NEW YORK -- Earlier this month Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara gave a speech in New York City, and I went to hear him. That's one thing you do in this city: go hear or see some of the more famous visitors from your home country.
Over the decades I saw kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando dance in his asexual splendor. I heard former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata give a resounding speech. I watched film director Akira Kurosawa speak briefly in his tall, though not imperious, dignity. Once I even found myself in a crowd gathered for Sony Chairman Akio Morita.
With Ishihara, though, it was not just fame that made me go. Beyond his vaunted display of nationalism, I have carried a large dose of curiosity about the man since I was young.