(Page of Swords & The High Priestess, vol.1) But even now, because I am who I am, I don't value pre-existing values.

I understand. But to answer your question, I need to share my experience with you. I'm going to tell you a personal old story, but would you mind listening to it?

When I started middle school, Madonna had a big hit with "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl". Her second album "Like a Virgin" was released on November 12, 1984, but it wasn't until the following year that great sensation arrived in Japan. I loved her so much that I would go to school with a large crucifix around my neck, and on my days off I would wear a bunch of bracelets around my wrists, navel out, sunglasses similar to "WAYFARER" by "RAY-BAN", lick my Chupa Chups, and pretend to be a little "Wannabe's" and go out to the fashionable "Harajuku" area of Tokyo.

Oh, no, no, of course, I couldn't afford "WAYFARER" with my allowance back then, LOL. I wore sunglasses similar to those.

The “Wannabe's” were the nickname of a group of girls who wanted to be Madonna, and they imitated Madonna's distinctive fashion at the time she released her “Like a Virgin” album. They flocked to every venue on Madonna's first concert tour, “The Virgin Tour,” and went wild.

You can see what kind of fashion it was by watching the promotional video for “Into The Groove". The song is the theme song for the movie “Desperately Seeking Susan,” in which Madonna plays the role of Susan. The promotional video features scenes from "Desperately Seeking Susan". Although Madonna is only in the movie a little, it is an interesting movie in that it can be seen as if she herself is playing the role of Susan, one of the “Wannabe's”.

I am not a person who likes to imitate the way someone dresses, but I still wanted to imitate Madonna at that time! It was not enough that I watched her promotional videos on TV and sang along with her, bought her albums "Madonna" and "Like a Virgin," as well as the 12-inch single vinyl that were popular back then, and bought her photo book published by "Ongaku no Tomo Sha" and looked at it everyday. I would go to Harajuku or the shopping street called "Ameya-Yokochō," buy clothes from secondhand clothing stores, take them apart, and make my own clothes that were as good as "Wannabe's" in the United States!

Of course, I stayed up completely all night to watch all of "LIVE AID". It was July 13th!

"LIVE AID" was a charity concert for the relief of African refugees. It was held simultaneously at "Wembley Stadium" in London and "JFK Stadium" in Philadelphia, and lasted a total of 12 hours, making it the largest charity concert of the 20th century. Bob Geldof, vocalist of the Dublin New Wave band, THE BOOMTOWN RATS, along with Midge Ure of ULTRAVOX, composed the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for African refugee relief. It was then taken from England to the U. S., where "We Are The World" was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. Numerous artists participated in the recording of each song, and each song was a huge hit. At the height of the movement, "LIVE AID" took place.

Madonna sang "Holiday", "Into The Groove" and "Love Makes The World Go Round".

Oh, sorry, I have no memory of the scene where Bette Midler introduces her, nor do I have any memory of Bette Midler saying that, of course, LOL. Madonna also sang "Revolution" by THE BEATLES, along with THOMPSON TWINS and Steve Stevens and Nile Rodgers.

I knew Billy Idol from "Rebel Yell," but I didn't know Steve Stevens was the guitarist in his band, so I'm sorry I didn't know who he was with Madonna. Of course, I never knew Billy Idol was from a Punk Rock band called GENERATION X. In the first place, I didn't know about "Punk Rock." My classmate at the time, Toko Akazawa, who is now a product designer, loved Punk Rock, but I had never heard of Billy Idol from her. Toko was a big fan of London Punk Siouxsie and the Banshees and Japanese New Wave girl band ZELDA.

She was very mature and cynical about the world, so the music she listened to had nothing to do with the hit charts. Toko once invited me to go with her to see ZELDA live at the Shibuya Public Hall in Tokyo. It was probably in the middle of January of the following year, 1986. ZELDA was an all-female band, and their musicianship was so high that Ryuichi Sakamoto loved them, and they had a huge influence on Japanese Rock music. In fact, I enjoyed the show so much because it was cool, exciting, and cute at the same time! I even said "thank you" over and over again to Toko for inviting me. The third album "Sora-iro Bōshi no Hi" is my favorite!

Ah, now the topic was "LIVE AID", wasn't it?

The Japanese "LIVE AID" telecast was terrible, with a few commentators coming on from time to time to talk, but on the monitor behind them was someone else playing and singing. I used to yell at them.

I don't want you guys, show me the band, let me hear the music!

So, my summer of 1985 was wonderful. And as August came to an end and summer vacation ended, society was talking about nude photos of Madonna. A boy in my class whose parents owned a Chinese restaurant once sneaked a copy of "PENTHOUSE" and "PLAYBOY", which featured nude pictures of her, to school. It is mid-September. His parents' Chinese restaurant always had newspapers and magazines for customers to read while waiting for their food.

Yes, I used to go out to eat with my family. I am a Tofu lover. So, I loved Mapo Tofu that his father made!

