<figure id="attachment_227211" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3024px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-227211"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5a7b0486"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/b0b797f7c8c87aa6e13bbfc9d0f63fcd.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-227211" class="wp-caption-text">At the wedding of Hisae, the eldest daughter. The third daughter, Takako, is on the left (courtesy of Mr. Arai).</figcaption></figure>
Keita Inagaki, PR, who plays for Japan&#8217;s national rugby team, announced on his Instagram and other media that he has married model Takako Arai. It&#8217;s a good thing that I&#8217;m not the only one who has a problem with this.
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 In my case, my daughter (Takako) has not lived with me for a long time since she left school due to work and other commitments, so I felt like I was away on my own. This time, she got married and said, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to be with a man. I feel relieved, rather than lonely, because she has made it clear that she is going to live with this man.
 I am relieved that my three daughters are getting married in turn, but my wife Yuki passed away 12 years ago (from cancer), so I am sad that my mother, who I was most looking forward to seeing, will not be there.
Two shots of the two girls in sunny clothes. This photo was taken at the wedding of Mr. Arai&#8217;s eldest daughter, Hisae. Takako, who is standing next to Mr. Arai, is 2 cm taller (177 cm) than Mr. Arai, who has been active in the professional baseball world and has been on the field as a coach, coaching Ichiro when he was with the Orix, Yoshihiro Maru (Giants) and Ryosuke Kikuchi in Hiroshima. As expected of an international model. When Takako and Inagaki came together for the first time in front of him, Arai revealed his impression.
 I met Inagaki for the first time on December 12 last year in Tokyo, the day after I attended Katsuya Nomura&#8217;s farewell party. At that time, my daughter (Takako) wasn&#8217;t ready to get married yet, so we didn&#8217;t talk about marriage or joining the family at all. I also met him without any sense of &#8216;becoming a father-in-law&#8217;. The marriage talk seemed to gain momentum between us after that&#8230;. The official report came at the end of the year or at the beginning of the year, when we received a report saying, &#8216;We&#8217;ve decided together.
However, Mr. Arai was aware of the fact that they were dating and had a good feeling about Inagaki, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if it will take the form of marriage or not, but I hope it continues.
 When I saw him play in a rugby game, I thought he was very brave, and when I met him, I felt that he was really a respectable member of society.
Mr. Arai asked a simple question about his daughter&#8217;s boyfriend&#8217;s main occupation, rugby, which he met for the first time over lunch. I asked him if the feeling he gets when he clashes with foreign players in Japan is the same as the feeling he gets when he actually travels to Ireland or Scotland, the home of rugby, and plays against foreign players there.
Inagaki responded to the question as only a former athlete can, even though he is not a specialist.
 Inagaki answered the question as a non-specialist but former athlete: &#8220;The hit of a foreign fighter in Japan is different from the hit of a foreign fighter in a foreign country. After a match in Japan, I don&#8217;t have any muscle pains the next day, but when I actually compete over there (in Europe, for example), there is a difference in the damage done to my body the next day.
Hearing this answer, Mr. Arai felt &#8220;Inagaki&#8217;s sincerity towards what he is doing.
This is because it overlaps with what Arai experienced as a professional baseball player during his active career.
 I never played in the majors, but I had a similar feeling when I participated in the Japan-U.S. Baseball Tournament. We played with the ball used in the U.S., and when the American pitcher threw the ball that was used in the U.S., I hit a ball that in a normal game would have gone over the second baseman&#8217;s head, but ended up as a half-liner to the second baseman. I didn&#8217;t feel the speed of the ball that much, but I was overpowered by the power of the ball.
 (To put it in Inagaki&#8217;s context,) being able to put the difference into words and not just keep it in your senses will eventually lead you to try to improve what you&#8217;re doing.
Mr. Arai himself achieved 2,000 hits in his 18th year as an active player, reaching the milestone at the age of 40 years and 2 months, which was the oldest record at that time. Inagaki, who is his son-in-law, must have sensed Arai&#8217;s sincere attitude as a player who has always been seeking for a higher level.
Inagaki&#8217;s marriage to his daughter, who is a world-famous model, and Inagaki, who represents Japan in rugby, is a marriage that only Arai can make.
 In the case of sports, of course, physical strength is an inseparable part of the sport, so there will definitely be a decline. Even if you want to do it, you will not be able to. In the case of female modeling, if your popularity declines, it may be difficult to continue working.
 The point is that we are both in a world where we have to graduate when we are no longer wanted. So I hope that when they quit, they will be able to say, &#8216;Okay, we did a good job,&#8217; and do their best so that they have no regrets about what they are doing.
The newlyweds may not have much time together, but they will be a couple that supports each other while respecting what each other is doing. My father-in-law, who knows the rigors of surviving in the professional world, is keeping his distance and quietly watching over his daughter and her husband, wishing for their further success.
<figure id="attachment_227212" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1108px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-227212"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e51ad022"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/338c00ec0c529448ce4d8154495d6956.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-227212" class="wp-caption-text">Courtesy of Mr. Arai</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_227214" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 702px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-227214"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e9534842"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/2005071700105.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-227214" class="wp-caption-text">When he achieved 2,000 hits against Orix on July 8, 1992 (Photo: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_227215" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1024px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-227215"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f3336fe8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/2016080801380.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-227215" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Arai, who was the hitting coach for the Orix first team (right), smiles with Ichiro (center), who broke Mr. Arai&#8217;s record for most hits in a 130-game season in September 1994 (photo: Kyodo News)</figcaption></figure>

 The marriage of Japan's national rugby team and an international model has been announced. Inagaki's father is Hiromasa Arai, who played for Nankai and Kintetsu, and the famous baseball player, who also achieved 2,000 hits, said he felt at ease when he met the "man who never smiles" for the first time last December.

Father of Rugby Inagaki’s Marriage Partner Reveals ‘Report on Marriage to a Man Who Doesn’t smile’

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