Ashivers

Did figure skating non-stop from age 5 until her 3rd year of middle school (so anywhere between half a year to a year before she joined MM), for 9 years. The hosts reckon she must be pretty close to pro level. She says she often got to practice with the Olympian figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, so much so that they're on friendly enough terms for her to call him "Dai-chan". She got to see plenty of pros performing during that time. But there were so many people in the same age/generation group as her that were extremely talented, and she came to think she didn't really have a talent for ice skating like they did. She laughs off saying that even though she was at a level of practicing doing triple jumps, she realised she wasn't going to become a pro.

Having both school and figure skating full time was hard for her, she found both tough. Every day her mum would come pick her up as soon as school was over, take her straight to practice, pick her up at night after practice, Haachin would eat her dinner in the car, get home and do homework, then sleep. She never got to go out and play with friends much either, and she almost always got taken places by car so she's never learned how to ride a bicycle. It's a dream of hers to ride a bike to the park and hang out with friends. The hosts are so surprised, they've never really heard of someone who can't do it. She says she can't ride without training wheels haha. They start talking about needing fine motor skills, balance for skating, and that it's a bit bad that she can't ride a bike. She says she's bad at ball sports, they say that's fine but she should be able to ride, she's a second-year in high school. 

Education is important too. They ask her how she keeps up with her schooling while also being an idol. She doesn't dislike studying, she goes to cafes for people-watching at the same time as doing work. He asks "Can you actually concentrate doing that?" haha. She chooses a table on the terrace, listens to music and watches people go by. Like people looking wildly around for something, constantly referring back to their cellphones. It makes her think, "Ah, that person's a newbie to Tokyo" like she is.

Changing topic to joining a group with someone she looks up to like Riho, Nakajima wonders if there's anything happier in the world than achieving something like that. It makes her so happy to be in the same pictures and on the same tv screens as Riho and the others. She's gotten to like Riho more and more from working together. The first moment she met her at Budoukan all she could think was how adorable Riho looks in person, she still felt like a fan, like "Is it really okay for me to be so close to her?" She reveals that her and Riho are the same age, which really surprises Nakajima. She's also the same age as Kanon and Sakura. She uses Keigo (honorific language) when speaking to them because they're her seniors in terms of MM. But they seem like adults to her so it's natural.

She's learned some some really hard and intense songs from MM's past recently. Nakajima asks if she's done Naichau Kamo yet, she hasn't. He asks if she thinks she's at the level she could do it, she doesn't think she could do it well. Watching old clips of previous gen songs she gets really worried whether she could pull them off at concerts. He mentions that the Seishun Kozo../Ima Koko Kara/Yuugure.. release was relatively 'calm' in comparison, even if Seishun was a bit more intense. She says there was an upbeat song and a 'supple/flexible' song, Yuugure wa Ameagari, which allowed her to use her ballet-like figure skating poses.

She's not so good at dancing but people keep saying to her that she's done figure skating so she must be good at dance too, but it's not like that. Nakajima notes how she quickly and naturally she can elegantly pose her hands and arms even while she's talking. She's done a bit of ballet, at the skating rink they'd have time out from skating to learn from ballet teachers. Ueyama is amazed, it sounds like Haachin has gotten to do special gifted education classes.

They admire how lovely and almost transparently pale her hands look, how long and thin her fingers are haha. Ueyama asks if she learned the piano. She says her fingers are long enough that she looks like she'd be good at piano, but she can't read music and about the best she can do is play the recorder haha. Her hands seem big, Ueyama and her match their hands and discover they're the same size. They say she's still 16 and they may grow though, and she indicates having giant hands in the future

They mention the two concert patterns. Nakajima tried to hint for her to explain why someone should come watch both patterns, asking whether people should go twice, but she just says "Please definitely come twice, or four times, or even six times!" Does she want people to come watch just for her, or should they watch the whole group? She asks viewers to please come and keep an eye out for her pale white skin on stage. She says her fans have told her she stands out on stage for how pale her skin is. So among all the other people on stage, she wants to shine out that way.

They're rehearsing every day and it's hard work. Having two patterns means learning two sets of songs, moving around on stage alot etc. At first when she watched the rehearsal tapes she wondered if she could pull it off. Now she doesn't know if she's perfected it but she's at least able to pull it all off.

She says she still gets a few days off even with the busy schedule. She's young so she doesn't feel too tired on the first day off in a while. There are days where she sleeps in, but other days she uses her Tokyo guide map and explores, like going to Tokyo Skytree and marvelling at it. They wonder if she's had anyone come up to her, but she says she hasn't experienced that yet. She says she'd be surprised and pleased if someone came up and recognised her. Nakajima says he's going to come up and say hi if he sees her around, then "Okay, I'll wait for that moment... at Skytree" she replies (what a cutie!) He wonders if she plans to go back to Skytree, she says she didn't actually get to climb it last time because she didn't bring any money along to pay to do so, she was happy with just taking pictures, but she wants to climb it this time.

