Who's who

I’ve written many posts about some interesting people. Maybe some of my blog’s visitors have missed some of those posts…so I decided to make this page to put links to all of the posts I’ve written that introduce someone.

Click the names to read the post I wrote about them.

+ Satoru Kobayashi – His untimely death at a young age and the fact that the person wanted for killing him is still a fugitive was an important factor in eliminating the Statute of Limitations for murder cases in Japan.

+ Richard Allen – The assistant principal at my high school in Florida. I witnessed his murder.

+ Cyril Takayama – He is an amazing magician in Tokyo. You can see a few videos of his act on this post I wrote.

+ Ivano Spiga – The guitarist of the heavy metal band Holy Martyr told me why his Italian band made an album of songs about Japanese samurai.

+ Eric Carr – The drummer of KISS died twenty years ago. (Freddie Mercury died the same day.)

+ Hideyo Noguchi – His face is on the Japanese ¥1,000 bill (since 2004).

+ Hideji Otaki – An actor who was honored by the Emperor. I think his best work is a funny TV commercial he did some years ago.

+ Yoshiyuki Tomino – The creator of Gundam turned seventy in 2011.

+ Tracy Latimer – Ozzy Osbourne wrote a song about the mercy killing of this young girl by her father.

+ Evel Knievel – The legendary motorcycle stuntman would be in his seventies now if he hadn’t died in 2007.

I had an "Evel Knievel" lunchbox when I was a kid.

+ Animetal USA – A rock band made up of famous American hard-rock musicians that sing theme songs from Japanese anime (cartoons).

+ Col. Harland Sanders – i’m sure you know who Colonel Sanders was…but this post I wrote for the 121st anniversary of his birth has links to other posts I’ve written about the “Curse of the Colonel” in Japanese baseball and the importance of KFC at X-mas in Japan.

+ Ritsu Oikawa – Misato Hanasaka wrote a song about this boy who lost his mother in the 2011 March 11 tsunami in north-east Japan.

+ Alan Merrill – The rock classic “I Love Rock N’ Roll” is his song, not Joan Jett’s. I did an interview with him.

+ X-Japan – I wrote this post about the famous Japanese hard rock band when they released a new song. This post has a link to another post I wrote about them that received negative feedback from some of their overseas fans.

+ Satoshi Furukawa – The Japanese doctor-turned-astronaut.

+ Don Gorske – I like the McDonalds “Big Mac” sandwich…but not this much!

+ Donald Keene – He recently moved to Japan and became a naturalized Japanese citizen…at the age of 88.

+ Jiroemon Kimura – On 2011 April 19, he became the world’s oldest living man…and, as of this writing (2011 November 8), he still holds the record.

+ The “Fukushima Fifty” – The group of men knowingly risking their lives to attempt to control the nuclear power plant that was dangerously damaged by the tsunami of 2011 March 11.

+ Taro Okamoto – The famous Japanese abstract artist / sculptor would have turned 100 years old if he were still alive.

Google's logo to commemorate Taro Okamoto's 100th birthday.

+ Sugihara Chiune – The “Japanese Schindler”.

+ Eric Carr – The drummer of KISS died of cancer in 1991 at the age of forty-one…which is considered an unlucky age in Japan.

+ John Lennon – If he hadn’t been killed, John Lennon would’ve turned seventy in 2010.

+ Eiichi Negish and Akira Suzuki – It took over thirty years, but they finally got a Nobel Prize for the breakthrough work.

+ Denjiro Sensei – A former high school science teacher who became a celebrity in Japan for making science more like magic. It turns out that there’s a similar teacher in America.

+ Lydia Criss – The ex-wife of original KISS drummer, Peter Criss, did an interview with me.

+ Ronnie James Dio – Heavy metal legend, Ronnie James Dio, died of cancer.

+ Kama Chinen – This Japanese woman was the oldest person in the world for the last eight months of her life. She died about a week before her 115th birthday.

+ Darth Vader -Last year, the “Dark Lord” from Star Wars was wandering the streets of Tokyo searching for his “boss”.

+ Jason McMaster – One of the hardest working men in heavy metal did an interview with me.

+ Eri Yoshida – An eighteen year old Japanese girl who was played professional baseball in America because of her rare pitching style. (Also on this post you can see a baby “Stop Screaming Contest”…it’s cute).

+ Godzilla – Both the movie monster and the professional baseball player.

+ Marty Friedman – Fluent in Japanese, the former lead guitarist of the heavy metal super-group Megadeth gave up his place in that band to move to Japan and join the Fanta soda “rock band”.

+ Kiyoshi Yamashita – Called the “Japanese Van Gogh”.

+ Shigeru Mizuki – The artist who created the “Ge-ge-ge-no-Kitaro” anime turned 88 last year.

+ Bruce Kulick – I did two interviews with the former lead guitarist of KISS (I’ve also met both him and drummer Eric Singer in Tokyo).

+ Asashoryu – The former sumo champion retired in 2010 February.

+ Bob Gruen – The famous rock photographer did an interview with me.

+ Princess Aiko – The youngest princess in the Japanese royal family turned eight years old when I wrote this post.

+ Koki Kameda and Daisuke Naito – Two famous professional boxers in Japan faced each other in the ring for the championship belt.

+ Baikinman – A character in one of the biggest children’s cartoons in Japan. A statue of him was vandalized.

+ Victor Stabin – The artist who designed the “Unmasked” album cover for KISS did an interview with me.

