[TRANS] Popolo (July 2021): Jesse, Juri & Hokuto Birthday Special
“I thought I was the coolest” · “I don’t have anything else left other than work” · “I can break out one day if I continue without being disheartened”
Jesse’s American and unprecedented childhood
“I thought I was the coolest”
Jesse who tells us “I was pretty naughty since I was young” will be turning 25 on June 11. He spilled lots of different stories like the end of the day being the worst!
Memories of my birthday at Las Vegas
Going to Las Vegas was a normal thing for me when I was a kid. My father works over there and when I wasn’t able to see him for 1, 2 months, I would sometimes cry because I missed him since I was still young. Las Vegas was fun. It felt like a party every day! When I celebrated my birthday over there, I found out for the first time that such gigantic cakes existed. It was so big that the big cakes sold in Japan couldn’t even compare.
My father’s an American and so although it’s a different environment to others, I didn’t think of myself as being different. I speak English to my father at home, and use Japanese to everyone else. Using 2 languages was normal to me and my do understood both English and Japanese. It’s a blessing isn’t it. Rather than spending money to learn English somewhere, I had friends [that spoke English] and learnt it naturally.
A kiss on the cheek of my first love
My first love was during pre-school and was the girl in the same class as me. I think we both liked each other. Hiding under the racks hanging with our clothes, I remember her face turning beet red when I gave her a kiss on the cheek. I think our parents knew about it but I didn’t get in trouble at all.
My childhood idol was Spiderman and heroes that appeared in action movies. I thought they were amazing and wanted to be one. After watching them, I felt stronger and believed I could defeat the bad guys as well. From there, I also watched the rebroadcasts of “Drifters” all the time. Since it was easy to understand for a kid as well. But I thought people in TV only existed in TV and weren’t people I could meet, so it was really strange when I entered this industry and met people who I thought were amazing, as well as getting treated kindly by Shimura Ken-san.
Thinking that I was the coolest…
I suppose I was a prankster when I was in elementary school. I was messing around all the time. And, I would often play with girls when I was in the younger grades. I spent more time playing with girls. I would go to the house of a girl who owned a hamster and played with it, and played with games and dolls too. I liked animals and insects too. And of course, I hung out with boys outdoors as well. I liked hide-and-seek and tag. Running around escaping was more fun than being it. Also, when the soccer world cup was on, for example if it was a Japan vs Germany game, we played a match as those teams and pretended as if our results were going to be the real scores.
I also mucked about all the time at school and at the end of the day, there was the awful moment when the teacher asked “did anyone feel unhappy today?”, and everyone would raise their hand and say “Jesse-kun did this to me today!”. All of them would be about me (laughs). Then I’d go up the front and say “I’m sorry!”. Well, everyone was laughing though. I thought I was the coolest at the time. Thinking back, I was pretty uncool with my bed hair and everything (laughs). It’s embarrassing.
If I could go back to when I was a child right now, around elementary first grade would be nice. Other than that it was fun since I travelled overseas often, I think I could’ve debuted a little earlier if I brushed up my skills more. I want to tell myself “brush up your skills!”. In terms of the skills, it’s both studying and monomane [impersonations] (laughs). But because of I went through this period, I was able to start YouTube and things; I’m able to say these things about the past because of my present day.
If SixTONES were to throw a surprise for Jesse’s birthday?
Kyomoto
His revered Tamaki-san will…?!
The lights will turn off suddenly and Tamaki Kouji-san will make his entrance singing “happy birthday to you♪” whilst carrying a cake! Jesse loves Tamaki-san so he would be indebted to me for his whole life.
Matsumura
An online birthday party with all his friends
Jesse loves to have fun with lots of people, so I’ll invite heaps of his friends to an online chat and have a remote birthday party all together!
Kouchi
Rent out a cottage and have a BBQ party
Jesse likes going out so maybe I’ll take him on a drive. When we get to the place, I’ll rent out a cottage or something and throwing a bbq party would be nice!
Morimoto
I surprisingly like flashy performances
Something that I’ve always thought when celebrating birthdays, is that I surprisingly like flashy performances. Sparklers in cakes are exciting too, so I want to try setting off fireworks at the right time.
Tanaka
I’ll invite everyone he wants to see to celebrate!
Jesse likes things to be merry and lively. That’s why I’ll not only invite his friends, but also the people that he wants to see to surprise him. I want to round up a huge number of people and celebrate it hugely!
Family, hometown & now. My place of belonging
“I don’t have anything else left other than work”
Tanaka Juri who turns 26 on June 15. He has the strongest gap of having a mischievous appearance when he’s the coordinator of the group; he looks back on his childhood through multiple episodes.
