Rika Izumi, also known as Chisaki Hama, was born in Kyoto, Japan on November 10, 1988. She is best known as the girl genius, Sailor Mercury in Japan's live action TV show Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, which was her first acting role . Besides singing, she can play the saxophone and loves sewing. Although Chisaki Hama is not her birth name, its meaning has a common bond with her role on PGSM. It means "thousands of flowers blossoming at the shore". She was credited as "Rika", her real name, meaning "spring" in Act Zero and the Special Act of PGSM. Prior to her success in PGSM, Rika had other work such as idol specials on TV and modeling for various magazines. After PGSM, Rika decided to step out of the lime light. Some sources say that she wanted to continue schooling and that she was dealing with some health issues, but there was no indication that Rika's early retirement was forever. Two years later, Rika returned to the modeling world in June 2008 according to a site called Pinky Profile. She is one of the top 12 of 5,427 entrants to win the title for Pinky Princess. Currently, she is signed with Sun Music Brain as of June 1st 2008 and new photos of Rika will be in the August 2008 issue of Ray magazine.
