Ricky Martin, Menudo and Me (Another True Story!)

I first came to Japan in the late 1970s. I used to get a scholarship for university and I would take a bunch of that money and then go running around Japan... Then, when back at school, I'd starve as a student - it was well worth it. 

Back then, there were very few foreigners in Tokyo. When I would walk through Shibuya and the Scramble intersection, people would point at me and say, "Look! There's a foreigner!" Some people would even ask for an autograph.

Those were the good old days. Being a foreigner in Japan was the same as being some superstar merely because of where you were born (kind of like British royalty).

I'm standing in the white shirt. Ricky Martin is sitting in the middle in front in the blue shirt....10 years old.....OK. He was 13... So sue me... 

One time, I think it was Jan. of 1979, I was waiting for my friend at 109 department store in Shibuya. They had just completed building it and I was told to wait there for my rendezvous. I got there an hour early. But, after walking around lost in Japan many times before that, I thought it would be best to stay at the designated place and wait for my friend - rather than going off exploring and getting hopelessly lost again. 

No cellphones in 1979!

While I was there waiting, four different beautiful Japanese girls walked up to me and, looking me straight in the eye, said (in impeccable English), things like, "She's not coming. I'm supposed to take you to dinner." Or, "Your girlfriend called me and told me that she can't make it, so I'm supposed to take you to coffee now." Or, "It's getting late, we'd better hurry or they'll cancel our reservations."

What!?

I was so surprised. I wondered how these girls knew who I was and who my girlfriend, who I was waiting for, was? Weird, eh? How did they know?

Duh! I figured out after the forth girl asked me to go somewhere with them, that they didn't know who I was and they didn't know my girlfriend, but they were trying to "pick me up!"

"Wow! What a wonderful country Japan is!" I thought, "This would never happen back home. Never in a million years!"

It wouldn't. I have never had a girl try to pick me up back in my home country... Ever!

"Japan was like heaven!" I thought. I'll never forget that experience.

A few years later, I would return again to Japan. This time, I got a regular job on TV Tokyo’s “Ohayo Studio.” It was in mid-1983 or so. Ohayo Studio was hosted by a famous TV announcer named Shiga san (I don’t know his first name), and Yasuha Ebina. Yasuha was a famous pop-singer. Yasuha's dad was one of the most famous comedians in Japanese history. They are all very well known stars in Japan.

I couldn’t believe my luck. I had only been in Japan a short time – couldn’t speak a word of Japanese – and, by some miracle, I got a regular job on a daily kid’s TV show. Impossible! Incredible!

Me, Shinko san (she sang the tunes for McDonald's TV commercials) and Yukari Morikawa far right (who scored one of the biggest #1 hits in all of Japan in the 1980s!)

I taught short English phrases on Ohayou Studio once a week. Also, on that show, there would be local J-Pop bands appearing. 

One time, though, the world-famous Menudo came to the studio. Menudo was the first group that Ricky Martin was ever in and they were touring Japan and Asia so they stopped into the show.

I was looking forward to talking to those guys because, even though I loved Japan and everything about it, I was dying to speak English to another native speaker (Spanish? Oh, well, close enough!) and I was also simply dying for some good Mexican food! Figured that these boys might have brought along a few burritos!

In Japan at that time, there weren’t any good Mexican food restaurants at all. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Ok, well, I have to admit that that the band Menudo isn’t from Mexico, but, hell, being a dummy, I didn’t know that! I figured that they must have been from Mexico because the word “Menudo” is the name for a delicious traditional Mexican food dish. If anything I am logical, Mr. Spock!

Anyway, Ricky Martin and the boys from Menudo came to the studio and they “lip synced” (くちぱく) one of their songs. It was “OK.” (Wink! Wink!) After the show I went backstage and said to them, “Hi guys! I’m your biggest fan in Japan! I have all your records and I love Mexican food!”

They all looked down and kind of scowled and said, “We’re not from Mexico. We’re from Puerto Rico.”

How embarrassing! I said, “Oh? Yeah! I knew that! Well, that’s OK because I’m not from Japan! Ha! Ha!….. Ha!... Ahem...”

Oh, yes. I did feel kind of stupid. Why do you ask?

Anyway, after that dumb remark from me, I could tell the room was getting cold and it seemed like, all of a sudden, the guys from Menudo didn't want to talk to me so much, so I asked to take a photo and got out of there as quick as I could...

I could have never guessed that a decade or so later, Ricky Martin would become such a big super-star with that “Livin’ da Vida Loca” song…

So, I took the photo and, since then I have been telling people that I was an "original member" of Menudo; the photo is "proof"... My story goes like this: 

"Those brats in Menudo kicked me out because I was the most handsome one in the group. I was getting all the hot babes (at least the ones who could drink, smoke cigarettes and could go on a date without their mom driving the car!) 

Band management said that Ricky was extremely jealous of me and my action because of my devastatingly good looks, humility and being more "macho" (mui macho!) than all those skinny little punks put together (plus I had the biggest "burrito"!).... Ricky was jealous so I had to go! So they kicked me out and removed my name in the credits as co-writer of all their big hits, including "Livin Da Vida Loca!"

And that's the truth. So help me God! Bwa! Ha! Ha!

Seriously, though... I do look like one of them, don't I?

OK. FREEBIE!

Here is Morikawa Yukari singing her monster hit... Can you guess what song this is?

Meeting the Rich and Famous in Japan? Sure. No Problem. Happens All the Time

There's not a foreigner in this country who won't tell you that Japan is a very weird place. When I say that, I mean it in a good way. The other foreigners you talk to may not.

Japan is just, well... Japan. That's the best explanation I can come up with. Things happen in Japan that just would never happen in a million years in another country. That's just the way it is.

Here's an example of something weird that happened to me. Just one of a very many.... 

