Chumei Watanabe at his home in July 2018. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
Rest in peace, Watanabe-san.
Chumei Watanabe at his home in July 2018. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
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Masanori Machida with an Ultraman Tiga script. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
On Sunday evening, June 26, I attended another dramatic reading performed by former child actor Masanori Machida. As always, it was a fun performance, with Machida-san giving it his all, even though he was reading from a script.
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Masanori Machida with a Gappa card set. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
After the performance, another tokusatsu fan approached Machida-san with some items to get signed, including a Gappa card set whose case was designed to look like the cover of the movie's fictional Playmate magazine. (Nice touch!) He also brought an Ultraman Tiga script to get signed.
Here's to next time!
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Yoshiro Uchida. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
On Saturday, June 18, I attended another special chanson performance by actor-singer Yoshiro Uchida in Ginza. As usual, it was a lot of fun.
This performance was particularly special because it was attended by Uchida-san's daughter, whom I met briefly. It's always great to see Uchida-san!
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Ultra Father in Ginza. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
On Saturday, June 18, I spotted something interested in my neighborhood. I mean, who better to protect your motorcycle from getting stolen?
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Photo courtesy of Benni Korzen. |
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Takashi Naganuma. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
Tonight, I went to yet another special event featuring Toho tokusatsu luminaries. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you should know who I'm talking about: Takashi Naganuma and Eiichi Asada.
I found out something interesting tonight. Naganuma-san was an extra in Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) in a Ginza scene, running away from Mothra, who was in flight. The scene was shot with a blue backdrop at Toho Studios. All the extras in that scene had to wear a suit, necktie, and black shoes because they were supposed to be playing salarymen. I really have to check out that scene.
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Eiichi Asada. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
Also on hand was former Toho special effects director Eiichi Asada. As I spent most of the evening with Naganuma-san, I didn't have the same kind of opportunity to pick Asada-san's brain. But he was great to hang out with, as always.