Name: I Spent a Week with Japan's Biggest Movie Star
Uploaded: 2022-02-17T17:45:30.000Z
Duration: 23 min 50 s
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Okay, good? Good, good? Ready. I'm  pretty nervous. It's pretty scary.

You're a very scary, intimidating character

Along Japan's rural Pacific coastline, 400  kilometers north of Tokyo lies the bustling  

fishing town of Kesennuma and it's here in  this beautiful but remote region where you  

might find an icon of japanese cinema casually  wandering along the seafront at first it might  

seem confusing as Ken Watanabe isn't from Kesennuma  or even Tohoku region at all but in the last  

decade his fate has become intertwined with that  of the town and its people in 2011 a devastating  

earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of Japan's  east coastline and after getting involved with  

the recovery efforts Ken never truly stopped  building lasting friendships with the local community

hosting major events and even opening  a popular cafe in the reconstructed harbour  

I was recently incredibly lucky to spend a week  with Ken Watanabe to uncover the remarkable story  

of what led one of japan's best-loved actors to  adopt Kesennuma and make it such a big part of  

his life and to discuss his groundbreaking career  as the first japanese actor to be nominated for  

both a Tony award and an Oscar with enviable  Hollywood success in movies such as

The Last Samurai, Letters from Iwo Jima and Inception.  In what may be one of the most inspiring and

undeniably surreal weeks of my life, this  was my week with Japan's biggest movie star.

You know I always joked the day that I met  Ken Watanabe would be the day that I would

leave japan because after that you know you've  completed Japan you've done everything

So this is pretty awkward I didn't expect it to happen  ever. But we are on our way to the town of Kesennuma

it's about two hours north of Sendai it's a pretty  remote place and we're going to the K-Port cafe

Ken's cafe that he's owned and run for eight years  now because of everything that's been going on he  

hasn't actually been able to get back to the town  in a while now so today is his first day back and  

later on this week Ken is actually putting on  an event where he'll be performing and singing  

Am I nervous? - Absurdly. But above all I'm kind of

excited and curious as this is a side  of Ken's life we don't really get to see much

off the big screen. I just hope I don't make  a fool of myself along the way, god forbid.

This is it, the K-Port in Kesennuma. I haven't  been here in maybe three or four years.

The last time I came up here, there was no Ken Watanabe,  today hopefully we'll get a bit more lucky.

Thank you so much, it's a bit of a  shock seeing you just coming out of the K-Port

Yes a beautiful day to come to Kesennuma.  How does it feel to be back?

Walking into the K-Port you're greeted with  the tantalising scent of pizzas in the oven  

cakes being baked and coffee being  served, it's a dangerous place to be

if you're on a diet and as it's Ken's  first day back in the cafe for a while

there's official business to be taken  care of like eating this delicious cake.

As the owner, Ken's pretty involved in the menu  and after giving his feedback on the new dessert

he sets about signing autographs for the lucky customers that have caught him in the restaurant this afternoon.

On less hectic days he even gets stuck in and serves the unsuspecting diners, I mean

Imagine having Ken Watanabe just randomly bringing  over your pasta, you'd probably fall off your chair.

When customers come here for some lunch and  then Ken Watanabe is just walking around serving customers

You must have had some really surprised responses from customers when they're

like "Oh my god what what's going on there's  Ken Watanabe look!" it's not a normal situation.

K-Port is clearly a big part of ken's life even on  the days he's not physically present he hand

writes a message sharing his thoughts which  are faxed through and left at the entrance

of the cafe to welcome customers. With K-Port  recently passing its eight year anniversary

I wanted to find out why he'd chosen to build  a cafe in particular given his vastly different

So when you started K-Port it would have been November 2013 right?

Around that time I was in Osaka for my  first time and I remember I was on Ebisu Bridge

and I saw your face on a big billboard  and I thought "Oh it's Ken Watanabe!"

I wonder what Ken is doing right now and you were  here in Kesennuma opening the K-Port. To go from an

actor to a Restauranteur, was that a difficult thing?  Was it scary to open a cafe?

I mean we're sitting here drinking Ken's  favorite coffee brand and we've had a lot

of food that you've personally been involved in. I watched you eat a cake earlier

and give a careful analysis on the cream and the content of the cake.

Every aspect of this cafe is very much a piece of you isn't it?

I'm not going to pretend that this is a  normal day, that was so surreal getting out the car

the door opens and it's just Ken Watanabe right there. To go from seeing him on the

screen over the last 20 years to just standing  in front of me is pretty trippy and i'm not going

to pretend like that didn't blow my mind, but I'm looking forward to getting to know Ken and

to hear his story and what he's been up to  in Kesennuma over the last sort of ten years

But yeah it's very trippy it's very weird and I'm not going to get used to that.

In the evening I'm lucky to be invited to a  dinner celebrating Ken's return amongst his  

closest local friends with a delicious meal of  freshly grilled seafood and sake it's a great  

chance to experience the warm hospitality and  atmosphere that Kesennuma's locals are known for.

And always remember if you find yourself at  a Japanese dinner party the etiquette is to

continuously fill up the glasses of your fellow  guests and I'll admit trying not to spill a bottle

of sake over Ken Watanabe was a nerve-wracking  highlight of the meal. Two of the key people at

the dinner are Ken's neighbour Yuji san who owns  the fish market next door and Sugawara san who's

involved in the local business association and  who owns Kesennuma's acclaimed sake brewery

The sake of which i've probably enjoyed a bit too  much this evening the next morning i meet with

them both to hear how they initially felt when a  famous face arrived in town all those years ago.

If you walk around Kesennuma today, many of the signs of the tsunami have faded with the town's successful reconstruction

it's hard to imagine that just 10 years ago this  bustling town had been all but wiped off the map

along with over 500 kilometers  of Japan's Pacific coastline,

On March 11th 2011, a massive magnitude  9.1 earthquake triggered a devastating

tsunami that would claim the lives of over 19,000  people, trigger the meltdown of a nuclear reactor

and inflict an estimated 200 billion dollars of damage

Do you remember the day or  the moment you decided to

get involved with Kesennuma and get involved with the disaster recovery?

Ken started by launching a video  campaign online to raise awareness  

with support from fellow Hollywood actors and  colleagues, but after realising the scale of the  

disaster he decided to head north to help  people on the ground visiting 22 shelters  

across the region with supplies. He paints a  bleak picture of what he found when he arrived.

How has coming here to Kesennuma and getting invovled with the recovery, how's that changed you as a person?

How's that affected your just personality and way of thinking?

With Kesennuma's concert approaching,  tonight Ken's rehearsing with popular

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