Multiple extracurricular activities and jack of all trades
In my development process, especially when I was in elementary, I don’t think there was anything that I voluntarily said “I want to learn this!” about. All my extracurricular were sports-related: baseball, soccer, basketball; I did all of them at the same time and started them because “my aniki [older brother] does it” or “my friend invited me”. Basketball was the only one where there was a club for at elementary school, so it was the single thing I myself wanted to try out. However, exactly because I was good at sports and hence able to do things pretty well, I didn’t ever really into anything since I wasn’t serious about them. Thinking about it now, I think I was a jack of all trades.
Following what’s popular but going back to playing outdoors in the end
Even when I think back to my pre-school days, I remember a period where I kept making mud balls. I was gloomy and there wasn’t anything I was totally enamoured with. What I do remember was that I played outdoors all the time. I didn’t study a lot during elementary, middle and high school. I was busy with extracurricular and club activities after school, so I could only play during school time. Of course, I did things like playing card games, visiting the corner candy shop and joining in on whatever was the popular thing in class, but I didn’t get any pocket money nor had much experience with pastimes that involved spending money. I ended up playing outdoors again (laughs). But one time, we decided to play cards at school, but since our teacher said that we weren’t allowed to bring cards to school, we cut up craft paper and hand-made the cards. I suppose, “I can work hard if it’s for playing!” (laughs).
At home, since I shared a room with my younger brother till middle school third grade, I never really stayed holed up in my room. I think I was in the living room mainly. I’d chat and watch the TV there; I quite like spending time with my family. Speaking of which, I have a grand piano at home for some reason. No one’s learnt the piano but there are stickers stuck on the keys, like “do” “re” “mi”…, maybe my mother tried to teach me or my brothers to play. It’s still a mystery till this day.
Not feeling passionate about anything - work is the only thing I’ve continued in
My family doesn’t have any particular teachings, but since we’re a group of boys who were naughty as well, I remember getting in trouble from my father when we did something bad. He was strict, but he would also take us out to lots of fun places as well. It was mainly out in nature since we were in the countryside. When summer came round, I looked forward to going to the hills every day, where my father, me and my younger brother would go hunting for kabutomushi [Japanese rhinoceros beetle] or fishing for crayfish. We cared for each animal that we caught. I played every day and it was honestly so much fun.
I have 3 hometown mates that I’ve been close to ever since pre-school. There’s 4 of us including me. People who understand you and someone who you can understand… you don’t need new friends when you have people like that. I think it’s a pain to spend time understanding what someone is like. Before I joined the company, I think they were probably the only friends I had in the same age bracket. I was in my hometown when I was travelled to work from my family home, and I always looked forward to hanging out with them after work. That’s how it felt like, I was playing all the time and wasn’t passionate about anything. I wasn’t good at singing or particularly good at dancing either. I only entered this world because my parents applied so… there wasn’t anything of my own will. I joined the company because of my parents and went because I was told to. My parents gave me the chance to experience different things, but I was always just going with the flow and there wasn’t anything I was desperately passionate about. But amongst that, the only thing I’ve continued with was this job. I really don’t have anything left other than work. Thinking about it like that, I must thank my parents for giving me this opportunity.
If SixTONES were to throw a surprise for Juri’s birthday?
Jesse
I want to celebrate at the restaurant from our memories
We’ll go whilst keeping Juri blindfolded, and when I take off the blindfold and quiz him “where are we?!”, it’ll be the cheese fondue restaurant that I first celebrated Juri’s birthday at. I want to have the same course that we had before.
Kyomoto
I’ll serve him food that I spent time making
Juri generally gets takeout and doesn’t cook, so I think I’ll treat him to some of my cooking. I’ve been making curry without using store-bought roux, so leave it to me to whip up an elaborate menu!
Matsumura
A delivery plan where the timing is critical
Juri orders takeout often, so I’ll watch the timing and surprise him with a delivery myself! In the end, there will be 2 of the same food arriving, so I want to eat it with him to celebrate.
Kouchi
A cake delivery!
Since Juri’s the type to find getting up and moving a bother, so I’ll send him a birthday cake through a delivery service. I’ll get it delivered, and it’ll just be my thoughts of “congrats!”.
Morimoto
Pretending to be the delivery person…?!
I’ll go to Juri’s place pretending to be a delivery person, saying “you have a parcel”, and Juri will be like “what’s this?!” and it’ll be a cake when he checks the contents!
Matsumura Hokuto’s true nature that hasn’t changed even now
“I can break out one day if I continue without being disheartened”
Matsumura Hokuto who himself always says “I’m shy”. From him who will be turning 26 on June 18, we heard stories about his childhood, gratitude towards his family and funny sleep talking episodes! Don’t miss out on stories about his past revealed for the first time!
