Bill’s Partyline April 4th, 2008

PEOPLE

As most of you know the multi-talented Hilary Duff was in Japan to do a series of commercials for Softbank’s Disney mobiles. She partied at New Lex, and all I can say is what a fun nice young woman.

Jackie Chan, who recently finished filming the Hong Kong production here, Shinjuku Incident, with actor Daniel Woo and Japanese actor Masaya Kato, had the opportunity to congratulate Koichi Domoto (Kinki Kids) on his Warner Brothers local production. The film was, for the most part, shot on location in New York City. I ran into Jackie at Nobu’s and was happy to have the opportunity to congratulate him on all those great TV commercials he’s been busy doing for the Beijing Olympics. What a fun guy.

It was a real privilege to be included in the group of prestigious people invited to the 90th birthday party of the legendary Nancy Chih Ma. It was wall-to-wall with people at the top of the Tokyo American Club (before they moved). Special guests included HIH Princess Takamado, actress, singer, designer Judy Ongg, and Taiwanese actress Madame Yang. The Mas showed up in full force with Nancy’s sons and daughters, their children, and some of their children. There was a very meaningful congratulatory speech by Princess Takamado, and Nancy was surrounded by family and friends when she cut a big beautiful birthday cake made of Manju. Nancy and her family have really gone all out to make my life more interesting and fun. I got to know HIH Prince and Princess Mikasa better through them, and also met many of their friends including Chin Ho who built the first luxury hotel (the Ilikai in Hawaii), and Fu Jei (the brother of the last emperor of China).

PARTIES

There were lots of “the top models from all over the world” (just ask them) here for fashion week. Thanks to Tokyo’s top security man, Nester Takamiyagi, I took a couple of cool people from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Tak Abe (who heads the late and great film director Akira Kurosawa’s operations in the US) to the ‘east meets west’ musical revue at the Kaguwa Theatre in Roppongi. They loved the lively show. I also caught the last night Tokyo show of Chico and the Gypsies at the Blue Note. The eight Latinos, each with a guitar, had the full house clapping, shouting, standing and dancing. w, was mostly mambo then. Whatever, the energy and enthusiasm was, and still is there. I was with Bill and Charo Ireton, Bill’s mom Kiko, and daughter Roberta, home from London for five weeks. She studies at the Central Saint Martin’s there.

PLACES

Some of the really nice crew of the Kitty Hawk who party at the New Lex have been bringing me all kinds of cool souvenirs—baseball caps, coffee mugs, T-shirts, wall plagues, etc. These will always bring back great memories. Still on the Kitty Hawk and the US military in general. The huge carrier has a crew of over 5000. That’s about 500 more people than the population of Perrysburg, Ohio where I grew up. Wherever you have that many people—at a school, club, village, etc. You’re going to have a few troublemakers.

Sorry the weather wasn’t better for the International School of Sacred Heart’s Family Festival. It rained pretty hard, but even so, there was a good turnout for the popular annual event. The main attraction included a full schedule of entertainment by the school bands, and a taiko group. The international food booths were representing the UK and Ireland, Vietnam, Scandinavia, USA, Taiwan, Japan, South America, Thailand, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Korea, Sri Lanka, Poland and Palestine. There was great French food as well at the award wining Hilton Tokyo’s Twenty Ones Dining Booth. It was fun for all with a tots’ playground, book sale, bouncy castle, white elephant sale, games and a raffle. Our Canadian friends are really moving up on the international music scene.

A perfect example was Hayashi International Promotions’ (HIP) completely sold out concerts of Celine Dion at Tokyo Dome. Other big Canadian artists include top selling foreign artist Avril Lavigne and Sum 41. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more of the many up and coming artists who were here to participate in the first-ever Canadian music industry trade mis-sion to Japan (CIRPA). Guests at the several days long event were able to enjoy a live showcase at the Canadian Embassy’s Oscar Peterson Theater, and meet and mingle with the artists at the reception after. The event also featured presentations by many of Canada’s leading record labels and a trade market fair. I enjoyed chatting with a lot of cool Canadians including singer Justin Nozuka.

*First published at the Tokyo Weekender

*Images Copyright: Tsukasa Shiga