Of Corgis and Mangos: An Interview With Morning Musume。’18 in Mexico

©UP-FRONT PROMOTION Co., Ltd.

Morning Musume。’18 is a Japanese idol group who leads the conglomeration of groups within Hello! Project. They started up in 1997 and have been going strong since then with their rotating line-up. They’re most recent single which is their 66th, successfully ranked 2nd place on the Oricon charts on their opening week.

During their recent trip to Mexico, we had the pleasure of interviewing Mizuki Fukumura, Haruna Iikubo, Miki Nonaka and Reina Yokoyama. Please enjoy!

Thank you for coming to Mexico.
All: Thank you.
 
Is this your first time in Mexico? How do you like it here?
Fukumura: It’s the first time for all of us!
Iikubo: It’s great.
 
Is it different from New York or Houston?
Iikubo: For me, Mexico was my number one country that I wanted to go to.
 
Oh really?
Iikubo: Yes. I’m happy to finally be here. I originally wanted to come to see the Mayan prehistoric sites. I wasn’t able to on this trip, but I’ve been able to go sightseeing in the city and I am just happy to be able to be here in Mexico.

Please come again for the ruins. Can you tell us something about your experience with the Mexican fans? Are they different than the ones back home?
Nonaka: Fans were waiting for us the moment we flew into the airport. The cheers from the fans when we arrived were so loud and exciting. The concert hasn’t started yet but I am looking forward to all the cheers again.
 
I’m glad the fans’ heated excitement reached you guys.
Nonaka: It certainly did! I felt the excitement and I look forward to it very much.

What did you do to prepare for this live in Mexico?
Yokoyama: Ah yes, the concert starts in a little bit, but we practiced very hard on some Spanish to speak it in the MC parts

How was it? Was it hard?
All: So hard~~
Yokoyama: It was SO hard. Especially how they have a lot of the tongue rolling pronunciations.
 
Spanish and Japanese is said to have similar sounds and it is a recommended language to learn for Japanese speakers.
Fukumura: Oh I see.
Yokoyama: Oh really? Yes, so I practiced very hard.
 
Have you tried the food? Have you tried any traditional Mexican food?
Fukumura: Yes we’ve eaten a lot.
 
Anything you liked in particular?
Fukumura: Hmmm I don’t know.
Iikubo: Avocados were very good!
Fukumura: Avocados were delicious! Those kebab-like things where you wrap and eat...
Iikubo: Tacos!
Fukumura: Yes, tacos! I had tacos and my favorite ingredient was the avocados.
Nonaka: That plus mango juice was a bit different from Japan’s.
 
How so?
Nonaka: The Mexican mango juice is sweeter. Japan’s is sweet too but it’s more apparent and juicy.
Fukumura: It was kind of like it had fruit pieces in it.
Nonaka: Yes! It was very fresh and juicy, I just wanted to take all the mango juice home. That’s how good it was. So at least while I’m here I’m going to drink it as much as I can.
 
Are there any interesting souvenirs you’re taking home?
Fukumura: Yes. A plank!
Iikubo: Plank! Plank! A wood plank.
Yokoyama: They’ve bought many.
Fukumura: It’s a cross shaped board that you can put on the wall. A decoration ornament? It protects you from the evil kind of right?
Iikubo: It was cute, and I thought it would be nice as a furniture. Antique-like.
 
You could say it’s Mexican-like.
Fukumura: I was requested to buy them. Wood planks.
Iikubo: I could have given you mine.
Fukumura: You were satisfied by just buying it weren’t you? But yes, we enjoyed our shopping.
Iikubo: I bought those pro-wrestling masks too.
 
How cool! Is it for you?
Iikubo: My dad requested it actually. He likes pro-wrestling. He said to buy it if you’re going to Mexico.
 
I’m glad you found it.
Fukumura: It would’ve been great if we could all wear it for the concert.
Nonaka: For the concert!
Yokoyama: Yes!!
 
That would’ve been really funny.
Iikubo: You won’t know who’s who.
 
What kind of challenges do you run into when performing overseas?
Fukumura: Communicating clearly is the point I think is challenging. Speaking Japanese slowly is one thing, and I’m also worried about speaking the words we learned and hoping everyone understands. We practiced as much as we can, but I’m still a little worried. But our fans respond to us with cheers and that makes me happy.

You can definitely count on that I think. What other countries would you like to visit the most?
Iikubo: Oh, next is Finland. I hear Finland in the winter is very pretty so I would like to visit. Other than that I’d like to go to Italy and be fawned over (flattered) by the men there.

That’s something to look forward to.
Iikubo: I’ve heard people in Italy are kind to Japanese people and women.
 
They do say they treat women differently.
Iikubo: Yes.
 
Iikubo, you will be graduating from Morning Musume。‘18 soon. Are there any things you’d like to do that you didn’t have the time for while in MM’18?
Iikubo: Ah. I want to find lots of beautiful boys.
 
