– By middle school, did you know what you wanted to be later on?
[In middle school, well…… I remember kinda wanting to run my own store. It would have been either a toy store, or a fancy goods store. Fancy goods, that has an old-sounding ring to it (laughs). I didn’t want to be a salaryman, but in middle school I didn’t have any other ideas besides maybe running a store.]
– Was your middle school somewhere you could walk to from home?
[I went on my bike. But, actually, I was close enough that I was supposed to come on foot, so I’d ride my bike halfway, find somewhere to park my bike while I was at school, and then walk the rest of the way.]
– What kind of clubs did you join during that time?
[I didn’t join any. Just the go-home club(1). At one point, I did join the baseball club. I didn’t have a choice. The soccer club had gotten disbanded. So I tried the baseball club, but I didn’t go much. Soooometimes I’d say “I’m bored, maybe I’ll go to the batting center,” so I’d go borrow a bat from the baseball club. Besides that, I never practiced, but I was a great hitter (laughs). Even got home runs. When I did that, the teacher in charge of our club couldn’t find anything to say to the guys who practiced to exhaustion every day. Since the guy who only showed up once in a while, for the hell of it, was hitting better than the guys who put everything they had into the sport. I must have been a problem for that teacher. Besides, I was already putting all my youthful energy into dashing home as soon as classes were over.]
– What was your reason for rushing back home so quickly?
[I actually don’t really remember what I did when I came home (laughs). What I do remember is that a senpai, two grades above me in the same middle school, lived across the street. I used to go over there to play. I’d come home from school, dump my stuff in my room, and then head over there right away. Sometimes I didn’t even bother going home after school, I’d just go straight there. And, ken-chan came over to that house, too (laughs). During middle school, me and that senpai and ken-chan hung out together. Around supper time, we’d each head back to our own homes, or something like that.]
– When the three of you got together in that room, what did you do?
[We hung out and listened to records. When something new came out, one of the three would buy it. We’d all listen to it, talk about it, then go “Who’s gonna buy the next one?”. With the three of us buying different things and borrowing each other’s records, we got to hear a lot of stuff, didn’t we? And we took turns going out to buy them. It was an effective way to use our pocket money.]
– What was the new music you were buying back then?
[Scorpions were huge back then. Micheal Schenker (Group), Whitesnake(2)…… That was a good time for heavy metal and hard rock.]
– You could say that you are the way you are now because you had gone through that lifestyle of collecting and listening to music.
[That has some truth to it. But I liked to listen to music even before that, ever since fifth or sixth year of elementary school. It was around middle school that I got into hard rock and heavy metal, though. The first time I touched an instrument was at that senpai’s house. He played guitar.]
– Was that the first time you were in a band?
[That was in middle school. But that was just friends playing together rather than coming together as a band. The most we did was put on a show at the school bunkasai (3)]
– How were your study habits during middle school?
[Besides school, I went to cram school, and I had a private tutor. I guess that covered it.]
– A private tutor! Did you get good grades?
[Not really. I hardly studied at all, in middle school. But I had to get ready for high school entrance exams somehow, so my parents got me the tutor.]
– I see (laughs). In middle school, you start new subjects, like English. Did you take much interest in learning English?
[English, well, I hated my English teacher~ (bitter laugh). Since I hated my teacher, I ended up hating the subject, and I really regret that now. I wished I’d tried harder with English, so now I find myself wishing I’d had a better teacher. That school’s English teacher was a person I couldn’t accept anything from. Also, that teacher wasn’t originally from Kansai, so I never got any of his jokes(4). It was a man. I must not have been very humane with him.]
– Then, your teachers had a huge influence on whether you liked a class or not.
[Absolutely. That’s why I think people should think carefully before becoming teachers. How are you going to go about teaching?]
– But before becoming a teacher, you need to take education courses at a university and successfully graduate in order to get a teacher’s certificate. Furthermore, you need to pass the teacher’s qualification test, and then find a school that has an opening.
[You can get through that whole process just by studying. People can still become teachers without a shred of human personality! If you’re a little brainy, you can probably get far by studying, but I think a lot of teachers do that and still fall into the “Not good with people” category.]
– On the other hand, have you had any teachers that charmed you into thinking they were wonderful people?
[My cram school teacher, and one of my regular school teachers. And my high school homeroom teacher was good, too.]
– How was that impressive teacher from middle school?