+ Megumi Kasuga – When she was a teenager, she had a grand idea to honor her deceased father. Her story touched people’s hearts around the world.

+ Sadako Sasaki – This young girl became a face of the human suffering caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

+ Kelly Osbourne – The daughter of Ozzy Osbourne had a television show about her adventures in Japan.

+ Yoshito Usui – The creator of the Japanese manga and TV anime “Crayon Shin-chan” went never returned from a hike in the mountains. It was discovered that he fell off the mountain and died.

+ Kama Chinen – This Japanese woman was the world’s oldest person while she was alive. She died about one week before her 115th birthday.

+ Sanma – A fish or a comedian?

+ Yuto Miyazawa – This nine-year old Japanese Ozzy Osbourne fan plays guitar so well that he’s been on TV in America and even joined Ozzy’s band for one concert.

+ Michael Doret – I did two interviews with this artist (who designed two albums covers for KISS). The first interview is here and the second one is here.

+ Tsutomu Yamaguchi – The only person known to have survived both the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(In addition to the post I wrote about him, you can also click here to read about the BBC mocking Mr. Yamaguchi!)

+ “Kin-san and Gin-san” – Japanese twins who became famous in Japan in the early ’90s when they both lived be over 100 years old.
(My oldest daughter was born on their 101st birthday.)

+ Kochi Wakata – A Japanese astronaut who also has the same birthday as my oldest daughter.

+ Scatman John – He was popular in America. On my post, you can see a humorous video called “Scat-Ultraman”.

+ Masanori Hata – His nickname is “Mutsugoro-san” and he’s famous in Japan for his love of all animals. The video that I saw in this post may surprise you.

+ “Testujin 28-go” – A character that could be called the “Japanese Iron Man”.

+ Amuro Namie – This Japanese pop star was immensely popular in Japan in the late ’90s. It’s no longer her hey-day but she still makes albums and does ads for Coca-Cola, McDonalds, etc.

+ Stars on Pachinko machines – Just like pinballs machines years ago, in Japan, the images of pop stars such as Koda Kumi, KISS, Star Wars, and Bon Jovi can be seen on Pachinko machines.

+ Kankichi Ryotsu – The main character in a Japanese manga and TV anime about an unusual policeman. There are statues of him in Tokyo and, for awhile, there was a live action TV show with famous actors.
(This post also mentions Tomoji Tanabe, who was the world’s oldest man while he was alive. And it has a couple of photos of people with tattooed faces.)

+ Mitsuharu Masawa – A Japanese wrestling legend died.

+ Jimmy Mirikitani – My wife and I watched the Tokyo screening of a documentary titled 「ミリキタニの猫」 (“The Cats of Mirikitani”). It’s a very unusual and interesting story about a Japanese-American homeless man in New York City. His neighbor films him and they both changed each other’s lives for the better.

+ Jirokichi – I visited the grave of the “Japanese Robin Hood” who was decapitated by the authorities for stealing from samurai.

+ “Anpanman” – One of the most famous and popular children’s characters in Japan.

+ “Ultraman” – In Japan, all young boys love Ultraman. You can buy all kinds of “Ultraman” merchandise in Japan…including alarm clocks, soft drinks and even wine!

+ Jero – He is an African-American young man who has become a professional “Enka” singer in Japan because his grandmother was Japanese and she introduced him to the Japanese traditional music.

+ “Gamarjobot” – You don’t have to understand the Japanese language to appreciate the comedy of this Japanese duo…because their act in silent! But great! Check out the videos I put in this post.

+ Megumi Yokota – She was abducted from Japan by North Korea in 1977 when she was only thirteen years old. It’s been thirty-four years, but, of course, her parents are still fighting to get back!
(I also wrote a post here about an American pop musician who recently wrote a song about her story.)

+ “Moeyan” – A Japanese comedy duo. This is a pair of women whose tagline was “No bra! Ya-ho!”.

+ Cmdr. Shunsaku Kudo – A ship’s captain in WW2. He risked his ship to save American and British sailors from drowning (one of those sailors, Sir Sam Falle, wrote a book about the experience…and even came to Japan to thank Cmdr. Kudo.)

+ Munetaka Higuchi – The drummer of Japanese heavy metal band Loudness died of cancer.

+ Daigo – Daigo is a famous celebrity in Japan (and also the grandson of a former Prime Minister of Japan). He made an appearance at a shopping center that we went to. I tried to take a video of him but there were too many people for me to even see him. I did put videos in this post of the huge crowd of screaming Japanese girls.

+ Jerry Yellin – A former WWII pilot who fought against Japan. He hated Japan until an event in the mid-80s.
I interviewed him about his experiences.

+ Ken Alley – I interviewed Mr. Alley because he gained possession of thousands of letters written by American woman who was in Japan just after WW2.

+ Koji Murofushi – The amazing Japanese hammer-throw champion.
Lt.
+ Bruce Kulick – My interview with the former guitarist of KISS.

+ Lt. Sanehisa Uemura – He was a kamikaze pilot in WW2. You can read the English translation of the last letter he wrote to his baby daughter before his fatal mission.

+ Monkey Majik – You can hear a song on this post by the pop band “Monkey Majik”. They are from Sendai, Japan…but only two members are Japanese—the singers are two Canadian brothers (who sing in Japanese).

+ Fred Bensi – I did an interview with a member of a KISS tribute band that used to be based in Japan.

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Have you heard of any of these people? I hope I introduced some interesting people to you that you hadn’t known about before.