Before you graduate??
Fukumura: Do that after you graduate.
Iikubo: Being able to go overseas, well I really like beautiful boys, and children overseas are super cute. Mexico and New York that I’ve been to, they’re all over the place. It’s heaven. So they’re good for my eyes and I will charge up my heart’s peace before I go home.
Nonaka: And I would like to support her in that. We will report to her when we encounter them.
Iikubo: Yes please report to me.
 
Having that kind of support is important. Iikubo, you were always great with being an MC and you always spread Morning Musume。‘18 with your social skills and fashion. Who in Hello! Project do you think can become what you’ve become once you graduate?
Iikubo: Who likes everything (like me)? In Hello! Project? Hmmm this is hard.
 
If you can’t think of anyone it’s okay. If you could compare the members to an animal, what animal would it be?
Fukumura: Yokoyan is a dog!
Iikubo: Dog!
Yokoyama: I get that a lot. Personally I don’t know what about me is so dog-like. I really like dogs so it makes me happy, but I wonder what part of me is a dog every time.
Iikubo: Like how you always come with your tail wagging.
Nonaka: YES! YES! YES!
Yokoyama: I don’t have a tail though.
Fukumura: I can see you’re tail like this. (waves arm)
Nonaka: I think her facial structure is very similar to a corgi.
Yokoyama: That’s a compliment right?
Nonaka: Of course. Of course.
 
It means you’re really cute right?
Iikubo: Your butt is like a corgi too.
Yokoyama: What? Corgi? Um, thank you. Makes me a bit happy.
Nonaka: As for me Nonaka, the famous cat Grumpy Cat.
 
From that funny meme?
Nonaka: Yes from those funny pictures! Is it famous in Mexico too?
 
I am from America, but if you are familiar with the internet and memes I do believe it’s pretty well known.
Nonaka: Right? I think I look like Grumpy Cat, especially its eyes and the facial expressions.
 
But you’re not grumpy at all.
Nonaka: It’s like, Morning Musume。 does cooler songs more often these days and when I make those ‘cool’ expressions or when I stare sharply, I think I look a like Grumpy Cat.
 
That was an unexpected answer. I’d like to look closely in the concert.
Nonaka: Please do.
 
Former member Kudo Haruka is in the Sentai series Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger. If you were to be a character in the series, would you be the thief or the police?
All: Ahhhhhhhhh...
Fukumura: Thief for sure!! I like to root for the bad side rather than the justice side. I don’t know, like in animes, the bad side has its reasons for doing their bad things, and I feel like I am more able to sympathize with them. I just get drawn to them more.
Iikubo: Thief for me too. I want to take from the rich and give it out to the children. That type of thief.
 
Like Robin Hood! How about you two?
Yokoyama: Definitely the police.
Nonaka: The police for me too.
 
Oh you guys split. Why do you say so?
Yokoyama: Well obviously the two serious honest ones are the police.
Iikubo: Wait you’re calling us not serious?
 
Sorry I asked an obvious question.

A few weeks ago you did a live stream Q&A and that was a blast. Is there anything you would like to do next to reach out to your foreign fans more?
Fukumura: I was so happy we were able to do the live stream. I hope we can do more in the future.
Nonaka: The Q&A was a lot of fun. Even if we can’t stream it, I’d love to collect questions and answer them periodically so we can communicate with our fans more.
Fukumura: Nowadays we upload many videos on YouTube as Hello!Project, so I hope everyone can enjoy that and keep up with our updates.
 
Lastly, do you have anything you'd like to say to all your foreign fans?
Fukumura: Yes, at this time it is our first time in Mexico for all of us in Morning Musume。’18. Haruna Iikubo is going to be graduating in December, so these are the last of our performances with the 12 of us. I hope to bring you the best of us and also work to do more overseas concerts in the future. Since we have other groups in Hello! Project that have done world tours, we as Morning Musume。’18 would like to work hard to hold our own world tours as well. Please keep cheering for us and our endeavors in Japan. Thank you very much!
 
Please continue to support Morning Musume。’18, and look forward to more exciting content in the future!

You can check out our coverage of the concert here.

The above interview was conducted by Konomi Kawamoto who also provided all translation. Assistance was provided by Teepu Khan. All photos used by permission of UP-FRONT PROMOTION Co., Ltd.

---

Morning Musume。’18 is:

     - 9th Gen
          o Mizuki Fukumura (譜久村聖)
          o Erina Ikuta (生田衣梨奈)
     - 10th Gen
          o Haruna Iikubo (飯窪春菜)
          o Ayumi Ishida (石田亜佑美)
          o Masaki Sato (佐藤優樹)
     - 11th Gen
          o Sakura Oda (小田さくら)
     - 12th Gen
          o Miki Nonaka (野中美希)
          o Maria Makino (牧野真莉愛)
          o Akane Haga (羽賀朱音)
     - 13th Gen
          o Kaede Kaga (加賀楓)
          o Reina Yokoyama (横山玲奈)
     - 14th Gen
          o Chisaki Morito (森戸知沙希)

You can check out exciting coverage from Up-Front's official Facebook page made for us foreign fans here.

---