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mottoyomitaiAs always, original article is here if you'd like to read along with the photos!
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[Part 2] JO1’s Kimata Syoya heads to a new-style standing sushi restaurant with Mamehara Issei | Real Thoughts on Kimata Sushi Vol. 4
For the sequel, we’ll have them have a heart-to-heart over some ice cream.
Writeup
This is the regular column “Real Thoughts on Kimata Sushi”, by Kimata Syoya of the 11-member global boys’ group JO1. This time round, he brought the group’s youngest member, Mamehara Issei, to a baseball-themed standing sushi bar! Once they’ve eaten until their bellies are full, we’ll proceed to the traditional “heart to heart talk” segment.
[Photo 1]
The restaurant they’ve come to is…
The restaurant the two of them visited in the previous edition was a standing sushi restaurant that has recently gotten popular, “Bullpen”; it is related to the high-end Meguro sushi restaurants “Linda” and “Rinmaru”. It’s a place where one can enjoy sushi in a casual atmosphere while appreciating the techniques that the chefs are particular about; thanks to that, this store is filled with many returning / regular customers.
This time round, we’ll bring you the scoop from Bullpen again… or well, that was the initial plan, but instead we’ve moved to a stand that had opened right next to Bullpen only very recently, called “Dugout”, and the two of them will begin their heart-to-heart talk while eating ice cream!
[Photo 2]
Interview
Kimata: Mame’s the only member of JO1 who’s younger than me, but actually, it doesn’t really feel like you’re younger, you know.
Mamehara: Me too, you seem more like a friend than an older brother… Syoya-kun, you’re really easy to talk to.
Kimata: I also find it really easy to talk to you!
[Photo 3]
Mame: People like (Yonashiro) Sho-kun, they really give off an older-brother vibe, and he’s really reliable even when we’re overseas so I really feel the difference in our ages, but Syoya-kun’s only two years older than me, which means that when I was a freshman in high school you were in your senior year, right? So it doesn’t really feel like you’re much older than me… Recently the dynamic in our relationship has been pretty level, like you’re just a friend who I play games with.
Kimata: It somehow feels like Mame and I look at things the same way. We don’t really talk about work stuff. If I stumble upon a funny video I’ll show it to him immediately, stuff like that. I can send him stuff without much added explanation, like things I want to share with him, or things where I’m like, “Mame would like this”.
Mamehara: It’s really like that. He’s someone who I don’t have to put up too much of a front to be around.
[Photo 4]
Kimata: But for this “Real Thoughts on Kimata Sushi” column, I’ve got to listen to some of your troubles, so do you have anything for me? Apart from the fact that you’re shy around strangers (laughs).
Mamehara: Eh… Apart from my shyness?! Ah, I do have something, though. It might be something that you experience as well, but I don’t really have any friends, you know. Outside of JO1, that is.
Kimata: Ah……
Mamehara: Ever since I came to Tokyo, I haven’t made any new friends. That’s why right now all I’ve got is the members of JO1. And I’m totally fine with that. That’s what I’m worried about (laughs).
[Photo 5]
Kimata: I see~ I, too, don’t really have many friends… But, well, try gaining acquaintances in all sorts of different places, and even if that fails, you’ve still got us! (laughs)
Mamehara: Eh, it might be better not to fail too much in that respect, though (laughs). I do go to sets and other places for work apart from with JO1, like for dramas or movies, but – and perhaps it’s because I’m shy – I can’t really seem to strike up conversations with others on my own initiative, and a part of me always ends up thinking “Well, I’ve got JO1 so whatever, it’s fine!”. I think that’s the reason why I don’t have any friends.
Kimata: Well, then it’s our fault! (laughs)
Mamehara: No, no, that’s not what I meant, but I’ve turned 20 now, so I’ve been thinking that I should widen my social sphere a little.
[Photo 6]
Kimata: I’m also not someone who particularly has a lot of friends. There’s people I’ve been close to for a long time, and there’s people I’d like to become close to; that’s about it. If I get close to someone, I’m the type of person who’ll be able to invite them to hang out on my own initiative. Particularly among the members, I’m more and more becoming the guy who invites everyone else out.
Mamehara: How did you make friends back in school?
Kimata: When you’re in school, everyone’s your age, and the class rosters get shuffled every year so your social sphere would automatically widen. But once you become an adult, if you don’t make some effort on your own, your social sphere wouldn’t expand. I’m not the kind of guy who’d go all-out (and try to socialise), either. I’ll become quite chatty once I warm up to someone, but taking that first step is really tough, huh.
