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– When you were in elementary school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
[Growing up… everyone has to be something when they grow up, right? We all need to get a job and live independently. The only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to become another salaryman. Since the very beginning of school.]
– What could have made you think that way?
[Ever since I was little, I didn’t want to have the same stuff as everyone else, I didn’t want to look like everyone else, I didn’t want the same haircut as everyone else……. I didn’t like any of the big trends. Somehow, I did things differently. But I wasn’t exactly trying to get attention. Actually, I’m pretty shy. But, for some reason, it was natural for me not to gently go along and agree with what everyone else said. I had different tastes, compared to the people around me. I wasn’t choosing to be different so that I’d stand out, I just naturally always preferred different things. So I didn’t want to have a job that followed that salaryman pattern, getting up at a set time every day, going to work, coming home at a set time, and repeating the same cycle every day until the weekend. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind as a goal for when I grew up, but I was absolutely sure that I didn’t want to be a salaryman.]
– You said you weren’t trying to stand out, but you also said you knew you were making different choices than everyone else. When did you first start being conscious of that
[I noticed it in elementary school. My pencil cases, shitajiki (1), notebooks… I wouldn’t use anything except the ones I liked enough to pick for myself.]
– Did you choose what to buy for yourself at that age?
[I can’t say I shopped for myself, because at that age, your parents have final say in what gets bought, don’t they? But, if I didn’t like something, I’d say “No! Don’t want that.” (laughs) My parents, they were just glad I was studying. “This kid won’t use what we buy if he doesn’t like it, so we might as well let him choose.” Sometimes, they’d buy something they thought I would like. I just wound up repeating “No! I’m not gonna use that.”]
– Did you go to school in a group?
[Yeah. I walked to school with the other kids.]
– What style was your uniform?
[The top was a blazer. I think the bottom was shorts…. There were long pants, too, but I only remember wearing the short ones.]
– Somehow, I can imagine that! (smiles)
[I wore jeans, too (laughs).]
– Whaaat? You went to school in jeans?
[I think jeans were OK, at that school. I think as long as you were wearing the blazer, they didn’t really care what pants you wore with it. Oh, and when I wore the jeans, I told everyone “I want you all to call me the undercover cop.” (both laugh). And I always wore red underpants when I went to school. But my parents said “Don’t wear that, it’s too flashy.” That made me upset (laugh).]
– Why did you want to wear red underpants?
[Because Toshi-chan (Tahara Toshihiko) (2) wore them on TV! (laughs) I must have seen that and thought “Red underpants are cool!” or something like that. But my parents said “No, it’s too flashy,” right? But it’s not like there was anything in the school rules that said “You may not wear red underpants,” so I was upset.]
– I see. Did you enjoy the elementary school life?
[Well…… I guess so (laughs). At that age, going to school every day is fun, isn’t it?]
– Did you start going to cram school (3) during that period, and do you remember anything you learned back then?
[I did go to cram school. I think I went to two, over that whole period. I went to Kumon. Even though I thought “This is pointless,” I went anyway. “All they do is pass out printouts! Easy cram school.” (laughs) I mean, they just expected us to learn from printouts. All the teacher did was mark them. Really, really! (laughs) So even though I went to cram school, it really felt more like after-school playtime. I don’t remember a single thing I learned~. The teacher was a hysteric old lady. I really didn’t like her. But, I only went there for one or two years. The cram school I went to later on had a much better teacher. Did the job properly. That teacher put enthusiasm into teaching. Also, the school was run by just that one teacher. We got to hear a lot of stories that weren’t related to studying. That made it more interesting. But, that teacher passed away. A little while ago. I kept going to that same cram school past the end of elementary school, into middle school. It was around middle school that I started wanting a band. When I was busy with band practice, I’d say “I’ve been kinda busy, so I didn’t do my homework~” or something. But the teacher at that cram school really was a good one. That teacher even started calling me “Tamasaburou.” (4) Because, I was growing my hair out and it was getting long. I must have looked so girly (laughs).]
