Friday, January 30, 2009

Kazuo Umezu in the Park with Yuki

My friend Yuki (the first girl-friend I made in Tokyo...she worked at the vintage store in Kichijoji and had a boyfriend in The Oranges was walking around Tokyo one day and ran into Kazuo Umezu, one of the first people ever to draw Horror Manga in Japan. I don't read comic books, but I know him because he's always on TV and I watch TV with my roommates a few nights a week.

Kazuo Umezo is extremely popular and well-known in Japan. I've never read anything he has done, so don't ask me any questions about him. But I know that probably there are a few of you guys who are his fans. Yuki said he was a really nice guy and very strange. She likes him.

Lately, Kazuo Umezu has been famous for building a red and white striped house that looks like his shirt. He's a multi-millionaire, so he lives in a really upscale part of the city and his conservative neighbors have been getting angry on television. My roommates sometimes talk about it. One of my roommates says she kind of likes the house. I think I would have loved this house at one point, too.

1 comments:

Kira Petersson-Martin said...

I think his house doesn't look too strange... It seems like it would be right at home in Newfoundland or something, doesn't it? He should emigrate!

Anyway, he wrote "The Drifting Classroom" and "Orochi: Blood," and probably others. I never really got into his stuff because I'm not into "creepy" in general, but a friend of mine loooves Orochi.