Takahashi Ai’s Radio-graphy

The role of a person who thinks more of others than herself

Right after coming in, she says “I’ll be in your care!” energetically and bows quickly. A cheerful 22 year old girl with good manners. She’s the 6th leader of “Morning Musume”. She’ll be playing the leading role in the NHK drama8 “Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou” (Thursdays, 8pm) which will start airing on January 8th, next year.
“When I first heard of the role, I was very surprised. It was not until I got my hair made and I got to try on her costume that I realized that ‘it was all for real’”. She doesn’t hide her innocence.
It’s a mystery drama about two female and male high school students solving difficult cases. “The main protagonist thinks more of others than herself and acts without considering the consequences.”. However, “I usually practice my acting in the bath or in my bed, but it’s embarrassing when my mom’s around. (lol)” she says.
She took up acting because she was fascinated by Takarazuka. Later she passed an audition and joined “Morning Musume”. “I struggled through the first 2 years. Now I’m the oldest member and the leader, but the girl who’s the subleader is very helpful and reliable, so I can act like the silent father figure.”. She’s quite the lovely father.

Article: Kiyabu Kenji
Photo: Mitsunobu Satou

- Morning Musume’s 37th single is “Pepper Keibu”.
Takahashi Ai: It’s a cover of the debut song of the band Pink Lady that everyone knows. I think it’s a great honor to be able to cover a song which is so famous that you can dance and sing it even though you weren’t even born at the time it was released. Even though it’s a cover, we want to keep on loving it as much as our own songs.
Kusumi Koharu: The two Pink Lady members are idols who made history. Covering a song of such a band is something amazing, so we’ll try to sing it as well as possible in order to meet the expectations.
Niigaki Risa: Without breaking the image of Pink Lady’s “Pepper Keibu”, we perform “Pepper Keibu” in a fresh and cheerful way that’s typical for Morning Musume. We hope you’ll enjoy the mix of nostalgy and freshness.
- What’s the connection between Morning Musume and Pink Lady?
Takahashi: We once performed together on “Music Fair”. We got to sing “Nagisa no Sindbad”, “UFO” and other songs together and they danced together with us in “The Peace”.
Kamei Eri: When I think about it now, it was like a dream…
Takahashi: That’s why, I think it was fate. Arbitrarily. (lol)
- What are the characteristics of Morning Musume’s “Pepper Keibu”?
Michishige Sayumi: There’s no interlude in the original, but there’s one in Morning Musume’s version and it’s quite intense.
Tanaka Reina: When I was thinking that since it’s a cover, the dance will be probably the same and we won’t dance much, a Morning Musume part was added there.
Mitsui Aika: It caught us off guard. (lol)
Junjun: It’s very powerful and Morning Musume-like.
Linlin: The costumes are different too. Pink Lady had pink, we have green ones. So we’re “Green Girls”. (lol)
- The b-side “Romance” is a cover of Iwasaki Hiromi-san’s song.
Kamei: I love that song. My mom often sings it, so I had heard it many times already. But when I listened to Iwasaki-san’s original, I noticed that my mom was singing it totally wrong. (lol)
Mitsui: I think the lyrics are good e.g. ♪Iki ga kakaru hodo soba ni itte hoshii♪. They’re cute and sexy at the same time.
- “Pink Lady” makes you think of the Shouwa era. Since Shouwa = nostalgic, what kind of things made you feel nostalgic lately?
Takahashi: Since I’m from Fukui prefecture, I feel nostalgic when I meet other people from Fukui. I get happy talking about the town I’m from and get into a nostalgic mood.
Niigaki: The other day I went to a festival with Papa and Mama after a long while. When I heard the shouts of the old men during the Bon Festival dance, I felt very nostalgic.
Mitsui: When I was tidying up my room the other day, I found a lot of photos and presents from the time when I lived in Shiga. When I opened my datebook, there were many names of my friends written in it. It was very nostalgic.
Junjun: I watched an old DVD the other day. The DVD contained the first dance that was filmed of Linlin, Mitsui and me. Our dance was very bad and our faces were swollen too. We looked like dancing meat buns. (lol) I really think we’ve grown since then.