He took "PENTHOUSE" and "PLAYBOY" out of them and brought them to school. I joined my classmates in looking at beautiful black-and-white nude pictures of Madonna. Of course, since it was published in "PENTHOUSE" and "PLAYBOY", the photo is not a work of art, and is clearly an obscene photograph, but I found it beautiful. Above all, I thought it was a powerful photograph, one that showed Madonna's strong will to succeed at all costs.

I watched intently, thinking things like, "Oh, Madonna used to have dark hair," or "She doesn't shave her armpits or pubic hair." I was the only girl there at the time. The son of the Chinese restaurant later told me that the boys couldn't make any nasty jokes about me because I was so serious as I stared at Madonna's nudity. Is your pubic hair like this too? Show us. I was in a situation where they would have said something like that to me, but they didn't say that to me. The boys in my class liked the pretty teenage girl pop stars called "IDOL". Some of them were incredibly bad singers, but if they were pure and pretty, they gained some popularity. That was the time when the belief in virginity among Japanese boys collapsed. Madonna certainly contributed to the collapse of the virginity belief.

Mostly, boys want to see girl’s nude. So, they flocked to see "PENTHOUSE" and "PLAYBOY" brought by the son of a Chinese restaurant. Phoebe Cates, for example, was very popular in Japan even before she appeared in "Gremlins". She became very popular when she appeared nude in her 1982 debut film "Paradise". The sequence in which she stripped naked and washed herself in a cave with water pouring out from between rocks excited boys. When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, "Paradise" was broadcast on TV. At that time, movies with nudity and sex scenes like that were a common occurrence on Japanese TV from 9:00 p. m., so even elementary school students could watch it. On the following Monday, the boys were talking about Phoebe Cates' nudity. They were no different from the boys in the raunchy sexy teen comedies like "Porky's" and "Eskimo Limon/Lemon popsicle, Growing up". But they wanted their favorite " IDOL " to remain virgins. All other women were objects of their sexual interest. In other words, I was one of them. They were thinking at the time that they wanted to tease me with obscene jokes and even hopefully touch me as I gazed at Madonna's nudes with them.

But Madonna's armpit hair was beyond their imagination. It was a surprise to the Japanese at that time. Madonna's armpit hair puzzled and frightened the boys in my class who liked "IDOL" I felt that even the fact that nudes taken by her during her unsuccessful years were circulating was a testament to her strength. In short, I was very moved, but I also realized that I was surprisingly bound by conventional wisdom and had never imagined that Madonna would have had her nudes taken without shaving her armpits. I was not surprised that nude photos of her existed, but I was surprised that she had her nude photos taken without shaving her armpits. And I was moved to feel such "common-sense" within myself crumbling in a big way. And since Madonna's armpit hair looked odd to the boys in my class, I also looked like an abnormal girl looking at it seriously.

I was looking at them so intently that the son of the Chinese restaurant told me he was going to give me a copy of "PENTHOUSE" and "PLAYBOY". All I wanted was the Madonna nude photo, so I carefully cut it out with a utility knife and took it home. The sexy pictures on the other pages were probably shared by the boys, LOL. They were all healthy guys, like Judge Reinhold from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High", LOL, LOL, LOL. Uh, if you haven't seen it, check it out, LOL.

After that day, none of my classmates spoke to me anymore, except for a very few, such as Toko Akazawa and the son of the Chinese restaurant. I had deviated from their rules and common-sense. I was perceived by them as a very crazy girl who would look at Madonna's nudes in a very serious way. So I was collectively "Ignored," a kind of so-called "IJIME/bullying". By their standards, they probably had no problem with girls being interested in sex, but they thought girls should have an atmosphere where they could make naughty jokes with them.

Is your pubic hair like this too? Show us.

Hey stop it! You are such a dirty!

If I could respond with that much verbiage along with a smile and have a good laugh with them, I passed and maybe I wasn't "Ignored". They could not say anything to me because I was too serious and silent, staring at Madonna's nudes. They were afraid of me. They did not need to fear me at all, because I just loved Madonna. But I didn't play the false me and make crude jokes and try to get them in a good mood. So, I was "Ignored".

So, I loved Madonna more and more. She did not make me lonely in those days. I never met her, but if I could meet her in person someday, I would thank her. I had been listening to American and British hit songs and watching many American movies since elementary school in order to learn English. That habit continued into middle school, which is how I discovered Madonna and her music. And all the music and movies did not make me lonely in those days.

That was me around 1985.

By the way, I still have a nude photo of Madonna that was given to me by the son of a Chinese restaurant and tucked into the vinyl of "Like a Virgin", LOL. Compact discs were in their infancy, and I did not yet have a CD player.

You know Madonna well after that, don't you? She was a very intelligent woman, and she quickly She was a very intelligent woman who quickly shattered the "Material Girl" image and left the "Wannabe's" behind with hits like "Live To Tell", "Papa Don't Preach" and "La Isla Bonita". I sighed at the vividness of the photo on the cover of her third album, "True Blue," in which Madonna, who had quickly and unsparingly cut and shortened her hair, closed her eyes and looked up to the heavens!