[It wasn’t my homeroom teacher or anything; I hardly had any contact with him. But, he was interesting and came during recess, for fun. He was a male teacher, but he really fit in with the students (laughs). So much that we’d ask “Are you really a teacher?!” I liked that about him. He did lots of extracurricular work and clubs after school. Those activities were linked to classes, so everyone had to participate in something. Whenever that teacher was there, I went to club meetings (laughs). Like I was following him. I think it was in third year of middle school? That teacher started a volunteer club. When I asked “What’s a volunteer club for?” he said “It’s dumb! I really wanted to call it the ‘walking club’, but if I made a club like that, the other teachers’d be pissed off, so the volunteer club walks around town picking up trash. That’s just what it’s called. Really, all we do is take walks!” (Both laugh hard). So, I went for walks with that club every time. We’d pick a path for the walk, like around the school, or to the train station. And if we happened to find trash along the way, then soooometimes we’d pick it up (laughs). The teacher said “That’s good enough!” (both laugh). Great volunteer club, isn’t it?]
– Was your middle school uniform a normal school uniform?
[It was. I wore the short jacket. And slim pants. I was picky about that.]
– I can imagine (laughs). What about your bag?
[It was thin, but didn’t always look that way.]
– Of course, you didn’t take your textbooks home, did you?
[I left them all at school, probably (laughs).]
– Where did you go for your end of middle school trip?
[We went to Kyuushuu. On the Shinkansen (5). We stayed next door to this lady’s house. She came over to talk with the girls, saying things like “It looks like XX has a crush on ya.” (both laugh) “Whaddya mean?” “Well, it’s hard to explain…” and so on (laughs).]
– What were you like in class, during middle school?
[A plain kid. I didn’t stand out.]
– Was bullying ever a problem for you?
[It was never anything serious, but I did get teased a bit.]
– Do you think bullying in schools had a different meaning then compared to how things are now?
[I think serious bullying was a problem then, same as it is now. But at my school, we never had a problem serious enough to lead to someone’s death.]
– Would you say it was a pretty severe era for school violence?
[There was some regular violence in my school. It was normal to see broken windows. I contributed to some of it, actually. But, I’ve been on the receiving end, too. Looking back now, it really wasn’t much. But, the way it happened was that a group of people ganged up on me, specifically intending to pick on me. I don’t think it was all that unusual. I guess it can’t be helped. So, I don’t think there’s been much change since then in the degree of violence and bullying that goes on in schools. I think the shady stuff that happened back then still goes on these days. Anyway, I can’t say I’ve never been picked on. I did some bullying, and on the other hand, I got bullied. Maybe that’s part of what makes people stronger……. That’s why I can understand what both sides go through.]
– These days, lots of kids suffer because they get picked on. Now that you’re an adult, are there any words of advice you could offer them?
[Hmm…… First of all, don’t ever consider suicide. Taking your own life is the one thing you should absolutely never do. Maybe your situation seems so horrible that you’re contemplating doing that, but even so, you absolutely cannot give up and die.]
– So your message is that no matter how bad things get, never commit suicide.
[There are always excuses for why bullies pick on people, and there are reasons why their victims are the ones being picked on. I can’t offer any explanations for it, though. I really think bullying is a case by case thing. Some kids will kill themselves anyway, even if you say “Don’t die over something this trivial.” Other people get the same treatment and only go as far as saying “The bastards doing this to me are too cruel to be called human.” It’s case by case, so I don’t think it can be solved so simply. Still, I think you should never go as far as taking your own life.]
– That goes for everyone, not just people who get bullied, right?
[That reminds me, I saw something on TV about bullies who actually killed someone, by lynching. The victim’s parents were on TV, too. There were a lot of people involved in the incident. Those kids are adults, by now. They committed murder, but since it happened when they were underage, they can live a normal life, going about their business as if nothing had ever happened. But that means they’re going about life without having had to make up for what they did to that kid; they didn’t even have to present themselves to his butsudan (6). The assailants’ parents moved on, too. Their excuses were even worse. “It’s already happened, so there’s nothing we can do about it,” they said. That’s what they said to the victim’s parents. “Your kid will have another life, now. Don’t keep bringing up the past and dragging our kid down.” And they just murdered someone, didn’t they? Can you believe that?]
– I would have to say that’s crazy.
[So, if the parents are like that, it figures they raised that kind of kid. The parents were responsible, and so were the teachers. They didn’t raise a human being. That’s why I think you shouldn’t have kids thoughtlessly. Honestly, don’t have kids if you aren’t going to dedicate yourself to raising them. I don’t think unprepared people should have kids.]
– In reality, it’s difficult to realize the extent of the responsibilities involved in raising a child.
[That’s true. But I think that if you don’t raise your kids properly, it’ll come back to haunt you when they’re older. When raising a kid, I think their education until about age three is critically important. If you neglect that, there will be a cost, and I think it will manifest itself in that child’s future life. I think that if I were ever to become a father, I’d shower the child with love.]