Linlin: I feel nostalgic when I eat Chinese meat buns. It makes me think of how I used to eat them for breakfast everyday in China.
Kamei: I used to have ballet lessons and I had the habit of always drinking a certain carbonated drink after them. But since I quit ballet, I haven’t been able to find that drink anywhere else, but they were selling it in the vending machine of this studio! The bottle was changed into aluminium, but it still had that extremely nostalgic taste. It made me remember my way home from ballet when I was in elementary school.
Michishige: I love eating pikes. But since summer is not the season for them, pikes cost a lot, right? They’ve become cheap only recently when autumn arrived and I could finally eat pikes. When I eat them I think “This taste is the best after all~” and remember the previous year. (lol)
Kusumi: As for me, I often feel nostalgic. It’s like everything in the past feels nostalgic to me. (lol)
Tanaka: I host a radio show (InterFM “FIVE STARS”) where I get to choose which songs to play. Lately I’ve been playing many nostalgic songs and while listening to them, I remember the time when I used to listen to that song. Memories get wrapped up in songs, right? It made me think that music is a good thing.
- “Morning Musume” makes you think of the Heisei era. Since Heisei = new, what kind of things made you feel that way lately?
Takahashi: Since recently, we can make banana juice at home. I thought that you can easily make it yourself if you have a mixer and it was another new discovery for me.
Kamei: I’ve always thought that I can’t eat macaron. An aversion without even trying. But when I did try it recently, I could eat it. A new discovery for me.
Tanaka: There are cards called Micro SD, right? I used to think that you read it like “Maikuro”, but a friend told me that you read it like “Mikuro” and I thought that it’s “Mikuro” all the time. But then I heard someone say it like “Maikuro SD card” and said “That’s Mikuro, you know?”, but I was totally wrong. (lol) Another thing I learned is that you say “Oh no! Fukitsu na yokan!” instead of “fuketsu na yokan“. (lol)
Kamei: And you even asked me “Eri, do you know this saying?” so full of confidence, that we all fell down when you said it wrong. (lol) We were shocked.
Linlin: I learned a new Japanese word. “zekku“. I want to use it a lot.
Mitsui: I’ll be raising a dog on my own. It’s a toy poodle and I chose it myself, signed the pet contract myself and bought a pet insurance myself. I did all that for the first time.
Michishige: I keep a diary everyday and recently started my 7th one.
Everyone: Amazing!
Michishige: It doesn’t get old writing in it at all. Everyday is fun.
Junjun: I’ve noticed that time seems to pass very quickly lately. When “Cinderella the musical” ended in August, I couldn’t believe how quickly the 3 weeks had passed. During the filming of the promotion video, I was surprised because it was evening before I even noticed it. The Beijing Olympic Games too, when I thought of watching it, it was already over. (lol)
Kusumi: I recently noticed that I’ve become taller again. Now I’m about 164cm tall. My goal is to reach 172cm, so I hope I’ll grow even more.
Niigaki: In “Cinderella the musical” I got to play the role of a gentleman-like prince for the first time and I had to wear 15cm high boots for that. The view from 15cm higher than usual was new for me. I normally have to look up to most members, but when we formed a ring during the musical, I was happy because I was sticking out. (lol) Since I’ve always wanted to become taller, it was like one of my dreams came true.

From a Takarazuka Musume to a Morning Musume

Takahashi Ai - She took the audition because of her competitive spirit rather than her dream

In the nationwide popular group Morning Musume, Takahashi Ai (17) is already one of the members who have top class popularity. This summer will be her third summer since joining Morning Musume. She originally wished to become a different kind of Musume, a Musumeyaku i.e. an actress who plays female roles in Takarazuka. The classic ballet lessons she had since the age of 8 endowed her with a flexible body and an honest, pure heart.

