Freelance Announcer Aika Kanda: “A Party is Better than Anything Else! Part 1

When asked, “Did you often go to places to meet people?” when asked, I always answer clearly, “I went to blind dates!” I answer clearly.

Nowadays, I hear that matching apps and the Internet have become the mainstream for meeting people of the opposite sex. It is true that it is a hassle to go through the trouble of organizing a blind date party, taking the trouble to find a time, place, and number of people to attend. However, I would like you to hold out and hold a party whenever possible. You can hear the stories of many people in a shorter time than with a matching app, where it is one-on-one. You get to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet and make new discoveries.

There are also three reasons in my own way for going to a blind date.

The first was that I could never refuse an invitation from a senior colleague. In Tokyo, where there are many female announcers, the number of “dinner parties,” or blind dates, held unnoticed is far greater than in the provinces. In this era, what the senior staff says is absolute. In a short time, you have to pay attention to your senpai and assess the personality of the person you are meeting. I got through this time with the same level of concentration as at work.

The second reason was “because I could get nutrition and save money on food. Many of the meetings I attended were full-course French or Italian fine dining restaurants. In addition to filling me up, the men I was with paid for everything. I wondered how many days in a month I could spend without taking out my wallet for dinner if I could continue to be so grateful.　I thought to myself, “How many days in a month can I go without paying for dinner? As a result, the highest record was 16 days. Beyond that, I was so exhausted that I neglected my work. However, after spending more than half the nights of the month talking with people for nearly three hours at a time, with my brain running at full speed, before I knew it, I had developed the ability to observe people.

The third reason was that I witnessed “history in motion” at that moment. One day at a blind date, I was with three company presidents. Now, you may be thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know that company presidents play around. No, that’s not true. Attractive company presidents are very busy. Gasshon is not only a place to meet women, but it also plays an important role as a place for presidents to meet other presidents.

The three of us said to each other, “Nice to meet you, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” or “We can finally talk at leisure, can’t we? In between chats with the women, the presidents talked business with each other, leading to a concrete discussion of a company tie-up. The conversation did not end there, but became a reality, and was later featured in the economic section of Yahoo! （It was a very exciting event.) It was an exciting event.

True story!　Men Aika met

I have analyzed the data I have accumulated from my observation of the men I met and the characteristics of each type of work. Let me introduce some of them.

Foreign financial businessman

He always thinks about earning money, and everything is time is money; he leaves things that can be solved with money, such as house cleaning and cooking, to other means, and has no particular problem if the woman he is dating is not a family man. Some of them have been estranged from their relatives for years because they have too much money. The drawback is that they tend to think that the women who come near them are after money, and spend a lot of money on their own personal things, but keep their gifts and souvenirs for women inexpensive and see how they go. Incidentally, when asked, “If I were to buy a new car, which would I prefer, a sports car or an eco-car?” I’d like to buy a sports car or an eco-car. The answer is “an eco-car!

The president actively participates despite his marital status.

At the beginning of the meeting, he says, “I want to help Mr. Fatty, who has always been a great help to me,” giving the impression that “I’m just along for the ride. And, 100% of the time, he has a separate house he calls his “workplace. He often shows us the view from his apartment in the center of Tokyo. He usually already has a mistress and is looking for more women to associate with so that his wife and mistress don’t find out. They believe and say that “a man who can have an affair dexterously = a man who can do his job.” He frequently travels and plays golf with his married friends, and tells his wife that he does, but they bring their mistresses with them and keep each other in the dark.

…… and this is not the end of the story yet!　In the second part, I would like to introduce the characteristics of sergeants of large corporations, presidents of young IT companies, and politicians.

Aika Kanda was born in 1980 in Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating from Gakushuin University with a degree in mathematics, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003, and left in 2012 to become a freelance announcer. Since then, she has been active mainly in variety shows, and currently makes regular appearances as the main MC of the daytime TV program “Poka Poka” (Fuji Television Network).

Next week’s preview!
What Aika Kanda got from going to a lot of blind dates: ……! Continue to Part 2!

From the September 1, 2023 issue of FRIDAY