Junichi Okada Popolo March 2007 interview @ Gaki N Me

7 June,2007 11:25

Junichi Okada Popolo March 2007 interview

Thank you to effulgence (Meighan) for the article and tommy (ray) for the translation of this article.

Popolo March 2007

LOVE 1: under the grand piano. I like to listen to the sounds there.

I like the sounds of the piano. When I was a child, I used to creep under the piano and listened to it. I loved to do that, though I can hardly do now. (laugh)

LOVE 2: study. It was my dream to have my own study.

There's a large bookshelf arranged lots of books, DVDs and cartoons. I also have my hats and computer, I put my guitar, keybords and piano there. Too many photo collection books I don't have enough storage space for are spreading. Actually I don't use this room very often. I enter the room to take a book, but I read it in a living room. (laugh) Though, I like it just because it's like a bookstore.

LOVE 3: it may be good to drink alone. I can understand the feelings just now.

I like the tastes of liquor. I guess drinking alone is good. I couldn't understand it better when I heard from Sakamoto-kun that he drank alone at home. I felt it was
nonsence." How lonely you are "(laugh) I thought. But I can get it right now.

LOVE 4: seasonings. There are many in my fridge.

I like to collect things so that there are so many seasonings on the shelf. In the fridge, I have a lot of soy sauces and ponzu. Ponze, not only one, there are so many makers. I don't have to buy anything if I suddenly would feel like cooking.

LOVE 5: family. Changeless for me.

I used to think that ordinary, but now it's really important for me. I really care about my family included my dog, Satsuma.

LOVE 6: my bathroom with many toys. There are.....

All of toys that I collected when I was a student have been gathered on the shelf in my bathroom. Rare toys, characters, cars, unknown ornaments, yo-yos and small Leicas. I don't want to put them in my living room or study, because I care about the interior. Now, my bathroom is tremendous. (laugh) It is a different world comparing with any other rooms, but I like it.

LOVE 7: Pandora's box. There are disasters, and also hopes.

I like the myth, "Pandora's box". Just like Adam & Eve, they opened the box with
curiosity, disasters came out. However, there also were hopes in the box and they came out together. I hope there are no disasters, but if they didn't open it, no hopes after all. I know it can be interpreted in various ways, but I like this story.

LOVE 8: intensive time. Myself, absorbed.

I like when I'm busy. Sometimes I get totally absorbed. I like to work intensively with good staff.

LOVE 9: a smell. No perfumes, but the smell of a person.

I have a fine sense of smell so that I can get the differences of the smell for each person. No perfumes, but their smell. I can't explain what is my favorite, but I like the smell of my favorite person.

LOVE10: something like a weekend carpentering. I enjoy making wooden accessories.

Why is it called "weekend carpentering"? I guess fathers do it on weekends. Anyway, I enjoy the time I make something. I've made wooden toys like building blocks, ornaments and chopstick rests. I want to make Buddha someday. But, I guess it's weird if I would make Buddha alone. (laugh)

LOVE11: a round table in the living room. Yearning for "Knights of the Round Table".

My favorite furniture in my house is a wooden round table. I don't use it often because I live alone, but I was longing for the England story "Knights of the Round Table" so that I bought it. It's fairly large, I guess the dimeter of about a meter and 20 centimeters.

LOVE12: people who have the core. I want to be like them.

I like people who have the core in themselves. Japanese, we tend to
bury the outer moats(外堀を埋める、a proverb), but I don't think it's good if we don't have the core. These days I really want to have it in my heart when I'm working.

LOVE13: sweets. I like putting them in my mouth.

I have a large stock of sweets in my house and I'm always eating something. I enjoy putting them in my mouth. Candies, chewing gum,
dried sweet potatoes or something like that. My favorite dried fruit is a fig. I buy it as soon as it runs out.

LOVE14: family in Northen Europe. Great family on the lawn.

I've never been there, however I'm really interested in Northen Europe.
Beautiful constructions and so many pretty accessories. Houses are almost all built by oak, there are the lawn and beautiful family. Just like everybody rides strange bicycles. (laugh) I like the atmosphere of family in Northen Europe.