[Her dialect has disappeared!?]

It’s been 3 years since she moved to Tokyo. I’m very surprised when she tells me that she has already lost her Fukui dialect which used to be one of her charmpoints(?). “It just happened naturally when I kept talking to people in Tokyo. When I’m talking with my friends in Fukui on the phone I tell them that ‘Ahh, I’m already speaking standard Japanese, ya know? But the people here in Tokyo understand what I’m saying if I talk like this too. Though some still say I haven’t lost my dialect yet.’.”
Wearing casual jeans and a black cardigan on top, she shows me her specialty, classic ballet moves, while facing the mirror. It’s beautiful to watch and you get the impression that she looks more mature like this.
When I tell her that she looks pretty, she says “No! I’m not. I’m definitely not. No one has ever told me that I’m pretty!” with a bright red face. She seems so embarrassed that she hides her face with both hands, so I ask her “Someone at school probably told you the same thing and confessed his love to you, right?”. She becomes angry and denies many times saying “Ain’t nobody telling me that. Ain’t nobody telling me that!”. When she realizes that she spoke with her dialect in agitation, she corrects herself saying “Ah! Nobody tells me that!” one more time. Very lovely.
“Once there was a letter in my shoe box at school… But, but, I thought it was a downright lie. It’s true!” she says, trying very hard to explain to me what she means while blushing. She has an honest character and a very expressive face.

[But she loves Fukui]

Then I bring up Sauce Katsudon, the specialty of Fukui and tell her my impression that “It wasn’t very delicious…”. She brusquely counters with “That’s only because you went to a bad place!”. She’s surprisingly strong-willed.
This girl, Takahashi, has been dreaming of becoming a Musumeyaku of the Takarazuka Revue since she was in elementary school. “If I didn’t have this dream, I think I wouldn’t have continued ballet and wouldn’t be able to do my best now either.” she says.

Relieving stress with Takarazuka

Her best method of relieving stress is as expected… “Takarazuka”. “I buy their videos and I still go watch their plays. I don’t mind watching while standing either. Then it costs 1500 yen. I collect the cards too. Even if something bad happens, Takarazuka blows my gloominess away and I feel like I can do my best again.”.

The type of man she likes: the exact opposite of her father

Talking about the type of man she likes: “I’d like someone who does the talking. Even though I’m an idol, I usually don’t talk much.”. She respects her father, but someone like him couldn’t be her lover. “I wouldn’t like someone like dad who always goes to pachinko parlors on off-days. I feel like ‘Why do you even try if you already know you’ll only lose?’.”

[Her father was against it]

She took up classic ballet when she was in third year of elementary school. After that she got interested in Takarazuka and started watching their TV shows. “Mom and I both became fans of Takarazuka. The first troupe I watched was the Flower Troupe. I still remember it.”.
Her first favorite Takarazienne was Takahashi Fubuki who was a top star of the Snow Troupe at that time. “I put up posters of her in my room. When friends came over, they said “Ehhh! Scary!” though.”.
Because of her lack in height, her goal was to become a “Musumeyaku” and she would continue practicing ballet even if a toenail came off. In middle school she joined the chorus club. She even took part in a national tournament. The reason she took the Morning Musume audition wasn’t because it was her “dream”, but rather because… “I was watching it on TV and got envious of the people who passed it. I didn’t take the audition to become an idol, I rather took it because I wanted to pass it. I thought I can’t lose to them.”.
Her father(38) was against her joining Morning Musume. He asked her “You wanted to join Takarazuka, didn’t you? Is it ok to give that up?”. Hearing that from her reticent father was “tough” she says.
“Now dad puts up posters of me and copies sites on a computer he never used before. But it seems like he doesn’t want me to think that he’s accepted it, so all he does is telling me to do my best from time to time. He’s reticent as usual.”.
The person she respects is her father. “He works in an express home delivery company. Even if he gets home very late, he still puts his all into his job. I know it’s only natural. I know that, but that’s what I like about him. Earlier, I often went to wave hands at my dad when his truck passed by the station.”.