– I can imagine a voice saying “Tamasaburou, did you do your homework?” (laughs)
[Yeah, yeah (laughs). No one but that teacher ever called me Tamasaburou.]
– Going back to elementary school, when you went with your parents to buy clothes, did you choose everything they bought for you?
[That’s right. I thought that was the obvious way to do things. But isn’t that how all kids are these days? When I see my nephews or my friends’ kids, when they don’t like something they say “Don’t want it!” Even two and three year-olds do that, don’t they? I think kids today choose for themselves.]
– Now about your parents. Parents buy things for their kids that they would like if they were kids themselves. They imagine “If I buy this, they’ll be surprised, they’ll be happy,” when they buy those treats.
[That’s just the parent’s ego, isn’t it? It’s the same as with a pet dog or cat. If you decide to dress them up, it’s because you wanted to. I think it’s the same thing with the parent’s ego.]
– I see. So, what kind of games did you play when you were in elementary school? Boys like to make forts and things…
[Yeah, yeah, I built secret bases! I also did rollerskating, and was in a gang of bikers, with bicycles.]
– That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of bikers on bicycles. (laughs)
[We were the bicycle biker gang. And I was the leader! We took our bikes to the smaaaaallest alleys we could find and zoomed around as fast as we could. With lots of squeaky noises. ……That was kinda dangerous, wasn’t it? (laughs). Looking back now, I don’t think we had too many accidents. Still, we were pretty reckless. We mostly crashed into ditches and gutters. It was still a dangerous game, though. That’s why I wound up with a ton of little injuries. I bled a lot (laughs).]
– Where did you make your secret bases?
[In the places where they kept construction materials, or in vacant lots.]
– Did you keep your secret treasures there?
[Yeah, I did (laughs). But I can’t talk about it to anyone except that group of friends.]
– Were you the type who was serious about schoolwork?
[Not really. But there was a time when I was really fired up about studying. Around third grade. It was like studying became my hobby, at least for that little while (laughs). It was a short phase, but it was intense! I went through tons of pencils and erasers! Cause I was studying so much. During that phase, a new eraser would last me about a week. You could say it was my studying boom, that one moment in my life. (laughs)]
– What was it that triggered your studying boom?
[I’m not sure what started it, and I’m not sure what stopped it, either (laughs). But that could very well be the time I studied the most in my entire life (laughs).]
– Summer vacation is longer for elementary schools, so they gave a lot of homework, didn’t they? Did you do your homework and assignments at the times you were supposed to do them?
[No way! Either I wouldn’t do it, or I’d just barely do it. Or I’d cram it all into the last three days of August. That’s how I was.]
– Which subjects did you like most? For example, what did you think of phys ed?
[I didn’t hate it… but I did hate having to get changed for it (laughs).]
– I thought you’d have been good at phys ed.
[I had good reflexes, so I was one of the fastest runners in my class. And I was especially good at those floor exercises we did in gym class. There was a lot of gymnastics involved in those, right? Sometimes the teacher said “Go show everyone how it’s done,” to me, and I went up in front of everybody. I guess my form was pretty. For the vaulting horse, it wasn’t so much my jumping, but rather my landing form that was nice, or so I was told.]
– Even though you weren’t taking gymnastics lessons?
[Yeah. I guess it’s one of my talents. It wasn’t something I learned to do by practicing a lot.]
– Were you on any class committees?
[Only in high school. Not in elementary or middle school.]
– One of the fun parts of elementary school is that they provide lunch. How was your school lunch?
[It was good. But, I was pickier about food back then. Fish, onions, peppers… I hated bitter food, so I’d eat everything I liked but leave that part. But I had a mean teacher. After lunch, it’s supposed to be recess, but that teacher made us stay in our seats until we’d eaten everything. I felt sorry for the girls who couldn’t eat any more. There were always kids like that. But then again… was it really mean spirited? These days, doing something like that would cause trouble. But back then, lots of teachers did it, didn’t they? Lots of teachers would be considered a bit crazy these days. I don’t think today’s teachers are better, but there used to be a lot of bad teachers.]