-Interviewer : Toujou Sachie
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
[In middle school, well…… I remember kinda wanting to run my own store. It would have been either a toy store, or a fancy goods store. Fancy goods, that has an old-sounding ring to it (laughs). I didn’t want to be a salaryman, but in middle school I didn’t have any other ideas besides maybe running a store.]
– Was your middle school somewhere you could walk to from home?
[I went on my bike. But, actually, I was close enough that I was supposed to come on foot, so I’d ride my bike halfway, find somewhere to park my bike while I was at school, and then walk the rest of the way.]
– What kind of clubs did you join during that time?
[I didn’t join any. Just the go-home club(1). At one point, I did join the baseball club. I didn’t have a choice. The soccer club had gotten disbanded. So I tried the baseball club, but I didn’t go much. Soooometimes I’d say “I’m bored, maybe I’ll go to the batting center,” so I’d go borrow a bat from the baseball club. Besides that, I never practiced, but I was a great hitter (laughs). Even got home runs. When I did that, the teacher in charge of our club couldn’t find anything to say to the guys who practiced to exhaustion every day. Since the guy who only showed up once in a while, for the hell of it, was hitting better than the guys who put everything they had into the sport. I must have been a problem for that teacher. Besides, I was already putting all my youthful energy into dashing home as soon as classes were over.]
– What was your reason for rushing back home so quickly?
[I actually don’t really remember what I did when I came home (laughs). What I do remember is that a senpai, two grades above me in the same middle school, lived across the street. I used to go over there to play. I’d come home from school, dump my stuff in my room, and then head over there right away. Sometimes I didn’t even bother going home after school, I’d just go straight there. And, ken-chan came over to that house, too (laughs). During middle school, me and that senpai and ken-chan hung out together. Around supper time, we’d each head back to our own homes, or something like that.]
– When the three of you got together in that room, what did you do?
[We hung out and listened to records. When something new came out, one of the three would buy it. We’d all listen to it, talk about it, then go “Who’s gonna buy the next one?”. With the three of us buying different things and borrowing each other’s records, we got to hear a lot of stuff, didn’t we? And we took turns going out to buy them. It was an effective way to use our pocket money.]
– What was the new music you were buying back then?
[Scorpions were huge back then. Micheal Schenker (Group), Whitesnake(2)…… That was a good time for heavy metal and hard rock.]
– You could say that you are the way you are now because you had gone through that lifestyle of collecting and listening to music.
[That has some truth to it. But I liked to listen to music even before that, ever since fifth or sixth year of elementary school. It was around middle school that I got into hard rock and heavy metal, though. The first time I touched an instrument was at that senpai’s house. He played guitar.]
– Was that the first time you were in a band?
[That was in middle school. But that was just friends playing together rather than coming together as a band. The most we did was put on a show at the school bunkasai (3)]
– How were your study habits during middle school?
[Besides school, I went to cram school, and I had a private tutor. I guess that covered it.]
– A private tutor! Did you get good grades?
[Not really. I hardly studied at all, in middle school. But I had to get ready for high school entrance exams somehow, so my parents got me the tutor.]
– I see (laughs). In middle school, you start new subjects, like English. Did you take much interest in learning English?
[English, well, I hated my English teacher~ (bitter laugh). Since I hated my teacher, I ended up hating the subject, and I really regret that now. I wished I’d tried harder with English, so now I find myself wishing I’d had a better teacher. That school’s English teacher was a person I couldn’t accept anything from. Also, that teacher wasn’t originally from Kansai, so I never got any of his jokes(4). It was a man. I must not have been very humane with him.]
– Then, your teachers had a huge influence on whether you liked a class or not.
[Absolutely. That’s why I think people should think carefully before becoming teachers. How are you going to go about teaching?]
– But before becoming a teacher, you need to take education courses at a university and successfully graduate in order to get a teacher’s certificate. Furthermore, you need to pass the teacher’s qualification test, and then find a school that has an opening.
[You can get through that whole process just by studying. People can still become teachers without a shred of human personality! If you’re a little brainy, you can probably get far by studying, but I think a lot of teachers do that and still fall into the “Not good with people” category.]
– On the other hand, have you had any teachers that charmed you into thinking they were wonderful people?
[My cram school teacher, and one of my regular school teachers. And my high school homeroom teacher was good, too.]
– How was that impressive teacher from middle school?
