Takashi Sorimachi with Richie Sambora -- Forever

Welcome to Hump Day! In recent years, when folks think of actor Takashi Sorimachi（反町隆史）, they may envision his role as the latest partner for the elegant but dogged detective Ukyo Sugishita in the long-running series "Aibou"（相棒）.

However, the first time that I ever heard of Sorimachi, my memories fly back to the late 1990s when there was this Fuji-TV drama that was in the prestigious Monday at 9 pm time slot (a la "Tokyo Love Story" and "101st Proposal"). Quite different from those two shows in 1991, "Beach Boys" was probably a series that had sun worshippers punching the air with their fists while exclaiming "YES! Finally...a show to call our own!". It was a series that I remember gaining quite a lot of attention at the time but when you have a summery series that: A) would have the members of TUBE and Southern All Stars swooning, B) has two comely hunks in Sorimachi and Yutaka Takenouchi（竹野内豊）, and C) has an up-and-coming cute teen actress by the name of Ryoko Hirosue（広末涼子）who would corral even more of the high school fans...well, perhaps it's no wonder that it grabbed a peak of 26.5% in the ratings.

Especially for B), maybe there were a lot of fans who were already mentioning the above, years before Ristarte. OK, we can now leave the cheap anime meme gag.

Sorimachi started his thespian career in 1994, but it was with the Summer 1997 "Beach Boys" that he also began a music career by providing the theme song for the show through "Forever", a collaboration with guitarist Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. With lyrics by the singer himself and melody by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）. "Forever" was released in July and it peaked at No. 3 on Oricon. Also a track on Sorimachi's debut album "Message" which came out later in September, it also got him his invitation to the 1997 Kohaku Utagassen.

My very tenuous connection with Sorimachi only occurred because I used to teach a student and his wife at their apartment near the Tama River in western Tokyo. The student once pointed out to a gleaming white house all the way up a hill overlooking the river and the apartment building and stated that it was the residence for Sorimachi and his wife, Nanako Matsushima（松嶋菜々子）. So, indeed he was looking over me; considering his height, he could be two metres away from me and still looking over me.