– Do you remember what your favourite lunch was?
[Curry noodles. I think I liked that.]
– Oh, and where did you go for your end of elementary school trip?
[We went to Ise.]
– What kind of student were you, in the classroom?
[The kind that doesn’t stand out, probably. I didn’t really want to stand out, but I guess I stuck out inconspicuously (laughs). I wasn’t first, but I liked coming in second or third.]
– Which of the anime you saw in elementary school left a lasting impression on you?
[I hated [(Uchuu Senkan) Yamato]. I liked Matsumoto Leiji’s [(Ginga Tetsudou) 999], but [Yamato] left me cold (5). I didn’t get it. “This is stupid!” “There’s no way anyone would do that!” I’d say (laughs). I liked the movie version of [999] more than the TV series. Other things I liked in elementary school was [(Dr. Slump) Arale-chan] and [Pataliro] (6). I loved those! Now that I think about it calmly, Arale-chan is my ideal woman!]
– She’s small, smart, has a sense of humour, and she’s cute, too.
[I have a glasses fetish, so I like girls who look good with glasses.]
– Looking back on [Pataliro], it was a surrealistic anime, wasn’t it?
[It had gay characters way back then (laughs). But there were a lot of old anime like it. [Sasuke] and stuff like that scared me (7). I saw it in the early years of elementary school, so maybe it was just the theme music that scared me.]
– What did your room look like? For example, did you have posters of idols you liked, or just wallpaper instead?
[I had posters of anime I liked. But, you know, there really weren’t any idols I liked.]
– Did you have puramoderu for decoration? (8)
[I had GunPura (Gundam Puramoderu) here and there, for decoration. I wasn’t really collecting them, but I did end up with quite a few of them.]
-Interviewer : Toujou Sachie
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
[Growing up… everyone has to be something when they grow up, right? We all need to get a job and live independently. The only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to become another salaryman. Since the very beginning of school.]
– What could have made you think that way?
[Ever since I was little, I didn’t want to have the same stuff as everyone else, I didn’t want to look like everyone else, I didn’t want the same haircut as everyone else……. I didn’t like any of the big trends. Somehow, I did things differently. But I wasn’t exactly trying to get attention. Actually, I’m pretty shy. But, for some reason, it was natural for me not to gently go along and agree with what everyone else said. I had different tastes, compared to the people around me. I wasn’t choosing to be different so that I’d stand out, I just naturally always preferred different things. So I didn’t want to have a job that followed that salaryman pattern, getting up at a set time every day, going to work, coming home at a set time, and repeating the same cycle every day until the weekend. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind as a goal for when I grew up, but I was absolutely sure that I didn’t want to be a salaryman.]
– You said you weren’t trying to stand out, but you also said you knew you were making different choices than everyone else. When did you first start being conscious of that
[I noticed it in elementary school. My pencil cases, shitajiki (1), notebooks… I wouldn’t use anything except the ones I liked enough to pick for myself.]
– Did you choose what to buy for yourself at that age?
[I can’t say I shopped for myself, because at that age, your parents have final say in what gets bought, don’t they? But, if I didn’t like something, I’d say “No! Don’t want that.” (laughs) My parents, they were just glad I was studying. “This kid won’t use what we buy if he doesn’t like it, so we might as well let him choose.” Sometimes, they’d buy something they thought I would like. I just wound up repeating “No! I’m not gonna use that.”]
– Did you go to school in a group?
[Yeah. I walked to school with the other kids.]
– What style was your uniform?
[The top was a blazer. I think the bottom was shorts…. There were long pants, too, but I only remember wearing the short ones.]
– Somehow, I can imagine that! (smiles)
[I wore jeans, too (laughs).]
