plays the piano suddenly in the program.  That’s cool for listeners.

On the recorded program, Toshi also sang the new song, Jade, accompanied by Yoshiki’s piano.  Toshi’s vocal is really beautiful in this program, although it’s not the live act or recording sound, Toshi can gives us his amazing voice right away at request.  It’s an amazing thing, as we know, it’s also really hard to keep high note of X JAPAN songs whenever the vocal play is requested.  But Toshi is capable on any requests as he proved in this program.

Not many fans of X JAPAN know that Toshi is not only a vocalist but also a real good player of guitar, piano, or even drums.  He is also highly admired musician in Japan, but when Toshi appears with X JAPAN members, he needs to take the lead vocal part, that’s why we scarcely see his musical instrument playing scenes.

As my personal impression, I think Toshi respects Yoshiki as the leader of X JAPAN, so Toshi doesn’t often claim his requests to Yoshiki although they have been real good friends since they were kindergarten kids. ( Please refer to this page for more info )

We know Yoshiki speaks good English as he lives in Los Angeles.  He often takes interviews from media or at some events in English without interpreters.  Only some Japanese accent still remain in Yoshiki’s English but no problem for us.

Again, Toshi also speaks English in this program and it’s clear and good both in conversation and in the song !

I, again, think Toshi is a little shy in spite that he acts strongly on the live stage.  In any interviews, he is really quiet and refrains from talking aggressive.  He is always gentle in the interviews.

Of course Yoshiki knows well about Toshi’s character, so I understand Yoshiki handles Toshi with care in the radio program.  Also it’s easy to know their friendship here in this conversation.

Anyway, it’s a nice program.  I hope they will keep on !

Yu Darvish is really an expected pitcher in Japan.  He debuted in the national  high school  games in Japan, and after joining the pro-league he never failed to show his guts in pitching and the results were always amazing each year.

Personally, among the Japanese players in American major league teams,  I think Hideo Nomo and Darvish are the real heroes  for me.

Hideo Nomo is still in my memory as the van of the Japanese baseball players who went across the Pacific Ocean to the USA.  He already was million dollar income player in Japan, but he decided to go to the USA as a test player with only 100,000 dollar contract a year.   The result of his brave action was now known to all of us in Japan.

And Darvish is truly exciting pitcher now in Japan.  He is the god-sent talent in baseball but he never stop his efforts for enhancement of his pitching.  He is a little like Ichiro Suzuki in the sense that both players are, in a way, stoic and never compromise whatever the results are.

I thought Darvish would soon get contracted with Texas Rangers after the first negotiation right on Darvish was transferred to Rangers.

Some say the reason for delay in making contract is the gap of money between Darvish and Rangers.   As Boston Red Sox Apparently failed in getting a famous pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka,  it might be natural that American teams don’t want to bet such a big money to Japanese players.   Matsuzaka was really expected to win constantly every year, but he was not as good as the Japanese career.

I suppose that Darvish is a far greater pitcher than Daisuke Matsuzaka.   So I hope he would join in Rangers after all.

One different thing between my heroes, Darvish and Nomo, might be a hungry heart.  Nomo was really such a guy with hungry spirit to search for his dream and success in the USA with much less money, but as we know, Darvish is regarded a great player already before the contract, so he requests much much instead of being a dream weaver.

Homare Sawa got MVP prize by FIFA for 2011. It’s a nice news for her and football fans in Japan, too.

It’s a little strange that she is now a very famous football player in spite that there hardly were Japanese people who knew her before the world cup of 2011.

But it’s a beautiful story to know how she got today’s fame.

In Japan, women football were always under fiscally hard status.  Even the national team players work for temporary jobs or part time workers.

A player in the team needed to work as a bath washer every day to keep her football life.  Her income was under 20,000 USD then but she wanted to play football even if she was so poor.  I read something like that in a magazine in Japan.

Homare Sawa was a top player of Japan but with no exception, she was also living hard with small income before the world cup of  2011.  They say their life was not miserable because they were happy as along as they could play football.