Mamehara: That’s it! But for me, I was never shy in the past. I was able to speak with people more frankly.
Kimata: Is that so?
[Photo 7]
Mamehara: When I was in high school, I was more of the type who would go up and talk to others… But well, people change depending on the environment they’re placed in, don’t they.
Kimata: But, well, Mame, aren’t most of the people around you (now) older than you…?
Mamehara: That’s right, that’s it! That’s the reason!
Kimata: It’s been like that ever since the audition, hasn’t it.
Mamehara: Yeah, that’s why I’d end up using polite language when talking to them at first, at the start. That might be why it got tough to strike up conversations with others. When I was younger, I mean, I talked to other people loads. Like, “Where are you from?”, or “Which middle school did you study at?”, stuff like that. Okayama’s pretty small so you’d find things in common pretty easily, so I could engage in that kind of superficial conversation, too.
[Photo 8]
Kimata: For me, I’m always aware that I’m carrying the name of JO1 with me, so I don’t want people to get a bad impression of JO1 because of the impression I give off. In the past, I didn’t have anything like that, so it was easier to make the first move; that might also be part of it.
Mamehara: If someone’s the same age as you but they have more years of experience in the industry then they’d also become your senior… I’ll freeze up and get nervous. I was also pretty cautious around the other members in the beginning.
Kimata: Mame, you didn’t really start to relax until our training trip to South Korea last year, right.
[Photo 9]
Mamehara: That’s right, when we went to South Korea to prepare for our 3rd single, the schedule was pretty tight, and thanks to that I learned how to let the other members spoil me a little.
Kimata: Man, I remember that! On our final day in South Korea, we were doing work for the performance aspect of things from that morning all the way until the next morning, so we were awake for 28 hours in a row, and right on the heels of that we’d have to head to the airport. (laughs) Well, that was fun in its own way.
Mamehara: At the end, everyone was in high spirits, too. It was a curious sense of accomplishment we had… Speaking of which, in South Korea, I went to eat with Syoya-kun and we talked at length about all sorts of things, didn’t we.
Kimata: When we debuted, the COVID-19 pandemic struck in our first year, so we couldn’t hang out together, and even going for a meal together was impossible. We had to stay put at home on our own. So actually, it was this past year when we really got super close all at once.
[Photo 10]
Mamehara: When you’re on set for a drama, there’s this sense of finality once you finish a particularly tough filming, but for me I also have my activities as part of JO1, so… In the end, it really did feel like I’d be alright even without any new friends (laughs).
Kimata: I like being busy. In the past, I’d go to work at my part time job 6 times a week, and make sure that I’d be doing something even on my day off. I don’t like the feeling of not having any plans at all. That’s why I’m really enjoying this busy period we’re having right now!
Mamehara: We’re usually busy, so recently on my off days I haven’t really gone out anywhere. It feels nice to just take it slow and easy at home.
Kimata: I’m really bad with the heat, so in the summers I tend to hole up (at home). On our off days I’ll play games with Mame, too (laughs).
[Photo 11]
Mamehara: But I’m thankful that we’ve received a lot of work this year. Recently, we even got to wear a spacesuit, and we got to visit a horse racing racetrack, too.
Kimata: More and more stuff is being released now, to the point where I’m like, “They filmed / took that much?!”. It’s pretty moving.
[Photo 12]
Mamehara: We took the photos / filmed for it sometime back, hoping that JAMs would get excited about it, so I’ll end up remembering that.
Kimata: JO1’s also got many more songs now. We had so many we could even make them into a quiz during the KIZUNA showcase.
[Photo 13]
Mamehara: And then we’ve got our first tour~! When this article comes out, we’ll probably have just wrapped up our first stop in Aichi.
Kimata: Everyone, thank you for coming to the concert! Everyone was really hyped up! (claps)
Mamehara: (laughs) I guess it’s a given that everyone would be hyped up!
Kimata: Look forward to both the concert, and the next instalment of Kimata Sushi~!
[Photos 14-18]
Preview
Next time, we’ll visit a more grown-up sushi restaurant with a new JO1 member
In the next instalment of “Real Thoughts on Kimata Sushi”, we’ll welcome the third guest, an older member who loves sea urchin, to enjoy an exquisite sushi course meal ♡
It’ll come out with the November issue of Elle Gourmet (on sale 6 October), so stay tuned!
[Photos 19-22]
