It all started after Sebastian's Caribbean Carnival. After returning from Tokyo, Diggs did time on Broadway and in television. Then came the role of Winston, the young Jamaican who falls for Angela Bassett's scorned older woman character in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. From then on, Diggs went big time, starring in movies like the Oscar-winning Chicago and the feature-film version of the Broadway smash Rent. Today, he lives in Manhattan with his actress wife, Idina Menzel (who stars as the Wicked Witch of the West in the hit musical Wicked), but he hasn't forgotten what he learned - and where he went - in Tokyo, a city he regularly returns to. Here's a weekend offstage in Taye Diggs's Tokyo.

So you went to Tokyo on Disney's dime? I went over there and had amazing experiences, made really great friends, saved a bunch of money, and had a really great time. Sebastian's Caribbean Carnival was pretty hilarious. There were costumes and a number of Japanese dancers, puppets, characters, and the whole bit. It was what everybody did there, so nobody really felt that stupid. But Tokyo was overwhelming. I don't know how politically correct this is, but I had only been where there are either a lot of white people or a lot of black people or a lot of Latinos. It was just really, really interesting to see everybody Asian. Not only was I a minority, but the Caucasian folks around me were minorities as well. It was great just to have the roles kind of reversed, even more so than I was used to.