This is Hikawa Kiyoshi (氷川きよし) the king of Enka music, Japan's #1 star, the Garth Brooks of Japan, and my company's pride and joy. I didn't know who this guy was before coming to CME and chances are that you don't either. If you have any friends who are Japanese however, ask them if they know who this guy is. Chances are they will not only KNOW him but LOVE HIM!!!

Hikawa's latest album "One Sword" debuted at #2 on the Japanese charts due to heavy competition from Utada Hikaru's new Ultra Blue (it is now #5 being over a month old). He also held the number one and two DVD sales slots for his music video compilations. There are Hikawa fan clubs all over Japan and you can see him regularly as a TV show guest personality. Unlike most enka singers who are popular only with the older generation, Hikawa transcends sales demographics as everyone seems to love him. Also, unlike most enka singers who wear kimono when they perform, Hikawa sings in modern and western clothing (though to me he often looks more like the flamboyant Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef).

As with my Bon Jovi sighting in the Sapporo Airport, I didn't recognize Hikawa even when he was five feet from my face. This was largely due to the fact that A) no one in the office made any fuss over him being there, and B) he looked very different - his hair was dyed brown and he was sporting fake fashion frames. Hikawa came into the office to say hello. My co-worker Mori-san pointed him out to me and I soon felt like a complete idiot considering that there were posters, cardboard cutouts, and little cubic pads of post-its with his image on it literally as far as the eye could see.

He carried around a little brown dog in a huge Louis Vuitton bag. I thought this was weird, but according to my host mom (who was visibly jealous when she responded to my bragging email) this is his trademark, and the dog I saw was actually the puppy of his older one. "OF COURSE HE HAS A DOG!" My host mother typed energetically. "THAT'S HIS TRADEMARK. I WATCHED THE PUPPY TAKE ITS FIRST STEPS ON NATIONAL TV!!!"

At the time, I tried to lower my head and avoid eye-contact with Hikawa-san so as to not meet him. He was to be the first star I would meet and I was very nervous at the time. Sure enough, however, I heard Shimura Bucho talking to Hikawa over on the other side of the room with me as their subject. Before long, Hikawa came over to my desk and I stood up. Egged on by the laughing staff of the enka division, he was forced to introduce himself in English. "Hello, my name is Hikawa Kiyoshi and I am a Japanese enka singer" was what he said. We switched to Japanese and he asked me if there was Japanese country music in the US and what I thought about the genre. He was overly apologetic for disturbing me, which made me feel bad because I had no real work to do.

His manager dropped the $40 deluxe copy of Hikawa's new album with the bonus DVD in my lap and said, "Here, listen to it," and walked away. Actually, Hikawa Kiyoshi's music was the only enka star that I had NOT heard up until that point, because they don't give his stuff away for free, so I promptly popped in the CD and began listening. It wasn't long before I was startled by Hikawa tapping on my shoulder to ask me what I thought of his music. I told him it was GREAT! I mean, what else can you say? Truthfully, I don't like his music as much as some of the other singers that I listened to (it is by no means bad), but as far as Japanese country music goes, they don't come any bigger!