But, first, some background; in the late 70's and early 80's, I was in a one-hit wonder punk bank and then ran one of the first punk underground "zines" back in those days. Underground free papers were quite the rarity at that time. But we made one. It was called, "Sixty Miles North." I won't embarrass myself by telling you the name of my band.

June 27, 1984 Sixty Miles North. Yours truly on the cover.

Sixty Miles North was pretty popular at that time and there's even a webpage for it with someone selling back issues fer chrissakes!

Anyway, we used to distribute these magazines at record stores, etc. back in those days. 

One particularly well-known record store chain was owned by a now multi-millionaire guy by the name of Jim Salzer. One day, when I went to his then tiny record store, I took magazines and asked him if he'd put them on the racks and give them away for me. He eagerly agreed and thought the magazine was extremely cool. I was happy. I think that one time was one of the few times I had ever met him in the USA and I had only ever met him when he was at his shop. Keep in mind that this was a suburban area and not a big city.

Fast forward several months. I moved out of the USA and left the magazine for my useless friends to run into bankruptcy, which they did. Soon. I was then living and working in Japan.

My very first job in Japan found me working in Shinjuku in Tokyo. One of the biggest cities and most crowded places in the world. On my very first day of work, my new friend Stephen asked me to go have dinner with him at a KFC near the station. Even though I generally hate KFC, I said "OK" as I didn't know any good places to eat; I had no friends (Stephen was my first) and I had only been in Japan for one week. I also didn't have a clue as to where I was (really) or where to go.

So we go to this KFC at the west exit of Shinjuku station and are standing on the street eating chicken. There's a million and a half people milling around us. A guy walks up to me and says,

"Mike! Mike! There you are!" At first, I didn't recognize him... It was Jim Salzer. Jim Salzer in Japan, no less, and he doesn't seem the least bit surprised to see me. My jaw drops. WTF!? I've never met him randomly on the street in my own hometown and I had lived there for over 15 years. Here I am in Japan for a week and he walks right up to me like it's no big deal. 

Jim realized the shock on my face and said, "Mike! Mike! Don't you recognize me? It's me, Jim!"

I snapped out of it. "Oh? Er, sure! Jim? Jim Salzer! Hi. How are you?"

Jim said, "I'd been wondering where you went to..." He then slapped my back and said, "Say, Mike, I'd love to talk, but I'm late. Where the heck is the train station?" I didn't know either but my friend pointed him in the right direction and off he went as if there wasn't anything the least bit unusual like this sort of chance encounter.

Here I am in one of the most crowded places in the world and, by pure coincidence, I meet an aquaintance from back home that I had never met by chance on the street there (and even at that I had only met him three or four times!)... There's 60 million people in this town and he walks right up to me! And he acts like it's no big deal... Just like meeting a co-worker at the water cooler at the office!

I am still amazed about it. I wish I had a picture to prove it.

Like I said, the weirdest sh*t happens in Japan. My friend George Williams agrees with me, "You can meet people in Japan that you'd never ever meet in a hundred lifetimes in the west. Hell, in the west, you couldn't get within 5000 meters (yards) of these people. But in Japan, you can meet them walking along on the street!" It's true. I've met Eric Clapton twice walking along a street in Harajuku. At first I thought he was some scraggly-looking dumpy foreigner just hanging around looking for a job.... That's probably what everyone else thought too! 

My friend George even has a cool photo of the time he met Jimmy Page when Jimmy came to Japan in the 1980's! George is standing there next to Jimmy looking like he's standing next to his mom or something. It's pretty cool... I mean, if you like Led Zeppelin... 

Now, let me drop some names.

Since I've been in Japan, I've met many extremely famous people, multi-millionaires and world famous politicians... Just to name a few...

I've met Richard Branson, George H. W. Bush (Daddy Bush), Yoko Ono, Elvis Costello, Siouxsie Sioux (not well known by most, but I am a big fan), at least 7 Japanese Prime Ministers and a bunch of other countries prime ministers - so many - that I can't remember. Along with the some many others that I've met who I can't remember either.

Of course my job makes a big difference, but meeting guys like Richard Branson or these prime ministers and George Bush had nothing to do with my radio & TV work.

In fact, meeting George H. W. Bush had nothing to do with radio but everything to do with... Amway. You can read that true story here.

With Yoko Ono

I'm not in this photo with Siouxsie Sioux (her former hubby, Budgie next to her) but I took the photo. You get to see

how hot my wife was just when we married (though why she married me is anyone's guess). At right, front, is George Williams.

Former prime minister Yoshiro Mori (I think I'm going to 

start a collection of prime ministers I've taken photos with).

George H. W. Bush at an Amway convention. Don't believe me?

Here's the proof. 

Read:  Japan, Amway, George H.W. Bush, and Diana Ross – Your Tax Dollars at Work! to read more bizarre adventures that could only happen in Japan!

White Stripes way before they were famous

Menudo in 1984. I'm wearing the white shirt. See the kid in blue in front second from left? That's 

Ricky Martin at about age 10. No kidding!

Some wankers in a crap band named Linkin Park.

Elvis Costello is a very nice guy.

   
Anyhow, I hope it doesn't seem like I am bragging (well, I am kind of... Now that I look at all these pictures)... The real point is that, in Japan, the weirdest things happen. I have hundreds more photos to prove it too! I have photos with lots of movie-types like Arnie Schwarneggar, but can't be bothered to find them...

Last night I met one of the most famous Korean singers in all of Asia and one of my other blogger friends wrote about his hospital stay and the doctor smoking cigarettes (Hey! Do we have the same doctor? Wow! Small world, eh?) So that inspired me.

Have a good day... Oh, and don't forget to always have a camera! You never know who is going to walk up to you and ask directions.