"Hello from Tokyo!
Last night, my friend Miyuki took me to the bar owned by Shunji Fujimura (the actor who played Yu-Lung, the horse in human form) in Monkey season 2.
He's a real wine connoisseur, and it's a very upmarket bar, serving continental European dishes.
During the meal, Mr. Fujimura came around many of the tables to talk to customers - we told him of the popularity of Monkey outside Japan. He speaks great English!
After the meal, he autographed my Monkey postcard 1 (from the Fabulous Films UK Monkey videos) - he was very surprised when I showed him it! I didn't have a photo of his Yu-Lung character - the closest I had was this photo that had the horse on it!
Then I had my photo taken with him - another one for my collection ;)
Before we left, he said that when he was in Monkey, he was "white horse", and now he's "old horse" ;)
I gave him a gift from England, and Miyuki asked him the often-asked question - did Masako Natsume shave off her hair to play Tripitaka? He told us that she wore a bald head "wig". Shaving off all her hair would have limited her greatly in the work she got after Monkey."