A Japanese Star Known for Big Hits Sees Suzuki Get One On Monday night, Ichiro Suzuki hosted perhaps the second-most-famous person in Japan right now at his Manhattan apartment for dinner and presented her with a bottle of 1968 Chateau Latour, which costs about $500. It was a special memento to celebrate her debut record of the same year, "Hoshizora no Kodoku." Akiko Wada is a singer, actress, television host and commercial spokeswoman. When Japanese reporters, assigned to cover Suzuki, spotted her on the field during batting practice Wednesday, they gathered around her, five deep, and she entertained them like a true diva. This is a woman who perhaps the Aretha Franklin of Japan. She is known for this performance of "Unchain My Heart.," and was the voice of Marge Simpson in the Japanese version of the Simpsons. It was a pity Suzuki's 4,000th career hit didn't go over the wall Wednesday. Then Ms. Wada could have said, "Oh, Homer." Instead, Suzuki lashed a line-drive single to left field off Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher R.A. Dickey, giving him 2,722 hits in the major leagues and 1,278 in Japanese professional baseball. Suzuki had invited Wada months ago to come visit him in New York this week. At the time, no one could have known that Suzuki would be on the verge of reaching 4,000 combined hits. He recorded two hits Tuesday but saved the big one for his friend's appearance at Yankee Stadium the next day. "I am not a big fan," she said of baseball. But I do know about the Yankees and Babe Ruth, so I always wanted to see Yankee Stadium. When Wada, who first met Suzuki when she was on a tour of Seattle, recently told her business manager that she was going to visit Suzuki, he was struck by the timing. "He said, "Do you know you are going during the time of his big record?"//" she said through an interpreter. I had no idea. It was just a coincidence. But I was very nervous that I would be coming at a bad time, when I might be interfering with his work and all the pressure. But he has been so relaxed, you wouldn't even know. I have been the nervous one. Wada said she and Suzuki get together in Japan during the off-season, sometimes at the restaurant she owns in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. She said she was not aware of him every attending one of her concerts, though. "He is the type who might sneak in and out privately, without anyone knowing," she said. Whenever she does her 4,000th performance of "Unchain My Heart," Suzuki will have to be there. Then she can present him with a bottle of Domaine Des Comtes Lafon Meursault les Perrieres, 1992, the year he made his debut in Japan.