[In the new song, she’s already…]

Once her goal was to become a “Musumeyaku”, but now she’s doing her best as a Morning Musume. The dream of this pure hearted girl now is to become an adult. “When I’m feeling down or when I’m worn out, Abe (Natsumi)-san or Gotou (Maki)-san would talk to me or write me a letter to cheer me up. I want to become someone who can listen to others and has an own opinion about everything.”.
In the cover of the new song “Joshi Kashimashi”, she’s boldly sitting in the center. This girl will soon reach her “Musumezakari“.

Captions of the pics:
[Aichan’s signed illustration where she drew strangely long eyes.]

[As might be expected from someone who dreamed of becoming a Musumeyaku of Takarazuka, she was very good at classic ballet she took up in third year of elementary school. Left pic: Aichan when she was 3 years old. She’s easily recognizeable because of the big and beautiful eyes.]

[Takahashi Ai giving the interview with Fukui dialect mixed in and a smile on her face]

[Full name: Takahashi Ai
Date of birth: September 14th, 1986
Origin: Fukui prefecture
Pet names: Aichan, Tettekete
Her favorite thing: Red towel. (She’s used it since she was small and can’t sleep without it.)]

MF: Takahashi-san, you use Mac, right?
Takahashi: We have a Power Mac G5 and an iBook G4 at home. We bought them about 4 years ago and everyone in my family uses them. There’s an AirMac in the entranceway and we use the iBook in the living room or carry it around.
MF: What do you do on your Mac?
Takahashi: I mainly listen to music. But I’m thinking of watching videos on it too since it has a lot of capacity.
MF: Do you make music yourself?
Takahashi: I don’t. But when I go to the recording studio there’s always a G5 and everyone’s really surprised when I mention that I got one at home too. (lol)
MF: Since you listen to music you probably have an iPod?
Takahashi: I have an iPod shuffle and an iPod nano.
MF: How about you, Tanaka-san?
Tanaka: I still use MD. (lol) I have an iPod I got as a present. And since we have a computer at home, I asked my mom to put songs into it, but she said she doesn’t know how to… I once asked the staff on the phone, but I didn’t know what to insert where, so I gave up on it and still use MD.
MF: Ah, what a shame.
Tanaka: By the way, iPod is for Mac?
Takahashi: If you connect it to a Mac you can easily put songs into it without doing much.
Tanaka: Eh~! That’s amazing! Then you don’t need any CDs anymore?!
Takahashi: Well, CDs are still necessary though…
Tanaka: Bummer.
MF: (lol) But I’m sure you’ll easily get the hang of it. When you’re supposed to learn a new song, what kind of medium do you get the song in?
Takahashi: It’s different for everyone. Burned on a CD-R for example.
Tanaka: I’m the only one getting it on MD. (lol)
Takahashi: All members use iPod. Some even style them up with rhinestones.
Tanaka: I envy the others because they use such compact players. You can put crazy many songs into an iPod, right? My baggage is always heavy because I use MD. T_T
MF: What kind of songs do you put into your iPod?
Takahashi: We put our own songs into them too. During lives we can listen to them for a quick check and when a new song is out we can listen to it to memorize it. We also put our favorite songs into them. Today I listened to Janet (Janet Jackson).
Tanaka: MDs can become quite a load to carry, so I usually have a compilation of my favorite songs by EXILE, Gotou Maki-san, Utada Hikaru-san etc. in one MD.
Takahashi: I listen to my songs in shuffle mode. It’s fun not knowing which song is going to play next and that way I sometimes discover songs I had, but hadn’t heard yet.
Tanaka: You can do that with MDs too. It’s called random playback.
Takahashi: Right, right! (lol)
Tanaka: But since it contains only a few songs, I soon know all of them. T_T
MF: Tanaka-san, you’re not interested in computers?
Tanaka: My friends told me that YouTube is very interesting, so I’d like to try it out, but I’m not good with computers… But I do know the basics like double clicking etc. since we had a computer course at school.
