A Japanese Comedian’s Middle School Shopping Trip in Small-Town Oregon
As a middle schooler staying with a host family in rural Oregon, Chago went clothes shopping—and someone asked to take his picture for the local paper.
Chago’s middle school days
In this story, Chago introduced himself as a member of the Japanese comedy act Monkey Chuck. He was looking back on a stay with a host family in Oregon when he was in middle school.
I was looking pretty cool
I’m Chago, from Monkey Chuck.
When I was in middle school, I went to stay with a host family in Oregon.
It was way out in the country, with nature all around. Hardly anyone from Japan ever visited. I’d be walking around town or going into a store, and people would say, “Hey, Japanese!” and give me a hug.
So that was the kind of place I was staying in. One day, I went shopping for clothes, and out of nowhere, someone asked, “Can I take your picture for the newspaper?”
I was wearing acid-wash jeans and a T-shirt with a silhouette of Japanese TV star George Tokoro’s face on it. I was looking pretty cool, so I struck a pose.
Two or three days later, my host mom called out, “Hey, Take!”—that’s TAH-keh, what she called me—and came over with a newspaper.
And there I was. A big photo of me, taking up about a quarter of the page. The headline read, “Japanese Samurai Appears.”
Then I squinted at the caption under the photo. It introduced me as “Famous Japanese Samurai, George Tokoro”…
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