Ryota Yamasato and Takushi Tanaka call “Akashiya Santa” and tell him the whole story of their “disastrous blind date”.

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we bring you “Ryota Yamasato & Takushi Tanaka’s X-Mas Party” from the January 24, 2002 issue, which was published 10 years ago.

Ryota Yamasato (then 36) of “Nankai Candies” and Takashi Tanaka (then 37) of “Ang Girls” are now super-successful and happy in their private lives, but this is a precious episode from a time when they were still not quite so hot.

The women were shocked when they said, “We are both perverts, aren’t we?

He said, “We had a blind date on Christmas Eve, but the girls left within an hour! We had a blind date on Christmas Eve, but the girls left within an hour!

At the end of 2003, Ryota Yamasato (36) of “Nankai Candies” and Takushi Tanaka (37) of “Ang girls” confessed during a live broadcast of “Akashiya Santa’s Biggest Christmas Present Show” (Fuji TV), a regular Christmas Eve late-night live program. On this night, the two were said to have been at a blind date with beautiful women together until just a few hours before the program started. However, they were unsuccessful. They were expressing their sadness over the live phone.

In fact, this magazine witnessed the entire party.

Dashing out of a cab in the illuminated Marunouchi district of Tokyo, Yamasato, wearing a cap, walked into a private room at the back of a Japanese-style pub.

Ya~ma~chan~! came a rattling voice from the room, and it was Tanaka. He also hears several women’s voices. It seemed that everyone was there except Yamasato. And so, the “match of the match” was set to begin on Christmas Eve.

The party seemed to get off to a good start, with the women laughing all the way from the room. Putting their looks aside, it was hard not to enjoy the company of two men who are both active on the front lines of the comedy world. The reporter and his camera were excited, thinking that they might be able to take home a prize, but an unexpected turn of events awaited them. The following is a quote from an article written at the time.

Then the atmosphere became more relaxed, and Tanaka became more comfortable,

What type do you think I am?

Tanaka, perhaps feeling more at ease, started a quiz to guess his own blood type. Tanaka rushed ahead on his own. Eventually, Tanaka said, “We’re both perverts, aren’t we?

We are both perverts, aren’t we?

Tanaka, who had found a woman with the same blood type as him, made a forceful approach to her. The women laughed dryly at the outburst of the unfriendly comedian, “Hahahaha. ……

Only a few minutes later, Yamasato, Tanaka, and another man showed up. The two women who came out together, however, were subtly distant. Upon closer inspection, one of the women is TBS announcer Ai Eto (then 28). Before I could say, ” Thank you very much,” and before I could even get the “ni” out of the after-party, the women had quickly left. ……

The men waved their hands and looked on in amazement. After wandering around Marunouchi on Christmas Eve, the three men had no choice but to go into a karaoke box together.

At the time, the two men seemed to be “unattractive characters” and did not disappoint, but as we all know, their subsequent activities have been nothing short of spectacular.

Yamasato married actress Yu Aoi (38) in June 2007. In August 2010, they announced the birth of a baby girl. In April 2011, she became the MC of “DayDay.”, the show after “Sukkiri” (Nippon TV), and has become the face of Nippon TV’s morning show.

Tanaka, on the other hand, has also been active with his crown program “Calling Teacher Tanaka” since ’22. In January 2011, he married a common woman and said goodbye to his long solitary life.

The two men must have found this time to be a “joke” that they can laugh off.