LOVE15: electronic equipment. I have liked them since childhood.

I love audio equipment, computers and what is called machine. I could not decide which way better, to enter a techinical high school or a special course to become a teacher. At the upper grades of elementary school, I started to make the machine moved by a sensor. Just like a small robot, it could advance in a maze as it changed ways when it bumped against a wall. I really enjoyed to move that.

LOVE16: a Kimuchi hot pot I cooked yesterday. To tell the truth, I love cooking...

I like cooking, but I don't say it too much because I basically want someone to cook for me. Anyway, the hot pot I cooked yesterday was extremely yummy. I prepared soup stoch with kombu (a kind of kelp) and put seasonings and miso. The ingredients, should be put things need to boil longer first, crab and shrimp for soup stock, then skim the scum. I ate it with my male friend while watching movies. How lonely both of us were! (laugh) He said it was dull!,too delicious to complain though he was going to. (laugh)

LOVE17: the orange sky. The deep sky at sunset in fall.

I like sunny days, but also like rainy days. I like the sky in fall the best. Extremly clear, and the sunset gets deep orange.

LOVE18: detergents. I'm rather tidy.

I have many kinds of detergents on the shelf upon the washing machine. Like alcoholic types, or something that can clean everything...I like that kind of stuff. (laugh) I sometimes buy them by mail-order sales on TV. I used to mess up my room, but over 20, I came to like cleaning rooms. I guess I've realized that clean rooms make me feel good when I come home. Sometimes, when I have spare time, I get up early in the morning and vacuum up.

LOVE19: might be a fetishist of voices. Comfortable voices are there.

I might be a fetishist of voices... I won't come to like a woman if her voice is off my favorite. There sometimes are some out of tune. Like do, while talking, "That's not do, but flat do!(♭do)"(laugh) Even though it could suit me in case. Higher or lower I don't really care, but I just like comfortable voices to hear.

LOVE20: smiling faces and considering faces. I like various expressions.

I love smiling faces. But fierce or serious lookings are also good. When people show their emotinons by expressions, it's beautiful. I like it.

LOVE21: Malkovich. I really like him.

The actor, John Malcovich, I like him so much. He was great in the movie, "In The Line of Fire" with Clint Eastwood. That is my favorite one.

LOVE22: weak in people, but I like people. I'm not good at crowded places.

I don't want to go shopping to crowded places. Basically I like people, but not for crowded places.

LOVE23: passing the time at my parent's house. One of my whereabouts.

I went home in Osaka the other day and I stayed there for two days for the first time after my debut. My home, the sounds of the piano are always played there. Missing. I used to think I didn't need a place to return, but now I know this is one of my whereabouts.

LOVE24: the Komaba Campus of the University of Tokyo. My favorite constructions are there.

I like to look at constructions. To say for buildings, I like the building in the Komaba Campus of the University of Tokyo.

LOVE25: philosophy. I prefer people to books.

I often read the book "the custom of philosophy" when I was at high school. At that time, I was into psychology and wanted to be qualified as a psychologist. But people studying psychology tend to assume "You're that type" or so. I don't like to be assumed. It's inconsistent that human analyzes human, isn't it? So now, I still like philosophy, but I prefer talking with people rather than to read.

LOVE26: 26 years old. I've been distressed a lot, and then reached today.

I feel something different from when I was younger , I've changed the way to think. For instance, I used to think it was the best way to run away if I had to protect someone. But now, I really think a man should protect someone no matter how hard I fight. Now I'm 26 years old, and I feel my weight. Once I was deadly distressed and considered by so many things, but now I feel those experiences have been connected. For the reason, I like my age of 26. Right now, thinking of my changes, I don't think I was wrong.

Exclusive: Please do not repost this translation outside of this blog.

[ More from this category: ]
Previous post in this category: Junichi Okada's CMs
Next post in this category: JUNICHI OKADA gifs