Kenji Ozawa. He’s special for me, too. I remember going to buy his CD Aishi aisarete ikiru no sa [Love is what we need] at a record shop in Shimokitazawa where I used to live as if it were yesterday (actually it was 22 years ago). Touri ame ga sugi, kimi no sumu heya ni mukau [the shower has passed and I head for your place]. Everyday life in the city. Tokyo’s default image in popular songs is “the big city,” or about “the crowds” or it being “a lonely place,” but Ozawa’s Tokyo is different. It’s more everyday; a city where your friends and people you care about are. Because that’s what Tokyo is really like. I feel like I learnt that about Tokyo from Kenji Ozawa at a time when I hadn’t been in Tokyo long, I’d started a part-time job, and I felt like I was finally starting to get used to the city. Then there was the B-side — Tokyo ren’ai senka mata wa koi wa itte mirya body blow [Love is like a body blow] — the song that mentions Tokyo Tower. It was at NHK Hall on his Hifumiyo tour in 2010. He said he was proud to be part of Tokyo’s popular music scene, and I remember his words were strangely convincing.
So back to your question about my idol. My boyhood hero was the baseball player Yasushi Tao of the Chunichi Dragons. In a batting championship he went through the bitter experience of being intentionally walked five times, and on the fifth time he took two swings at the ball and missed. I remember it just like it was yesterday. Actually though it was 34 years ago.
Ichiro has what you could call a routine of twirling his bat when he’s in the batter’s box facing the pitcher. That all started with his adulation for Yasushi Tao. Tao was his boyhood idol as well. I understand Ichiro’s feelings, because he’s the same age as me.
My work also follows a sort of routine, like a ritualized magic formula. My work by the way is writing books. When I write a book, I always struggle with the last line. I always write the ending in the same place. It’s an old Showa-era coffee shop called Phoenix, about fifteen minutes’ walk from my house. Another thing I love about Tokyo is its old coffee shops.
Ms. Hirai, do you have some sort of routine prior to getting down to work?