Her skirt that she's wearing is one that Harunan gave her. She's received a lot of hand-me-downs from her seniors, particularly from Riho. Riho left a whole lot of items out for the 12kis, but she took most of them home They all know how much Haachin loves Riho, so they kept telling her to take more clothes, so she did.

She says she's going to a concert rehearsal after the interview, then the interview finishes with concert promo

Basic self-intro, 2^nd year in high school, 16yo, good at figure skating. They say to introduce herself more than she usually does, because this is her interview. “I’m from Osaka” “..Tell us more!” So she tells them that she loves chewing ice cubes constantly. “I pretty much grew up in front of the freezer”

They’re surprised that she doesn’t just mean flavoured shaved ice, while she can’t believe there are people that ask for no ice in their drinks at cafes etc. “Ice is more like the main dish.” Nakajima (the guy) and Ueyama (the woman, a news announcer) talk about how Ueyama asks for no ice to protect her throat, to keep the body/throat from cooling down too much.

They wonder how she could handle the cold, she says she loves it, has spent most of her life around the ice rink. “Do you eat that ice too?” “No it’s too dirty haha” Still eats ice cubes in winter, though less than summer. Even while she’s in the bath and before bed she keeps them in her mouth til they melt. Nakajima asks if she’s ever had kachiwari ice (I think he asks if she’s gone to a sporting event like the baseball, where they sell it). He says it’s an expensive little plastic bag of ice that’s sold at sporting events in Kansai, just crushed up ice to suck on during a long match in the summer.

Haachin says she hasn’t had it, but segues the talk into baseball. Her friend is a Hanshin Tigers fan and they went together once in a cute cosplay of the uniform. She says she really isn’t interested in it and didn’t understand the rules. She mentions that Maria is the big baseball fan.

Says 12ki are close but all Maria talks about is baseball and she just isn’t interested/doesn’t get it. Maria yaps on and on about it even when they go out for food together haha

Moving on to becoming an idol. Beat 8000 other girls, still only ~9 months into being an idol. The fastest moving 9 months of her life. Hard for her to recall what has happened, it’s moved so fast. First experience at Budoukan, coming up on stage first out of the four 12ki girls, in front of 10,000 people, she said it’s the first and most amount of people she’s ever had tell her she’s cute all at once. The interviewers say that’s surprising, she’s really cute and has an aura. He thinks she’s makeup-less with how great her skin looks. But to their surprise she’s wearing makeup, and sunscreen all over, cautious about burning her skin.

They move the convo back to becoming an idol. She can’t believe she’s on the same posters as Morning Musume, as a part of them. She’s done figure skating most of her life, but she’s looked up to Riho for a while, and realised that it was the final year she could apply for MM (audition rules that no one older than 2^nd year senior could enter), so she decided to give it a shot while she could so she wouldn’t have any regrets.

She thought her MM seniors would be scary, but they’ve been really kind. Nakajima says that in any field, most people go easy on the newbies at first, Ueyama says that’s so people can get used to the role. Nakajima starts to warn her that like in any business, soon 12ki will be treated like subordinates by their seniors unless they step up, or something like that, but Ueyama scolds him for scaring her with scary adult stuff. Nevertheless, he says that Haachin is pure and so to keep his words in the back of his mind, so if it happens she doesn’t get too shocked. (This part was really difficult for me so this may be wrong).

Ueyama assures Haachin she’ll be alright, that she seems to have a good head on her shoulders and is a very polite girl so she’ll be fine. She asks about Haachin’s personality. Haachin says she is very fickle, and flits from one interest/hobby to another. But she’s an Osaka girl, so she loves talking to people. Nakajima says that’s very advantageous for her future. She says it’s normal to talk to old ladies on the train if you’re sitting next to them there (it’s true, Osaka people aren’t afraid to talk to strangers) so she’s good at it.

She says she’ll always try to keep her Osaka dialect. 12ki have all brought their own dialect in but she’s trying not to lose her Osaka-ben, part of her individuality. First member of MM from Osaka (?)  She says her Kansai-flavour soul food is takoyaki. She loves the takoyaki her Dad makes, and had never eaten takoyaki from a shop because her Dad made them instead at weekend gatherings. She heard that Tokyo people don’t really eat it, and was worried there would be no shops selling takoyaki in Tokyo. But she found one, and it was unexpectedly delicious. She hasn’t bought herself a takoyaki maker yet, so she’s waiting to visit home again for her dad’s homemade takoyaki.

Back to her audition, it was like she was in a dream because she was smoothly getting through the rounds. But she kept stuffing up, accidentally throwing a music player in the bin that was given to them for practice (I’m guessing like an iPod mini), lumping rubbish in with her luggage and throwing away the wrong thing, forgetting a sweat shirt and having to ask the staff for one.

Ueyama says she seems surprisingly composed for someone that did all that. Haachin reveals that she wasn’t exactly nervous, but instead she felt like she wanted to go home. She believed that everyone around her was way better than her at singing and dancing, everyone had more experience than her, that they were ready for the training camp’s final judgement panel. She really thought she had no chance at all. But the hosts say she definitely has something that made her shine to get picked.