[It wasn’t my homeroom teacher or anything; I hardly had any contact with him. But, he was interesting and came during recess, for fun. He was a male teacher, but he really fit in with the students (laughs). So much that we’d ask “Are you really a teacher?!” I liked that about him. He did lots of extracurricular work and clubs after school. Those activities were linked to classes, so everyone had to participate in something. Whenever that teacher was there, I went to club meetings (laughs). Like I was following him. I think it was in third year of middle school? That teacher started a volunteer club. When I asked “What’s a volunteer club for?” he said “It’s dumb! I really wanted to call it the ‘walking club’, but if I made a club like that, the other teachers’d be pissed off, so the volunteer club walks around town picking up trash. That’s just what it’s called. Really, all we do is take walks!” (Both laugh hard). So, I went for walks with that club every time. We’d pick a path for the walk, like around the school, or to the train station. And if we happened to find trash along the way, then soooometimes we’d pick it up (laughs). The teacher said “That’s good enough!” (both laugh). Great volunteer club, isn’t it?]
– Was your middle school uniform a normal school uniform?
[It was. I wore the short jacket. And slim pants. I was picky about that.]
– I can imagine (laughs). What about your bag?
[It was thin, but didn’t always look that way.]
– Of course, you didn’t take your textbooks home, did you?
[I left them all at school, probably (laughs).]
– Where did you go for your end of middle school trip?
[We went to Kyuushuu. On the Shinkansen (5). We stayed next door to this lady’s house. She came over to talk with the girls, saying things like “It looks like XX has a crush on ya.” (both laugh) “Whaddya mean?” “Well, it’s hard to explain…” and so on (laughs).]
– What were you like in class, during middle school?
[A plain kid. I didn’t stand out.]
– Was bullying ever a problem for you?
[It was never anything serious, but I did get teased a bit.]
– Do you think bullying in schools had a different meaning then compared to how things are now?
[I think serious bullying was a problem then, same as it is now. But at my school, we never had a problem serious enough to lead to someone’s death.]
– Would you say it was a pretty severe era for school violence?
[There was some regular violence in my school. It was normal to see broken windows. I contributed to some of it, actually. But, I’ve been on the receiving end, too. Looking back now, it really wasn’t much. But, the way it happened was that a group of people ganged up on me, specifically intending to pick on me. I don’t think it was all that unusual. I guess it can’t be helped. So, I don’t think there’s been much change since then in the degree of violence and bullying that goes on in schools. I think the shady stuff that happened back then still goes on these days. Anyway, I can’t say I’ve never been picked on. I did some bullying, and on the other hand, I got bullied. Maybe that’s part of what makes people stronger……. That’s why I can understand what both sides go through.]
– These days, lots of kids suffer because they get picked on. Now that you’re an adult, are there any words of advice you could offer them?
[Hmm…… First of all, don’t ever consider suicide. Taking your own life is the one thing you should absolutely never do. Maybe your situation seems so horrible that you’re contemplating doing that, but even so, you absolutely cannot give up and die.]
– So your message is that no matter how bad things get, never commit suicide.
[There are always excuses for why bullies pick on people, and there are reasons why their victims are the ones being picked on. I can’t offer any explanations for it, though. I really think bullying is a case by case thing. Some kids will kill themselves anyway, even if you say “Don’t die over something this trivial.” Other people get the same treatment and only go as far as saying “The bastards doing this to me are too cruel to be called human.” It’s case by case, so I don’t think it can be solved so simply. Still, I think you should never go as far as taking your own life.]
– That goes for everyone, not just people who get bullied, right?
[That reminds me, I saw something on TV about bullies who actually killed someone, by lynching. The victim’s parents were on TV, too. There were a lot of people involved in the incident. Those kids are adults, by now. They committed murder, but since it happened when they were underage, they can live a normal life, going about their business as if nothing had ever happened. But that means they’re going about life without having had to make up for what they did to that kid; they didn’t even have to present themselves to his butsudan (6). The assailants’ parents moved on, too. Their excuses were even worse. “It’s already happened, so there’s nothing we can do about it,” they said. That’s what they said to the victim’s parents. “Your kid will have another life, now. Don’t keep bringing up the past and dragging our kid down.” And they just murdered someone, didn’t they? Can you believe that?]
– I would have to say that’s crazy.
[So, if the parents are like that, it figures they raised that kind of kid. The parents were responsible, and so were the teachers. They didn’t raise a human being. That’s why I think you shouldn’t have kids thoughtlessly. Honestly, don’t have kids if you aren’t going to dedicate yourself to raising them. I don’t think unprepared people should have kids.]
– In reality, it’s difficult to realize the extent of the responsibilities involved in raising a child.
[That’s true. But I think that if you don’t raise your kids properly, it’ll come back to haunt you when they’re older. When raising a kid, I think their education until about age three is critically important. If you neglect that, there will be a cost, and I think it will manifest itself in that child’s future life. I think that if I were ever to become a father, I’d shower the child with love.]
-Interviewer : Toujou Sachie
Translated by Natalie Arnold.
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