29th September 2006
Cheers! This time I'm going to talk a little bit about last week. Last Saturday (Autumn Equinox Day), I went to Hokkaido for an event. Hokkaido - every single thing is big* (old gag). The event appearance was only held on a Saturday, but was pre-registered (arrive at the venue the day before the event). I got up at 8:00 in the morning and was supposed to be at work at 11:00, but I actually left at 11:30. There's no reason why I was late....I was just stuck in a traffic jam...I left on time...Now, as soon as I arrived in Sapporo, I went to the rooftop of Spica, which is familiar to everyone in Hokkaido, and recorded a PR video for the next Sapporo tournament (November 25th and 26th, thank you very much). After the recording was over, which took about 10 minutes, including the time before and after, it was time for a magazine interview. Afterwards, I had a meeting with the person who told me the story about this event and had a meal of raw oysters. I often go to rural areas while on Navi, so I don't really eat raw food because I don't want to get sick while travelling. The oysters were huge! I ate raw oysters for the first time in a long time, so I was a little nervous, but I was fine. Afterwards, I had saury* as a seasonal delicacy, and it was also big, but as expected, Hokkaido is big. That leads me to "Hokkaido wa Dekkaido*", as when it comes to saury, I prefer the saury that has been dried overnight, but grilled saury is also delicious. After that, I went to a restaurant where you can listen to live jazz music, and the person who was playing the piano there, told me that he had treated me to a meal about 10 years ago*...but of course it was at a drinking party, so I don't remember, but I am grateful that he remembers me and supports me. On that day I said goodbye to the other party at around 1am, and together with Referee Fukuda (Referee Fukuda is my candidly truthful secretary), went to a sushi restaurant we always go to in Sapporo*, and left the restaurant at around 5am with an acquaintance. So, after I left the store, the acquaintance said suddenly, "Mr President, do you want to get a hamburger?", I was wondering what he meant and he said, "I always buy one on the way home". I wasn't really aware of what I was doing, but I think it made an impression on my acquaintance. So, the way back after 5am, I went to MacDonald's to buy a hamburger, but it was closed, and so we went to Lotteria*. I think we looked like a strange trio to those around us, as we appeared to be on our way back home.
And then the event started. The performance started at 1 o'clock, so at 11:30 we entered Spica, which was the venue. The person I had dinner with the night before was the MC. The moment he appeared, he was wearing a Tiger Mask, so I thought, "This might be a little difficult*...", but I hope those who came enjoyed it. When I perform at an event like this, I am once again impressed by how good the professional MCs are. The event itself consisted of a 30-minute talk and autograph session, so it was a perfect time. Just after 2 o'clock the next thing we did was to move on and record a Hokkaido only TV program called "Yorutama*" The program was hosted by Hiroaki Igarashi, Shinya Kamimura and Hiromitsu Furesawa, and I had fun. Thank you again.
To tell you what I liked about the program, we played a game in pairs...Thank you very much, Mr. Igarashi. Mr (name hidden) likes image play, and thank you very much, Takamura-kun, for holding my leg. By the way, it's just my imagination that Kamimura-kun (who looks like the woman in Schwarzenegger's disguise in "Total Recall") seems to have gained a lot more weight.
I was in a rush this time, and I wanted to do work plus eat again the next day and so when I was tired, so I hurriedly went to Hokkaido and came back, but I was able to finish my work safely. On the second day, I didn't have a meal in the morning, and my first meal was pork bowl on the flight home at night. It was a busy trip to Hokkaido, so busy that I want to take it easy now.
The October tour will finally begin next week. Thank you everyone for your support. Everything is big in Hokkaido (grin)
Notes
Hokkaido, every single thing is big (or simply "Big Hokkaido) was atchphrase of the 1977 "All Nippon Airways Refreshing Campaign." You can imagine what Misawa, with Misawa's humor, turned this into...
Hokkaido wa Dekkaido: This is a pun made by combining the word "Hokkaido" and the word "Dekkai" which means "big" because "Hokkaido is big". The word "dekkai" is changed to "dekkaido" to match the sound of the word "Hokkaido."
Saury: Fish, mackerel pike.
Sushi restaurant: Noah visited Sapporo in 2023, and Naomichi Marufuji visited a Sushi restaurant in Sapporo where Misawa used to take him when he was his attendant. Even though this was not somewhere local to Noah, they always kept a bottle of Sake for Misawa, and the manager would prepare it for him personally. This is most likely the same place.
Drinking party ten years ago: This would have been probably May or November 1996 when All Japan visited for the Super Power Series (May) or the Real World Tag League (November).
Lotteria: Fast food chain with venues all over East Asia (Taiwan, Korea and China). Opened in 1972.
Tiger Mask: Misawa had hated being Tiger Mask II and often would ask Baba for how long he had to do this? His unmasking was such a well kept secret that only himself, Kawada, Baba and the match referee knew of it, with Great Kabuki on commentary screaming "What are you doing?" when he asked Kawada to unmask him. Misawa himself said he was glad to "get rid of that stupid mask", and go back to being Misawa again.
Yorutama: Sadly I haven't been able to find out anything about Misawa's appearance on it, or even what this show is (but it sounds like a variety), a blog I did find is after 2006.
Hiroaki Igarashi, Shinya Kamimura and Hiromitsu Furesawa: Entertainers, only two are native to Hokkaido though, the third is from Osaka.
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