(NOAH) "DONMAI, DONMAI" ~ Mitsuharu Misawa's diary (12th January 2007)

Well, how did you all spend your time from the end of the year until the New Year? Misawa doesn't really like seasonal events, but these days there are convenience stores and supermarkets open on New Year's Day, so I don't think it feels like a New Year's Day. Anyway, I often see shops that say they are open all year round and closed for the year-end and New Year holidays, but don't you think that is a contradiction? I wonder if that is the correct Japanese?

Noah was off until January 4th, and started working in the New Year on January 5th. Of course, I didn't have much time to relax as you all know the first Navi of 2007 will begin on the 7th. This time, I will be challenged by Morishima in the final match at the Nippon Budokan. The last Budokan was actually when I had my first singles with Morishima. This will be my second match, and I can already feel the same enthusiasm I felt then. It's about a week until Budokan, but I'm trying to keep my spirits up, so please check out the match results on the website.

First, I will answer Aoki's* question, "What games did you often play when you were a child?". I have often written about this, but in any case in my day, there was no money!! So we often had no choice but to be physically active and play outdoors. After school we played can kicking, kickball* (some people call it "kickbase"), and dodgeball. I would get scolded if I continued to play after class, so I would go home from school, which was about ten minutes, leave my bag, and go back to play in the schoolyard. At times like this it was usually just boys, but what were the girls doing? I often saw them playing jump rope...

In Aoki's generation, it may have been soccer, but in my day and age, even though we used a ball, it was dodgeball, so it was an artless game. At any rate, this was a time when the number of children in the area was increasing, and the junior high school was split into two by the second year students, so the schoolyard could not be used as widely as possible. After I bought a bicycle, I went out a lot. I remember when I went from Koshigaya to Urawa, the welding on my bicycle broke, and I had to ride home on the back of a friend's bicycle and that was before it had a semi drop handlebar. This too is a word that only people of my generation understand. 

(Rough estimate of Misawa's route)

I also saw older people playing with radio controls. I think there were a lot of people who driving cars and airplanes, and using radio controlled boats on the river and stopping midway. Some people were rowing boats, so it must have been very difficult for them. Speaking of radio controls, Mabuchi Motors released a motor that could be attached to the bottom of a boat and it was revolutionary! Does anyone remember it? When I was a child, snacks were things that I could eat as soon as I opened the refrigerator, like tomato, grilled cucumbers, and other snacks. It was healthy, or rather simple. If I were to meet children of today's generation, I wonder if they would be playing a lot of games? I can't imagine what it would be like, but I do know that I don't see children playing outside these days. I talk as someone who loves games when I say this, but games that require a lot of physical activity outdoors are more fun as a way to relax than games played by just one or two people, but but I think it's a bit different if they become the center of play. However, it's not an environment where children can play outside with peace of mind. Before I knew it, I stopped answering the question. I'll stop here for now. 

Well, next week Shio will be in charge, so the first question is for him...who doesn't have a good drinking habit*. First of all, at what age did Shio start drinking alcohol on his own? Let's have him answer this, taking into account that his father is a police officer*....is that being high handed? (<--- To suit Shio, who loves comedy, I've put a twist on Taka and Toshi*'s material. I hope you enjoyed it.)  

It's still getting colder, but everyone please try not to catch a cold.

See you again in two weeks. 

Notes

Atsushi Aoki

Foot base: Kickball 

Koshigaya: Saitama, where he billed himself from, although he had been born in Hokkaido. 

Urawa: Saitama. 

Bad drinking habit: This doesn't mean that he is an alcoholic, this basically means when he gets drunk he gets up to mischief (anything from bursting into tears to passing out drunk to even getting naked). I haven't heard any stories about Go Shiozaki ("Shio") when drunk, but Katsuhiko Nakajima (long before AXIZ, and when Nakajima was competing in Noah before Misawa's death), said that he did used to phone him when he was drunk. Nakajima it seems was the more sober of the two, and didn't quite approve of Tadasuke's drunken InstaLive's during the COVID lockdown. 

Police officer: Shiozaki wanted originally to be a cop too, but he kept failing the entry exams. 

Taka & Toshi: Comedy duo. 

"Donmai, Donmai" (all entries so far)