こんにちは、Takaです！

I'm a professional English interpreter, Spanish translator, and journalist. Spent my college years in NY and Tel Aviv for 2.5 years.
So far, translated 2 Spanish books on Mourinho, one on Vicente Del Bosque, 6 English books including a biography of Cristiano Ronaldo and Hope Solo etc. The latest book is "Serve to Win" by Novak Djokovic. 9 books and nearly 80,000 copies in total.
Currently I'm working on a book on what the U.S. Marine Corps has to say about Okinawa with an active U.S. Marine captain.
My articles appear frequently on various magazines and I occasionally appear on TV.
I have a nickname in the publishing industry; "The Angel". I always submit an article or draft one week before the deadline, which is extremely rare in this field. In addition, editors don't have to do much for revision. A true professional is always fast and accurate, just like me.
Believe it or not, I'm from a project in a small town in Japan, Just like "Good Will Hunting" household and "8 Mile" hometown. So I didn't have my passport until I was 20. Since then, I've visited;

Seoul, S.Korea in 1999.
All over the U.S., some major cities in Canada, and Mexico in 2000.
Istanbul, Israel, Spain, France, the Vatican, and Italy in 2001.
Morocco, Gibraltar, Spain, France, Switzerland, the Netherland, Germany, and Belgium in 2002.
Toronto, NY, LA, and San Diego in 2003.
Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, and Taiwan in 2004.
Amsterdam, Paris, London, Dublin, and Hong Kong in 2005.
Seoul, Tijuana, LA, Dallas, Phoenix, Taiwan, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore in 2006.
Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Taiwan in 2007.
Gran Canaria, Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt, Seoul in 2009.
Taiwan, the Philippines, Koh Samui in 2010.
Bangkok and Laos in 2014.

From 2010 through 2013, I've written subtitles for all major TV stations in Tokyo. To name a few, I got involved in the following news;

*Rescue operation of Chilean Miners.
*Earthquakes in Christchurch, NZ.
*Qatar 2022 World Cup bidding.
*World Baseball Classic.
*IOC Tokyo 2020 bidding
*London Olympic
*Tokyo Marathon
*A fixed match in Nigeria
*Typhoon Haiyan
*U.S. Forces in Okinawa etc.

Organized a charity event for flood victims in Serbia during World Cup in Brazil in June and visited Thailand for dental care and Laos for market research in October 2014.
I speak English, Spanish, and Japanese professionally, plus Korean and Hebrew non-professionally.
I'm also an open water swimmer, amateur historian, chess lover and crazy Gleek. On weekends, I'd watch one or more of the following games as a part of my work;

Chelsea FC (I've translated two books on Mourinho before and possibly more in the near future)
Real Madrid(Cristiano Ronaldo and possibly Gareth Bale plus James Rodrigues)
Real Zaragoza (Its head coach and assistant coach are good friends of mine)

I've read over 8000 books in 9 languages in my whole life. to name a few, the books (available in English as of Jan 2015) below influenced me a lot;

The End of History & Trust (Francis Fukuyama)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree & The World is Flat
(Thomas Friedman)
On Wings of Eagles (Ken Follett)
The Aladdin Factor (Mark Victor Hansen & Jack Canfield)
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (David Landes)
Moneyball (Michael Lewis)
The Art of Seduction (Robert Greene)
Direct from Dell (Michael Dell)
Lords of the Realm (John Helyar)
Man, the Unknown (Alexis Carrel)
Memoiren (Leni Riefenstahl)
Power (Jeffrey Pfeffer)
Language in Thought and Action (S.I.Hayakawa)
The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley & Danko)
etc.

Movies? I've watched over 500 during my highschool years and maybe 1200 in my lifetime. My all-time best movie is "Braveheart". Other than that, "Scent of a Woman", "Amadeus", "Shawshank Redemption","Pretty Woman", "Far and Away", "White Squall" ,
"No Man's Land","Bend It Like Beckham", "With Honors", "Any Given Sunday", "17", "The Client", "Wild Heart Can't Be Broken","ONCE",
"Good Bye Lenin", "Rush", "Invictus", "42", "Rudy", "Notting Hill",
"John Q", "3 Idiots","Vengo", "La Vita e Bella", "New Cinema Paradise", "Leon", "North Country" ,"Don't Stop Believin'","About Time", "Love Actually", "Truman Show", "Yes Man", "Changeling",
"KANO","Argo", "Gran Torino" etc...

Music: Queen, Journey, The Corrs, Enya, Scorpions, Bryan Adams, Firehouse, Skid Row, Mr.Big, Aerosmith, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman, Laura Pausini, Avril Lavigne, Delta Goodrem, Taylor Swift...

My mottos:
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government".
"Government is not a solution to the problem; Government is the problem".(Ronald Reagan)
"Every man dies. But not every man really lives"(Braveheart)
"Se non ora, quando?" (If not now, when?)
"Semper Fidelis" (Always Faithful)
"王侯将相寧有種也"

I don't drink alcohol due to my Baha'i faith. Quit smoking almost ten years ago. But I do enjoy cigars and sheesha (nargile) occasionally.