– Whaaat? You went to school in jeans?
[I think jeans were OK, at that school. I think as long as you were wearing the blazer, they didn’t really care what pants you wore with it. Oh, and when I wore the jeans, I told everyone “I want you all to call me the undercover cop.” (both laugh). And I always wore red underpants when I went to school. But my parents said “Don’t wear that, it’s too flashy.” That made me upset (laugh).]
– Why did you want to wear red underpants?
[Because Toshi-chan (Tahara Toshihiko) (2) wore them on TV! (laughs) I must have seen that and thought “Red underpants are cool!” or something like that. But my parents said “No, it’s too flashy,” right? But it’s not like there was anything in the school rules that said “You may not wear red underpants,” so I was upset.]
– I see. Did you enjoy the elementary school life?
[Well…… I guess so (laughs). At that age, going to school every day is fun, isn’t it?]
– Did you start going to cram school (3) during that period, and do you remember anything you learned back then?
[I did go to cram school. I think I went to two, over that whole period. I went to Kumon. Even though I thought “This is pointless,” I went anyway. “All they do is pass out printouts! Easy cram school.” (laughs) I mean, they just expected us to learn from printouts. All the teacher did was mark them. Really, really! (laughs) So even though I went to cram school, it really felt more like after-school playtime. I don’t remember a single thing I learned~. The teacher was a hysteric old lady. I really didn’t like her. But, I only went there for one or two years. The cram school I went to later on had a much better teacher. Did the job properly. That teacher put enthusiasm into teaching. Also, the school was run by just that one teacher. We got to hear a lot of stories that weren’t related to studying. That made it more interesting. But, that teacher passed away. A little while ago. I kept going to that same cram school past the end of elementary school, into middle school. It was around middle school that I started wanting a band. When I was busy with band practice, I’d say “I’ve been kinda busy, so I didn’t do my homework~” or something. But the teacher at that cram school really was a good one. That teacher even started calling me “Tamasaburou.” (4) Because, I was growing my hair out and it was getting long. I must have looked so girly (laughs).]
– I can imagine a voice saying “Tamasaburou, did you do your homework?” (laughs)
[Yeah, yeah (laughs). No one but that teacher ever called me Tamasaburou.]
– Going back to elementary school, when you went with your parents to buy clothes, did you choose everything they bought for you?
[That’s right. I thought that was the obvious way to do things. But isn’t that how all kids are these days? When I see my nephews or my friends’ kids, when they don’t like something they say “Don’t want it!” Even two and three year-olds do that, don’t they? I think kids today choose for themselves.]
– Now about your parents. Parents buy things for their kids that they would like if they were kids themselves. They imagine “If I buy this, they’ll be surprised, they’ll be happy,” when they buy those treats.
[That’s just the parent’s ego, isn’t it? It’s the same as with a pet dog or cat. If you decide to dress them up, it’s because you wanted to. I think it’s the same thing with the parent’s ego.]
– I see. So, what kind of games did you play when you were in elementary school? Boys like to make forts and things…
[Yeah, yeah, I built secret bases! I also did rollerskating, and was in a gang of bikers, with bicycles.]
– That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of bikers on bicycles. (laughs)
[We were the bicycle biker gang. And I was the leader! We took our bikes to the smaaaaallest alleys we could find and zoomed around as fast as we could. With lots of squeaky noises. ……That was kinda dangerous, wasn’t it? (laughs). Looking back now, I don’t think we had too many accidents. Still, we were pretty reckless. We mostly crashed into ditches and gutters. It was still a dangerous game, though. That’s why I wound up with a ton of little injuries. I bled a lot (laughs).]
– Where did you make your secret bases?
[In the places where they kept construction materials, or in vacant lots.]
– Did you keep your secret treasures there?
[Yeah, I did (laughs). But I can’t talk about it to anyone except that group of friends.]
– Were you the type who was serious about schoolwork?
