A Great Evening with a Great Kaiju Suit Actor!

Mizuho Yoshida. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Today (Wednesday, November 1) marked another great meeting with a Toho luminary. After we met Yasuhiko Saijo, my friend Jacob and I made a beeline for kaiju suit actor Mizuho Yoshida's stunt gym for our next appointment. Jacob had arranged to meet with Yoshida-san and invited me to join him. With an offer that good, how could I say no?

We met Yoshida-san at the gym where his suit-acting colleague Akira Ohashi was leading a class. Stuntman and action director Makoto Yokoyama was also there and greeted us, too. I was particularly impressed by Yokoyama-san's English-language skills. Yoshida-san recommended that we go to a quieter place to continue the conversation, so we went to a nearby cafe.

I assisted Jacob with his questions, and we had a fun and informative conversation. Yoshida-san was quite thoughtful and candid in his answers. Yoshida-san signed a couple of things for Jacob, and we posed for a few more photos. 

But that wasn't all! Yoshida-san recommended that we eat dinner together. We agreed on the type of dinner we wanted, and Yoshida-san chose a restaurant in Akihabara that we walked to. We ended up having a delicious shabu-shabu dinner with Yoshida-san essentially making it for us at the table. (That's the second Godzilla suit actor to make dinner for me and Jacob!) During the dinner, Yoshida-san talked more about his career, such as suit-acting onstage alongside Hiroshi Fujioka, as well as his appearance in a Wonda coffee commercial, which was filmed after GMK (2001) wrapped. 

Mizuho Yoshida and his kaiju counterpart. Photo by Brett Homenick.

But that still wasn't all! After dinner, Yoshida-san took us inside Akihabara Station, which was hosting a Godzilla pop-up store. Coincidentally, there was a GMK-themed jacket on sale, which was too good a photo opportunity to pass up. We arrived just before closing, so we had just enough time to look around the store. 

Suffice it to say, today was full of surprises. I had no idea that we'd be hanging out with Yoshida-san in a grand total of four different locations. But that's a testament to the kind of person he is. I'm certainly grateful for the hospitality Yoshida-san showed us today. Many thanks!