Nino More 01/2011
More: Nino: It 01/2011
Episode 25: Player
A game of trumps begins the third year of this serial column. The game is Old Maid, with three players. Nino never loses no matter how many times they play, until the last game, where he lasts until the end. Faced with the choice of the final two cards, one of them has to be the joker. Staring into his opponent's eyes, he unhesitatingly takes the right-hand card. The result--a smile of satisfaction. He has a determined competitive spirit, and also an innocence in the way he becomes completely absorbed even before the cameras. How did he become this way? What sort of child was he?
If we're being honest, I don't have many memories of when I was a child. I had few friends, and I was picked on often…….. so my memories are really just bits and pieces. Memories that aren't important will gradually disappear if you don't keep thinking about them. Even my memory of yesterday is already fading.
Even so, his memory of being part of the baseball team in elementary school remains.
Even that's faint. I did it when I was in the upper grades of elementary, and only for two years. I quit before I really understood how much I enjoyed baseball. But even now, I like what I like. I'm not able to play lately, but I hold two positions on a grass-lot team, and I often watch broadcasts. When I was a child I had only been to see a Giants game, so I was a Giants fan, and a big fan of Hara, since he hit fourth. I was really easy. (smiling)
When asked which athlete he's a fan of now, he answers, "No one in particular."
I'm thoroughly a fan of baseball. I don't have any particular interest in athletes or teams. I think it's that I like to see a baseball game where two teams compete within a set of determined rules. Except that there's a baseball player I've happened to come close to. Nakajima Hiroyuki from Seibu. I think we met on a television program. After that, I met him again when a mutual friend called me out to a drinking party. Except I've never watched him play baseball. To the point that I thought, "He really is a baseball player!" when he was chosen by the WBC. (smiling) But when he's in the off season, we go have dinner together. He's from an entirely different world, and he's my own generation, which I'm normally bad with, but…. we get along because he doesn't do the same kind of messing around that other young people do that I can't deal with. It's not that we only have serious talks, but I can tell that he's in a strict world and fighting a difficult fight. When we're together, that is.
And Nino is the same. Though he might be in a different world, he's been made to stand in position that's just as intense.
With baseball, I don't just like to play it, I also like to watch. But with stage plays and movies, I overwhelmingly prefer to be doing them. By far and away, I prefer to make things and to act.
Not a spectator or a critic, Nino feels the desire to go on as a player.
It's not just with baseball. A top-class player is amazing in the sense that they have a very sharp instinct. For example, with a penalty kick in soccer, you have to be able to judge in one moment where the ball is going to be kicked and move for it, it's your only choice. I find that really fascinating, and impressive. I've never thought of myself on the same level as athletes, but that might be one thing we share in common. I move by intuition, too.
Right now, at this very moment, I want to recreate the flavor of curry that's been stewing overnight.
For example, I always feel like I want to do work of better quality, but that doesn't mean that we can just spend as much time as we want on it. To be able to put as much time into a job that I want is like trying to get the same good taste of curry that's been stewing overnight. The moment you make it, you have to aim for that second-day flavor. (smiling) So you have to believe in insight. In regards to work that I'm dissatisfied with, it's pointless to worry about whether or not there are better ideas. The fact that you can't think up something right then is the same as there not being any at all. More importantly, your first instinct has more meaning to it. The things that you've consumed and felt up until now will, one day, re-emerge as a flash of inspiration. I think inspiration is the answer to the life you've lived. So I feel that thinking over those things will tie in to doing better work.
Because he lives while listening to his inspirations, his hand never hesitates when he picks a card. He's able to charge ahead as a player.
Every baseball player lives differently, don't they. Whether it's about going to the major league or not, or in their retirement, everyone is different. Even the star athletes of Seibu's heyday, despite being all in their mid-forties, Watanabe Hisanobu is their manager now, and Kudou is in active service.
Is it possible that Nino might also one day retire from being a player?
I've never thought of retirement, and so long as Arashi has work to do, I don't have any urge to go overseas. But you know, there might come a day when the "now" changes. Which would mean that I'd have come up against some really huge event…. You never know what the future holds.