[Not really. But there was a time when I was really fired up about studying. Around third grade. It was like studying became my hobby, at least for that little while (laughs). It was a short phase, but it was intense! I went through tons of pencils and erasers! Cause I was studying so much. During that phase, a new eraser would last me about a week. You could say it was my studying boom, that one moment in my life. (laughs)]
– What was it that triggered your studying boom?
[I’m not sure what started it, and I’m not sure what stopped it, either (laughs). But that could very well be the time I studied the most in my entire life (laughs).]
– Summer vacation is longer for elementary schools, so they gave a lot of homework, didn’t they? Did you do your homework and assignments at the times you were supposed to do them?
[No way! Either I wouldn’t do it, or I’d just barely do it. Or I’d cram it all into the last three days of August. That’s how I was.]
– Which subjects did you like most? For example, what did you think of phys ed?
[I didn’t hate it… but I did hate having to get changed for it (laughs).]
– I thought you’d have been good at phys ed.
[I had good reflexes, so I was one of the fastest runners in my class. And I was especially good at those floor exercises we did in gym class. There was a lot of gymnastics involved in those, right? Sometimes the teacher said “Go show everyone how it’s done,” to me, and I went up in front of everybody. I guess my form was pretty. For the vaulting horse, it wasn’t so much my jumping, but rather my landing form that was nice, or so I was told.]
– Even though you weren’t taking gymnastics lessons?
[Yeah. I guess it’s one of my talents. It wasn’t something I learned to do by practicing a lot.]
– Were you on any class committees?
[Only in high school. Not in elementary or middle school.]
– One of the fun parts of elementary school is that they provide lunch. How was your school lunch?
[It was good. But, I was pickier about food back then. Fish, onions, peppers… I hated bitter food, so I’d eat everything I liked but leave that part. But I had a mean teacher. After lunch, it’s supposed to be recess, but that teacher made us stay in our seats until we’d eaten everything. I felt sorry for the girls who couldn’t eat any more. There were always kids like that. But then again… was it really mean spirited? These days, doing something like that would cause trouble. But back then, lots of teachers did it, didn’t they? Lots of teachers would be considered a bit crazy these days. I don’t think today’s teachers are better, but there used to be a lot of bad teachers.]
– Do you remember what your favourite lunch was?
[Curry noodles. I think I liked that.]
– Oh, and where did you go for your end of elementary school trip?
[We went to Ise.]
– What kind of student were you, in the classroom?
[The kind that doesn’t stand out, probably. I didn’t really want to stand out, but I guess I stuck out inconspicuously (laughs). I wasn’t first, but I liked coming in second or third.]
– Which of the anime you saw in elementary school left a lasting impression on you?
[I hated [(Uchuu Senkan) Yamato]. I liked Matsumoto Leiji’s [(Ginga Tetsudou) 999], but [Yamato] left me cold (5). I didn’t get it. “This is stupid!” “There’s no way anyone would do that!” I’d say (laughs). I liked the movie version of [999] more than the TV series. Other things I liked in elementary school was [(Dr. Slump) Arale-chan] and [Pataliro] (6). I loved those! Now that I think about it calmly, Arale-chan is my ideal woman!]
– She’s small, smart, has a sense of humour, and she’s cute, too.
[I have a glasses fetish, so I like girls who look good with glasses.]
– Looking back on [Pataliro], it was a surrealistic anime, wasn’t it?
[It had gay characters way back then (laughs). But there were a lot of old anime like it. [Sasuke] and stuff like that scared me (7). I saw it in the early years of elementary school, so maybe it was just the theme music that scared me.]
– What did your room look like? For example, did you have posters of idols you liked, or just wallpaper instead?
[I had posters of anime I liked. But, you know, there really weren’t any idols I liked.]
– Did you have puramoderu for decoration? (8)
[I had GunPura (Gundam Puramoderu) here and there, for decoration. I wasn’t really collecting them, but I did end up with quite a few of them.]
-Interviewer : Toujou Sachie
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
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