In that sense, Japanese national women football team were like part time workers’ team.

Now I think the financial condition of women players  got a little better, but still it’s bad compared to male teams, or compared to just a normal women workers of Japan.

Because we knew this fact through media information when we watched the games of world cup 2011, all the Japanese were really teary about their honor.  They, players, wanted mental satisfaction of achievement, not the money, status, or fame.

Now Homare Sawa deserves receiving MVP prize.

As she worked hard and she gave us joy through the games,  she also should earn more.  It’s truly natural for the result of pursuit.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of the best composers of Japan. Probably he and Joe Hisaishi are both admired highly by all Japanese people.

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s works are really touching in our heart and its range is really wide.

Some may remember that he used to be a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, which was the first active Japanese band also in other countries.  The band was using Japanese taste melody in the music but the they made use of all the possible techniques like computer, synthesizers, or new electric skills in the works they created.  Yellow Magic Orchestra was the first Techno POP music in Japan.

After the success of the YMO,  Ryuichi Sakamoto became a famous Japanese music maker among the advanced music fans in the world.

Next, he played an actor’s role in the movie, Merry Christmas Mr. Laurence. In this movie, he composed a really beautiful theme song. Also this movie created a sensation in Japan or in the world with more talented actors like David Bowie and Takeshi Kitano.  Director was Nagisa Oshima, one of the Japanese highly acclaimed directors.

After that, Ryuichi Sakamoto kept producing more great works.

In 1987, he worked for Academy winning movie, Last Emperor.  The theme song he composed got the Academy music award.

Ryuichi Sakamoto never stopped after that huge success in his music life.  He often collaborated with other unique musicians in Japan and in the world.  More hit songs were born from his never lasting talent, and that was a real contribution to the music industry of Japan.

He is a very smart person. Often he has talks with his friends on Japanese TV programs, through which we understand how he thinks of music and his life with his clear explanation.

If you’ve never experienced his music, please check them.  His music has something deep that we never forget once the music he plays flows through our heart.

For movie fans, probably Akira Kurosawa is the most famous director among Japanese directors.  Also recently Takeshi Kitano became popular with totally unique approach to movie fans.

When Akira Kurosawa was still alive, these 2 masters talked about film making and their life.

As you see, Takeshi Kitano also looks young and his face is still ” normal”.   Later from this talk, Takeshi Kitano had a traffic accident and his face became a little paralyzed with the shock of the accident.

For me, Takeshi Kitano’s speech is really impressive because he always jokes anything as he is a comedian, but here with the master film maker, Akira Kurosawa,  there is not much jokes from Takeshi’s mouth.

Also Akira Kurosawa often talks like a king ( actually he should be treated as such ), however Akira Kurosawa also uses respectful language to Takeshi Kitano although Takeshi is much younger than Akira Kurosawa.  In this talk, Akira Kurosawa admits the he loves Takeshi’s movies, it means THE KING talks when he is faced with talented man…maybe.

I like many of Akira Kurosawa’s works,  it’s true that I was raised with his movies when I was a college student.  When I started seeing his works, Akira Kurosawa was already out of his peak time. My first impact of his movie was DREAM ( so late for his fan).  Also I found his movies made when he was younger were really amazing. They easily came to me over the time gap.

Takeshi Kitano was a really exciting comedian for our generation. He created new types of LAUGH in Japan back in 1980′s.  It’s said that all the comedians in Japan at present time just follow and remake Takeshi’s comedy style.

I really thought ” Takeshi is not just a comedian”. His talent made us feel something very exciting..just like something wonderful would happen if we follow him.  Actually Takeshi Kitano broke the borderline of common sense, and he continued showing his new talent.

This record of 2 talented persons’ conversation reminds me of such exciting time of mine although it’s like a nostalgic time for myself now.

Their conversation is interesting. It’s filled with warm atmosphere that only the same feather guys can create.