[MAGAZINE] Kawashima Noel (Travis Japan) - Myojo (August 2023) (Part 1)

[dreamweavernyx]

Hello! It's certainly been a while ~

I've been working on the 10,000 word interview that Noel did with Myojo-san, which is the first in their series for the members of Travis Japan! Please enjoy~

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I didn’t have that “shining future” within my sights. Despite that, I trusted in my dream, and kept on dancing.

10,000-word long-form interview: Travis Japan Edition

Issue 1, Kawashima Noel: “When I was a Junior”

Travis Japan’s first original song, “Yume no Hollywood”. That song was the final ray of hope that they grasped onto right as they were on the brink of disbandment. Prepared to throw away everything else, they went on to train in America. Their journey has been an incredibly long one. But, despite everything, they wouldn’t have walked any other path. Trusting that the path ahead of the 7 of them would lead to becoming ‘classic’ idols, they’ll continue to run forward from now on.

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The two of them are perfectly flawless, the ideal idol

It’s been half a year since your worldwide debut. Once again, congratulations on your debut.

Thank you. Our long-held dream has come true. The reality of our debut started to sink in more after we came back from America and started doing stuff like appearing in many music shows. In particular, I felt that strongly when we got to say “we’re home!” and hear “welcome home!” from our fans during our debut concert. A debut was something we really wished for. But it later dawned on me that what we truly wanted wasn’t the debut itself, but what lay beyond that - to connect with the fans right in front of us in a way that feels like family.

Well, I’m sure that 10,000 words won’t be enough to cover everything, but I’ll ask you many questions (today). It seems that you were fairly mischievous when you were younger.

That’s right. When I look back at the photos from when I was young, there’s not a single one where I was standing still. (laughs) My parents told me that when I was young, there was apparently a period where our family finances were tight. But I have absolutely no memory of ever feeling like we were poor, and so I realised that my parents had raised me in such a way that I would never notice that fact. They let me do many kinds of enrichment classes, such as jazz dance and ballet.

What made you start taking enrichment classes?

When I was in kindergarten, I watched “The Lion King”, as performed by the Shiki Theatre Company*. I was so taken by it, that my parents ended up looking into how I could become a child actor for the role of young Simba. In the end, they found out that I’d have to work on my dance first, so I started to learn that from my first year of elementary school. In my fourth year of elementary school, I passed the audition for the Shiki Theatre Company, and after a period of rehearsal, I made my debut on stage the day after my mom’s birthday in my fifth year of elementary school.

[ T/N: One of Japan’s most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. ]

What was your dream, at that time?

It was to become a theatre actor. I wanted to keep being on stage.

It seems that your grades were excellent, and you took entrance exams to enter middle school*, didn’t you?

[ T/N: Entrance exams for middle school are not compulsory in Japan; they are usually implemented by the more competitive / prestigious / popular schools, and/or private schools. ]

Once I entered the entertainment industry, in order to stop me from getting negligent in my studies, I began to attend cram school from my first year of elementary school, so actually I did quite a fair bit of studying. Sometimes, I (studied) while crying (laughs). The entrance exams for middle school were kind of an escape for me, though. When I was in my fifth year of elementary school, my class went to watch “The Lion King” as a school excursion. My classmates were sitting in the audience. Of course, there were some who enjoyed it, but I got bullied by others, who told me that I was living in a different world. I wanted to have a change of environment, so I sat for the middle school entrance exams.

Noel-kun, you often say that you don’t leave anybody behind, don’t you. Is it because you’ve experienced (being left behind) before?

Ah, that might be the case. I’m one-eighth Dutch, so I often get thought of as being different from others. If there are others who also feel the same kind of sadness (of being othered), I’d like to let them know that it’s okay, that we’re all the same.

And how did you then end up taking the audition for Johnny’s?

In middle school, I entered the soccer club, and everyone watched the TV together at night during the training camp. We watched Tackey & Tsubasa appear on Music Station. I didn’t know who the two of them were at the time, but I felt really inspired by the way they sang in such a dazzling manner. I was like, “so this kind of entertainment exists, huh”. My friends told me, “they’re Johnny’s, you know”. When I got home (from camp) I asked my mom if she knew of Johnny’s, and she told me that I’d already watched productions by Johnny’s before even though I didn’t know it at the time. She was referring to the video of the production “PLAYZONE ‘86 MYSTERY”, that I often watched together with her. After that, I started thinking that I’d like to enter Johnny’s, and so I wrote my own CV and sent that in.

You passed the audition, and the year after you entered the agency you got to appear in “PLAYZONE”.

It was the last rendition of “PLAYZONE” with Shounentai-san in the starring roles. I talked with my mom about all the things I learned about Johnny’s. Once I entered the agency, it was full of amazing seniors, such as Shounentai-san. There were many people who could do acrobatics. Most impressive among them all was Tsuka-chan (Tsukada Ryoichi). Tsuka-chan is the reason why I wanted to learn how to backflip. When we appeared together for a stageplay, I told him, “Tsukada-kun, you’re so cool!”, and he told me in response, “I’m so glad to hear that! I’m going to give you New Year’s money*! But you’re a little weird, you know.” (laughs)

[ T/N: New Year’s money (otoshi-dama) refers to the tradition of giving money in paper packets to one’s juniors over the New Year. In Johnny’s, seniors often give otoshi-dama to juniors. ]

Hahahaha.

There were so many other seniors who I admired as well, and they contributed to what I thought would constitute the ideal idol. I got to see people like Higashiyama (Noriyuki)-san and Yamada (Ryousuke)-kun up close, and while I now know that they’ve of course put in a lot of hard work, back then I saw them as natural-born idols. The two of them were perfect in everything they did, and they were showered with love from all quarters without exception. To me, they were perfectly flawless, the ideal idol. In order to get even a little bit closer to that ideal, I looked into the strengths of all the seniors around me. For example, Koyama (Keiichiro)-kun and Nakamaru (Yuichi)-kun who were the MCs for “The Shounen Club”* have a sense of humour and are skilled at speaking. Our big brothers in Kisumai (Kis-My-Ft2) could roller-skate, and our big brothers in A.B.C-Z could do acrobatics - they each had their own unique skills. I also had to make sure I could do anything, too. I felt like I absolutely had to be perfect. But in reality, there were so many things I couldn’t do. So I acted like I was flawless, and started to put up armour to stop anyone from finding out the truth (that I wasn’t actually flawless).

[ T/N: The Shounen Club is a show that features the Johnny’s Juniors. It is often hosted by seniors who have debuted. ]

>> Part 2