In Japan at the time, there was a controversy like Cyndi Lauper vs. Madonna. People find controversy amusing. Before that, Michael Jackson vs. Prince was a very exciting thing.

In fact, it was obvious that Cyndi Lauper was a better singer than Madonna in the conventional sense, but Madonna clearly understood that this was going to be the era of dance music, and she had established a way of singing for it. Many people did not understand that, but I, for one, understood it very well. In fact, American girls of my generation could understand the essence of Madonna that the older generation of music critics, both in Japan and in the United States, could not. I also somehow understood that she was extremely talented at producing. That is Madonna's greatest talent that would later become clear to everyone. But at the time, many people didn't really understand that either, and those people regarded Madonna as a vulgar one-hit wonder.

What I remember well is that just a short time ago, Cyndi Lauper was considered a vulgar one-hit wonder. Even with her beautiful hit "Time After Time," the red-haired Cyndi Lauper was expected to disappear from the entertainment industry soon. Of course, critics don't say so explicitly, but they put such a sentence in the reviews of other singers' albums. And when Madonna came along, the insults that were directed at Cindy Lauper were directed at Madonna. Before Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar probably had terrible critiques written about her, and so did The Go-Go's. Even after Madonna, Tiffany, Martika, Debbie Gibson, or even Paula Abdul must have been insulted by critics. Maybe Whitney Houston was always praised, but I remember Janet Jackson, before Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced her, being ragged on by the critics. And those nonsensical, ridiculous, vapid critics survive today, and both Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift were their targets.

I had taken it for granted before then that I would unhesitatingly fight the unjustified among the established values and live authentically without giving in, but the arrival of Madonna reinforced this idea for me. I also came to believe that in order to do so, I had to be more intelligent and smarter, and not be looked down upon by the stupid people. I have seen the cynical evaluation of Madonna by the public, and I have come to understand that stupid people do not seem to understand true innovators, but rather try to drag them down, so I need a broader perspective and a cool-headed eye to see the essence of things to avoid being caught flatfooted by them. Given my own situation, I was convinced that I needed to have a powerful weapon in my hands to never be underestimated by others. More I try to study!

I was in track and field club in middle school. I was a short distance runner. I was a fast runner. Now, even in track and field club, the "Ignored" still started. If I had belonged to a club that required a partner to practice with, such as a tennis club or a volleyball club, I would have left the club right after the "Ignored" started. I stayed in track and field club after the "Ignored" started because I only needed to run by myself. One day, when I came back to the changing room after practice, my bag was ransacked. My "Walkman" had been smashed. "Walkman" is a portable audio player released by SONY. And the cassette tape of Madonna that was in my "Walkman" was also destroyed. I made a collection of songs on one cassette tape, including "Like a Virgin," "Material Girl," and "Dress You Up," as well as "Holiday," "Lucky Star," "Borderline," "Gambler," "Crazy for You," and "Into The Groove", et cetera. The tape on the cassette tape was being torn apart. So, I left the track and field club that day. I need more time to work on my studies! I need more time! I wasn't so much angry as I was determined, firmly and firmly committed to becoming a great success who would attain great power that would never be reached by the little people who do this!

So, I became more diligent in my studies, which led me to Leland Stanford Junior University. There I studied business. I then founded "Nu-Era Pics" in Silicon Valley with Angie Kendall.

When I think back, when I was young, I lived my life with a false sense of pride. I was obsessed with beating someone. I also despised most strangers. Therefore, I sought to beat them to a pulp. With that kind of mindset, there is always a new enemy to beat every day. I was obsessed with trying to beat someone else. It was an exhausting way to live, and later I transitioned to a way of life that valued peace of mind, joy, and spiritual abundance. I met and married Masato Shiraishi, and shortly thereafter met the Ohuchi family of Hiroshi and Janet. And thanks to them we met "A Course In Miracles". Since then I have been enjoying a life of practicing "Forgiveness" and "Surrender" guided by the Holy Spirit.

But even now, because I am who I am, I don't value pre-existing values.

Whenever my maternal grandfather Tatsuo Tsukida would take my mother and me out for a western style meal, he would always say, “Yukiko, it's wonderful to be different from everyone else. Be yourself". My grandfather was once a banker. My grandfather trained several good and unique small business owners. He not only lent them money, but often helped them to make their businesses work. Tatsuo Tsukida knew that the key to success was to be unique and different from everyone else.

Yukiko, it's wonderful to be different from everyone else. Be yourself.

I think that is something that Japanese people in general are rather uncomfortable with. I often went with my grandfather and mother to the nearby "CENTER GRILL" to eat "Omelette stuffed with Rice". We also went to Ginza in Tokyo to eat "Côtelette" at "Restaurant Rengatei" and ice cream at "SHISEIDO PARLOR". Of course, I took both "Omelette stuffed with Rice" and my grandfather's words as nourishment.