Hearing a great cover of the country song "All You Ever Do Is Hurt Me" as he descended into Kenny's Country Music Station one Saturday evening in 2001, Chicago-born Dan Rosen wondered who the American woman singing it was. Imagine his surprise, then, when he looked at the stage and heard "this big, really good voice coming out the mouth of this tiny, very cute Japanese girl."
Mari Nagatomi -- still tiny, still cute and in even better voice than before -- is now his wife. "I was friends with her father, Kenny (Kenji Nagatomi), first. I was a regular at the club, so he got used to me. Our marriage last October was less easy for her mother because she's only three years older than me. Let's say she's still recovering."
Mari began singing six years ago when she was 18. "I was studying journalism at Doshisha University, where Dan is professor of law. But when I was there, our paths never crossed."