Episode 25: Player
A game of trumps begins the third year of this serial column. The game is Old Maid, with three players. Nino never loses no matter how many times they play, until the last game, where he lasts until the end. Faced with the choice of the final two cards, one of them has to be the joker. Staring into his opponent's eyes, he unhesitatingly takes the right-hand card. The result--a smile of satisfaction. He has a determined competitive spirit, and also an innocence in the way he becomes completely absorbed even before the cameras. How did he become this way? What sort of child was he?
If we're being honest, I don't have many memories of when I was a child. I had few friends, and I was picked on often…….. so my memories are really just bits and pieces. Memories that aren't important will gradually disappear if you don't keep thinking about them. Even my memory of yesterday is already fading.
Even so, his memory of being part of the baseball team in elementary school remains.
Even that's faint. I did it when I was in the upper grades of elementary, and only for two years. I quit before I really understood how much I enjoyed baseball. But even now, I like what I like. I'm not able to play lately, but I hold two positions on a grass-lot team, and I often watch broadcasts. When I was a child I had only been to see a Giants game, so I was a Giants fan, and a big fan of Hara, since he hit fourth. I was really easy. (smiling)
When asked which athlete he's a fan of now, he answers, "No one in particular."
I'm thoroughly a fan of baseball. I don't have any particular interest in athletes or teams. I think it's that I like to see a baseball game where two teams compete within a set of determined rules. Except that there's a baseball player I've happened to come close to. Nakajima Hiroyuki from Seibu. I think we met on a television program. After that, I met him again when a mutual friend called me out to a drinking party. Except I've never watched him play baseball. To the point that I thought, "He really is a baseball player!" when he was chosen by the WBC. (smiling) But when he's in the off season, we go have dinner together. He's from an entirely different world, and he's my own generation, which I'm normally bad with, but…. we get along because he doesn't do the same kind of messing around that other young people do that I can't deal with. It's not that we only have serious talks, but I can tell that he's in a strict world and fighting a difficult fight. When we're together, that is.
And Nino is the same. Though he might be in a different world, he's been made to stand in position that's just as intense.
With baseball, I don't just like to play it, I also like to watch. But with stage plays and movies, I overwhelmingly prefer to be doing them. By far and away, I prefer to make things and to act.
Not a spectator or a critic, Nino feels the desire to go on as a player.
It's not just with baseball. A top-class player is amazing in the sense that they have a very sharp instinct. For example, with a penalty kick in soccer, you have to be able to judge in one moment where the ball is going to be kicked and move for it, it's your only choice. I find that really fascinating, and impressive. I've never thought of myself on the same level as athletes, but that might be one thing we share in common. I move by intuition, too.
Right now, at this very moment, I want to recreate the flavor of curry that's been stewing overnight.
For example, I always feel like I want to do work of better quality, but that doesn't mean that we can just spend as much time as we want on it. To be able to put as much time into a job that I want is like trying to get the same good taste of curry that's been stewing overnight. The moment you make it, you have to aim for that second-day flavor. (smiling) So you have to believe in insight. In regards to work that I'm dissatisfied with, it's pointless to worry about whether or not there are better ideas. The fact that you can't think up something right then is the same as there not being any at all. More importantly, your first instinct has more meaning to it. The things that you've consumed and felt up until now will, one day, re-emerge as a flash of inspiration. I think inspiration is the answer to the life you've lived. So I feel that thinking over those things will tie in to doing better work.
Because he lives while listening to his inspirations, his hand never hesitates when he picks a card. He's able to charge ahead as a player.
Every baseball player lives differently, don't they. Whether it's about going to the major league or not, or in their retirement, everyone is different. Even the star athletes of Seibu's heyday, despite being all in their mid-forties, Watanabe Hisanobu is their manager now, and Kudou is in active service.
Is it possible that Nino might also one day retire from being a player?
I've never thought of retirement, and so long as Arashi has work to do, I don't have any urge to go overseas. But you know, there might come a day when the "now" changes. Which would mean that I'd have come up against some really huge event…. You never know what the future holds.