MF: In today’s photo shooting, you’ll be photographed together with a MacBook Air.
Takahashi: I really want to have one!! I’m sure it’d be fun to take one with me when we go to the countryside on our tours. I feel like I can use time effectively then. Earlier I used to take an iBook with me and watch DVDs or listen to music, but since I recently bought speakers for my iPod I started using iPod more often.
MF: Now in June, the debut song of the new unit called “High-King” is going to be released and in August “Cinderella the Musical” will be performed. What kind of musical is it going to be this time?
Takahashi: Since it was already performed many times by the Takarazuka Revue, the audience can compare our version to the previous ones. I’m a bit worried about what they’ll think of it. We also watched DVDs of the previous versions, but then an image is created in our minds, so in contrary it takes a lot more time to create our own version.
MF: But when there’s singing, there’s probably dancing too, right?
Takahashi: We performed “Ribon no Kishi” two years ago, but the dances will be of bigger scale this time. There’s even a ball scene this time.
Tanaka: I bet it’ll be difficult.
MF: Are you good at dancing, Tanaka-san?
Tanaka: I’m not good at it. I can somehow handle dancing to songs like “LOVE Machine” for example, but I’m not good at more genuine dances like ballet or cool dances.
Takahashi: That’s what she says, but this girl can do it properly. (lol)
MF: What about you, Takahashi-san?
Takahashi: I like… dancing. (lol)
Tanaka: It’s easy to see that Aichan likes dancing. She has a naturally good posture and our dance teacher often says that her dancing makes use of it.
Takahashi: Ahaha. I’ll do my best.
MF: What should we pay attention to when listening to the new song?
Takahashi: We’re a promotion unit for “Cinderella”, but the lyrics of the song aren’t like that of a fairytale…
Tanaka: The exact opposite, right?
Takahashi: You believe in fairytales when you’re small, but when you become older you stop believing in them and see that things don’t go as well in real life. Something like that. (lol)
Tanaka: It was our first challenge on a song of the dance genre too.
Takahashi: The song reminds you of western music and it’s, in contrast to “Resonant Blue”, very danceable. That’s why we learned a lot from it.
MF: But since you’re good at dancing.
Takahashi: I’m not good at it…
Tanaka: There was lots of pressure, but we really did our best. Please make sure to listen to it, ok?

TAKAHASHI AI

This idol loves games too

I really love games!! I have pretty much all game systems at home e.g. Playstation 2, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Wii etc.
Recently I’ve been playing games about 1 to 2 days a week. I play Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS when I’m on my way during work or when I have some free time. Ah, also when I’m taking a bath too. (lol) By the way I’m currently studying English through the Playstation Portable game “TALKMAN”. Because I like English too.
It was my parents’ influence that made me like games so much. They both totally love games… I especially remember them playing the “Final Fantasy” series. When I saw that I thought “I want to do it too “. (lol) Oh right, my dad brought a Nintendo 64 home because he mistakingly thought the new “FF” would be released for it. He also bought “Super Mario 64″ that time and I became addicted to it. I used to play it while quarreling with my little sister. (lol)
I’ve played many different games, but my favorite is the “FF” series in particular. I especially like “FFVI”, “IX”, “X” and “Final Fantasy Tactics”. If I remember correctly, I think I played both “IX” and “X” twice all the way to the end when I was already a member of Morning Musume. (lol) The fascination of them is definitely the story. The characters that appear in them are extremely cute and cool and I love leveling them up more than anything!! Ahh, I want a new “FF” to come out soon.