A swift end to the first love that began from love at first sight!
A lot of my childhood memories are fuzzy, but the earliest memory that I can remember is when my older brother was taking care of me. I think I was around 2 years old and he helped me put my shoes on and put me to sleep and things. But I also hit that brother of mine with a Thomas [the Tank Engine] toy (laughs).
When I entered kindergarten, we brought obento [lunch boxes] half the time and had kyuushoku [school lunches] half the time. The teacher was quite strict and we had to finish all our food. When tomatoes, my absolute hate, was served, I would cry to the teacher that “I can’t eat thaaaat” and was forgiven [for not eating it] (laughs). My first love was around that time too. I saw a girl that attended the drawing classes at kindergarten, and she was so cute that I fell in love at first sight. Then, I immediately started attending the drawing classes too. That was a pretty bold move even if I say so myself. But when I got around to talking with her, I found that she was a little different to my type… I went ahead and got heartbroken like that and quit the drawing class too. That’s to be expected though, my motives were impure! I put a stop to falling in love after that (laugh). I became obsessed with various anime. Monster genre ones were rather popular when I was in lower elementary grades, and I’d collect cards and exchange them with my friends.
Feeling conflicted over karate which I’d practised for a long time
I began learning karate after I entered elementary school. I heard this from my mother, but apparently I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night back then, and shouted “Kicks are gosoku[karate term]! Kicks are gosoku! Kicks are gosoku!” before going back to sleep. I think my family got pretty surprised but I have no memory of it. On the topic of bedrooms, something I remember about is the pillow that I loved and used when I was young. I used it till it was splitting at the seams. I was honestly able to calm down with that pillow and wasn’t able to dispose of it easily.
In my elementary school days, I would go to the local danchi [apartment complex] when I wanted to play with my friends. I lived in a house but when I went to that danchi, my friends would gather round one after another. It wasn’t all boys and I think the girls joined in on the fun quite a bit as well. There were times where I went to their homes and played games too. But you know, I was shockingly unpopular (laughs).
It shows in the photos, but the longest thing I continued learning was karate. Even so, there was a moment where I clearly hit a wall. I didn’t improve no matter how much I practised… I guess it’s the so called nobinayami phase [being unable to reach expectations]. I think I anguished over it, but as I matured, I grew out of that phase before I realised and found it enjoyable again. Things like that happen don’t they - you don’t know why you’re unable to do something but if you persist, then it works out suddenly one day. That experience still teaches me today and I think it’s important.
My shyness and familial love hasn’t changed since the past
I think I was shy ever since I was young, but I didn’t know that term [yet] and managed to live my life somewhat. Even after I became an adult, my shyness didn’t change; if anything, I learnt the term “shyness” and became aware of that trait. Thinking about it like that, my essence hasn’t changed since I was a kid. One other thing that hasn’t changed is that I love being with my family. I feel like I’ve always been attached to my family since the past. I can relax when I’m with them and it’s fun. The funnest family outing we had was going to an amusement park in Chiba. We drove there from our home in Shizuoka but I remember being excited about it a few days before it. Every time, our parents would carry me and my brother to the car after we fall asleep, before getting on the road. When morning comes round and we wake up, we would be there at the park. My world changed suddenly and I remember it very clearly. I’m grateful to my parents for giving me such a memory. [T/N: Google tells me it’s around a 3h drive from Shizuoka to Chiba]
If SixTONES were to throw a surprise for Hokuto’s birthday?
Jesse
I’d buy up all the vintage clothes as a present!
I’ll blindfold Hokuto and take him to a vintage clothes shop. I’ll take the blindfold off and tell Hokuto “happy birthday! I’ve bought all the clothes here so you can take the ones you like”.
Kyomoto
5 of us going to his filming location
The 5 of us would go to the filming location of the drama Hokuto’s acting in, and celebrate it for a moment before leaving. It might be annoying if it’s on the day of an important scene though (laughs). He’d like it wouldn’t he? (laughs)
Kouchi
I’ll go around vintage shops and buy him an outfit
Hokuto likes clothes so we’ll browse around vintage shops together and I’ll buy him the piece that he likes! I don’t do such things normally though (laughs). Shopping with the two of us is unheard of.
Morimoto
I don’t think he’ll notice this surprise (laughs)
I’ll send him a spice every day leading up to his birthday, but purposely not send him one on the actual day (laughs). There’s a riddle too, if you take the first letter/character of the spices, it will spell out “happy birthday”.
Tanaka
It’s standard but a celebration on stage
For Hokuto, it’ll be standard but celebrating it during a concert would be good♪ The fans can join in as well and I’ll prepare a huge cake! Look forward to it!