I'm from Nagoya, Japan. There are no musicians in my family; in fact, I was really bad at music when I was a kid. So my mother still can't believe what I'm doing here.

I first became interested in music when I was 15. The video clips of the Rolling Stones and the Pretenders made me feel like, "I gotta buy a guitar". I sang and wrote so hard when I was in high school because I didn't have anything except that. Then when I was 21, I passed an audition as a singer to make a band on a local TV show. Three months later I quit because I couldn't take singing in Japanese. I think it's very important to sing rhythm and blues in the language it was created in. Then I started to make the band called Johnny Favoritz. We played in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya monthly. We almost got major contracts a few times but they asked me to sing in Japanese so I didn't take it. Before I came here we made a CD by ourselves called "Monkey Plays" as a demo to bring here.

Sometimes I played on the street in my country so I was planning to do it here and I hate playing in bars. But singing in a different language, in English, in front of native people made me hesitate for a while. Then a girl broke my heart. That motivated me right away.

What I like about singing in the subway is seeing the real reaction of the people right in front of me. A few times, I made a girl cry when singing a sad song. They gave me a bill, crying. It's kinda not good to say but I was glad! For me, as a singer, it was impressive, and, besides, singing in a different language... I made a girl cry! I felt I'm honored.

A lot of people offer me to have some recordings. Once I recorded my singing in a huge professional studio for free. At that time, a guy who sometimes worked for MTV shot my recording as well.

I like New York City better than my country. One of the reasons is, a lot of races live together and respect each other. How wonderful is it!