Alright fellas, here’s the final installment of OhmyNews / Ura Channel’s exclusive interview (<– original video here) with mega popular former Morning Musume and Hello!Project artist Ai Kago aka Aibon. And thanks for your encouraging comments…it’s good to know that the effort I put in is worth while!:)
“Morning Musume aren’t idols”
Aibon started off the final portion of her interview with famous Japanese showbiz reporter Masaru Nashimoto by saying the super popular Japanese girl unit “Morning Musume” wasn’t meant to be an idol group, but was viewed as such. Instead she considers Morning Musume to be a female singing group. Back then she was given the kiddish “Kago-chan” role so she had to play along. But now she’s starting anew and would like to be considered other than an idol.
Masaru proceeded to ask her if she still smokes now that she’s turned 20 and is legally allowed to smoke in Japan. Aibon replied, “Actually I’ve already quit before this. But even though now I can smoke freely I no longer feel like smoking. And nowadays I also feel it’s not so good manner wise to smoke.”
Aibon gave an interesting analogy to the situation. She said, “It’s like when you’re a small child you’re not allowed to go on some of those bigger rollercoaster rides and you really want to ride them. But once you’ve grown and passed that height requirement you don’t really feel like getting on them anymore.”
When the veteran interviewer Masaru Nashimoto mentioned that the reason he doesn’t smoke (honestly I was shocked, I imagine Masaru to be the typical chain smoking, yakitori eating, shochu drinking Japanese old geezer…guess I was wrong) is because when he visited a shrine while on a school trip in high school some people next to him were smoking and it made him feel ill, Aibon told him she felt the same way. She explained that by smoking and being around smoke it made her voice coarse, and added that it’s not okay for underage kids to smoke, even if they don’t get caught. Haha it sure sounded like Aibon was doing an anti-smoking campaign!
Toward the end Masaru quipped that he is more than 40 years Aibon’s senior (he’s 63). Aibon expressed genuine surprise and said she didn’t think he’s that old. When he told her he was born in 1944 Aibon said, “Oh that’s the same year my grandma was born!” which drew a bunch of laughter. Country side people sure have kids young!
Best of luck to the older and wiser Miss Ai Kago…please don’t cut yourself anymore
Today’s portion was rather short and here’s what the former idol and Hello!Project artist Ai Kago shared in the interview with Ura Channel and OhmyNews:
Veteran Japanese entertainment reporter Masaru Nashimoto asked about her plans for the future. she replied that she doesn’t know exactly what’ll happen but because she has experienced a lot by being in Japanese showbiz since she was 12 years old (which she’s quite proud of), she feels that with her ability to convey different emotions she’d like to give acting a try.
Aibon has been doing some writing on a daily basis. Someday she hopes to get a book published and would be happy if in some way her book can be of help to someone.
She also revealed that she has kept in touch with some Morning Musume and Hello!Project members and they provided her with encouragement. She was touched when some of them asked her, “Hey Aibon how are you doing?” since only her ex fellow members call her by that nickname (calm down you fanboys…I’m sure she meant in her “real” life). To Aibon the Hello!Project girls are her source of inner peace.
When she received text messages from them she felt she wanted to rejoin the group. But she knew it wasn’t possible, so she decided to work hard on her own.
When Masaru brought up Aibon’s former partner in crime Nozomi Tsuji, she responded that she was really surprised to hear about her sudden pregnancy and marriage and she’s seen Taiyo Sugiura’s (Nozomi’s hubby) blog before. But from the sound of her voice I suspect Nozomi isn’t one of the people she is in constant contact with. She was also surprised to hear about the “Mikitty incident” (please check out my blog on 1/9 and 2/15) but believes Miss Miki Fujimoto will make a strong comeback since that is in line with Miki’s personality.
Finally the conversation moved onto Maki Goto, who’s currently on a secret mission in LA. Aibon said she was in touch with her until right before she departed for the States. She explained that she has always liked Maki and feels they share many similarities. She thinks Maki is a strong person so she will surely succeed, and hence she must strive for success herself too.
Both Aibon and GoMaki choose LA as their preferred destination to get away
