– tetsu-san, are you normally health conscious?
[Hmmm, I think I have to be, but I can’t be.]

– In what ways do you have to be?
[I think meals are most important. One of the trainers at the gym I go to said so too, that although training and moving your body are important, meals are what’s most important. I think my eating habits are rather poor.]

– To compensate for that, do you take supplements?
[I do, but I don’t think it’s very healthy. I think that eating nothing but health food products ends up being unhealthy instead.]

– But, even though you say that, you have beautiful skin. No acne or anything.
[People honestly tell me that, but I think it’s totally not true. I get some~ Sometimes. But please don’t say acne, I’m young. Say pimples (laughs).]

– Pimples are when you’re under twenty (laughs). Actually, what do you do when you get a pimple?
[I fight. I crush them swiftly. It’s bad for my skin but that’s not a problem. I won’t allow them! How dare these things come up on my face without permission! Or something (laughs)]

– (laughs) Since you’re now into your mid-thirties, I expect you think about your age?
[I do. Even my going to a gym is connected to that sort of thought. Before, I went to a different gym sometimes, but since I switched to the one I go to now it feels much more genuine.]

– Well. You do know what’s good for your body. How many times a week do you go to the gym?
[The trainer tells me to come in twice a week, but that’s hard so I try to go once a week. But actually I’m not going that much (bitter laugh).]

– When you don’t go, isn’t your physical condition completely different?
[It is. It kinda feels like my muscles get dull. I don’t have any equipment at home so I don’t do anything.]

– Which machines do you like to work out on?
[I pretty much like all the machines. I hate running the most. Running is the only tiring part. I run for about 25 minutes. My heart rate is monitored, and a trainer is next to me, changing the speed after I’ve run for a certain span of time.]

– Sounds like something an athlete would do.
[That is what I do. I chose the course myself, and I didn’t know it at first but I do the same thing as pro athletes. So, I was wondering why it was so tiring, and I told the trainer “The rest of the training isn’t that tiring, but the running part is depressing,” so he told me “That can’t be helped. It’s a program nobody but a pro athlete will do.” You’re kidding~! I thought (laughs).]

– But there have been results to your hard work, right?
[Yeah, I trained just before “Shibuya Seven days 2003” and I didn’t get tired at all for the “Seven days”. Amazing results. So, yeah, I think I’ll keep it up.]

– Interviewer : Harada Sachi
Translated by Natalie Arnold