Free Announcer Aika Kanda: “Two Things I Dare Not Do During the Year-end and New Year’s Holidays

Still “lingering” over NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen

Happy New Year 2025, FRIDAY readers! Thanks to all of you, we are able to see you again this year. （I was worried about how many months I would be able to continue this series.) (How many months will I be able to continue?) But now that you are reading this series, it has been almost two years. I will do my best to continue writing this year. Thank you very much for your support.

I hope you enjoyed the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen on New Year’s Eve (……).　In my third year as an NHK announcer, I witnessed the soulful voices of the contestants and the professional work of the production staff, said to number about 3,000, and realized the magnitude and significance of this program.

Since then, I have always wanted to be an announcer involved in the Kohaku program!　I want to finish my work at NHK Hall every year! I want to finish my work at NHK Hall every year! And for the next five years, until I left the station to work in Tokyo, I continued to finish my work at the Kohaku broadcast site.

It has been 12 years since I left NHK, but I still can’t watch the Kohaku Uta Gassen, and while I have no regrets about any other NHK program, I still have lingering feelings about Kohaku. On New Year’s Eve, when I watch Kohaku on the TV screen (I want to work with the professionals of this program again, not watch it!) ), I get out of my seat.

In the past 12 years, I have only watched one scene of Kohaku, in 2014. My husband, who was still in a relationship at the time, appeared on stage with Hiromi Go in an impersonation of her, and they performed together for only a few minutes. I’ve always been a big fan of Ms. Goh, and this was a big stage for my husband to impersonate Ms. Goh and perform together. I recorded it and watched it because it looked so interesting, but it was very hard for me to watch the fast-forward screen until the scene.

That is why I did not watch Kohaku at the end of last year. I was abroad with my mother. It was an escape from the country in the name of filial piety. However, during the countdown, I was reminded of that time (I was working at NHK Hall by now). I hate myself like this.

When will I get out of this deep valley of regret? Time is not the answer. I feel that I have to get involved in Kohaku again, in any way I can.

I’m not a singer, and I’m not a big celebrity who would be offered to host the show. I’m not a singer, and I’m not a big celebrity who would be offered to host the Kohaku. Then, by some miracle, the bigwigs at Kohaku who happened to see my work at …… would say, “Let’s ask Kanda-san to do this. This is the only pattern! For this reason, I will carefully face each job one by one and continue to show my hard work. For my own sake, I shall do so again this year.

Which would you rather take, a trip or a hatsumode?

Because my grandfather lived in Kamakura, I used to go to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine for Hatsumode every year until I graduated from college. Hatsumode became a habit, and even after I became a working adult, I continued to visit a shrine near my home. However, two years ago, when the Fuji TV series “Poka Poka” started, I began to have doubts about Hatsumode itself.

The cause was the time limit set for Hatsumode. Generally, people in Kanto go to Hatsumode by January 7, which is called “Matsu-no-Uchi. Once “Pokapoka” starts, the next time I can take a long vacation is in the summer. That is quite a hardship for me, as I like to travel. So I decided to go on a trip until two days before the first day of “Pokapoka” and do food shopping and housework the day before.

Then the question arose (when do you go for the first day of “Hatsumode?) The question came up. Would you cut a day off your trip to make time for Hatsumode? (God wouldn’t want us to feel sad like that). (God wouldn’t want us to be sad like that.) Then, would we stop shopping and go to Hatsumode? (No, no, God would want us to eat healthy). Then stop paying homage to God? (So you can spend the whole year in peace!?). (So you can live in peace for the whole year!). (And you can live in peace for the whole year!?) Because I’m sure that if you did, all good things would come out of it. (…… Indeed, there are as many good things and as many bad things every year.) Then you don’t have to go there, do you? (Yes, I do!). (Yes!).

(Yes!) The two of us discussed like this in our minds and decided not to go to Hatsumode during the Matsu-no-Naka season. Still, I have been able to live a reasonably fulfilling life for the past two years, as usual.

Oh, that’s right! I also stopped writing New Year’s greeting cards! Because I don’t know if it’s right to cut down my itinerary with my mother to write back to her. (Huh? (Was it because it just became a hassle?) I’m not sure if it’s right for me to cut down my itinerary with my mother. I feel like I’m just making it easy for some reason, but that’s okay. All right, I’m going to work hard this year, too!

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 appears regularly as the main MC of the daytime TV program “Poka Poka” (Fuji Television Network).

Her first book, ” Where are you going on the road called Royal Road? is now on sale by popular demand!

From “FRIDAY” January 24/31, 2025 issue