Freelance announcer Aika Kanda: “My Thoughts on ‘Kaeko'”Freelance announcer Aika Kanda: “My Thoughts on Kaeko”

My Encounter with Frogs

The other day, I went on location to Saga Prefecture. Whenever I find a rice field during a shoot, I always feel the urge to walk along the irrigation paths. While saying things like, “Ah! The rice field is so beautiful!” or “I wonder what the rice ears look like at this time of year?” I approach the field and, if it seems safe, I walk along the narrow path beside it.

The charm of the irrigation path is that it gives a completely different kind of stimulation compared to the city. For someone like me, who grew up in the city, an unpaved road is a rarity, and the fact that both sides of the path are covered in water is thrilling. Additionally, whether it’s a water strider or a grasshopper, as soon as I set my foot down, something jumps or flies, and the grass or water surface a few dozen centimeters ahead always ripples. It’s a far cry from the predictable, planned-out experience of a theme park game. And that unpredictability, beyond my usual dislike of bugs, stirs my curiosity.

There’s another reason I love irrigation paths. The one I walked on in Saga was extraordinary—every time I took a step, around 10 frogs would jump away. That’s the perfect irrigation path. Why? Because frogs hold a special place in my heart.

My first encounter with a frog was during my childhood, on family trips to Karuizawa every summer. There was always a small stream across the road from the pension we stayed at. One year, while playing with my older brother in that stream, we found a brilliantly bright yellow-green frog. It was about the size of an ice cream Pino, just a little bigger. My brother caught it and placed it in my palm. Its shiny skin, big eyes, and soft, throbbing throat. (It was so small and beautiful, yet it was trying so hard.) At 5 years old, I thought that was amazing. I named the frog “Kaeko” and returned it to the stream, saying, “Kaeko! I’ll come back next year!” as we said our goodbyes.

The next year, when my brother and I went to the stream again, Kaeko was there. It looked exactly the same, both in color and size. After talking about it all year, wondering if Kaeko would be there, I was overjoyed when we found it. My brother caught it again, and I called out, “Kaeko!” Then we returned it to the stream again, saying, “See you next year!” But the following year, it was gone. My mother and brother said, “Kaeko had to grow up, so it must have gone somewhere.”

Looking back, I now realize it wasn’t the same frog. I think my mother and brother lied to me to make me happy. But because of this experience, the young Aika came to believe that frogs are creatures that can understand human feelings and words. That belief has stayed with me, even at the age of 45. That’s why frogs are so special to me.

An Unexpected Encounter

The summer of the year before last. I bought some freshly harvested sunny lettuce on sale at the supermarket. After storing it in the fridge for about two days, on the third morning, I finally decided to eat it and tore off a few leaves. That’s when I found a frog between the leaves. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even make a sound. It didn’t move at all, but its bright yellow-green color, big eyes, and size—just a little bigger than a Pino ice cream—were exactly like Kaeko.

(Is this really you?) I thought, feeling a bit nervous. As I leaned in to get a closer look, suddenly, its right front leg stretched out. My mind went blank. Then I realized, (It’s alive!) and I shouted, “Waaah!! A frog!!” My husband, who came rushing over to see what was going on, gently picked it up. He explained that the fridge was cold, so the frog had been still, but now that it was outside and warming up, it started moving. Since my husband is often told he looks like a frog, he had just as much affection for frogs as I did.

As he said, “Let’s release it outside,” he gently threw the frog from the balcony. Our apartment is on a middle floor, and beneath the balcony is concrete. I realized the frog’s fate in that moment. But my husband still believes that he saved the frog that day. I plan to carry this realization with me to my grave and want to believe that it wasn’t Kaeko.

The frogs hopping around the irrigation path in Saga were tiny, brown frogs about 2 cm in size. They weren’t Kaeko. But I called out, “Kaeko~ Kaeko~” aloud. Maybe one of them was the reincarnation of Kaeko, or perhaps a friend of hers. I wanted to tell Kaeko that I still remember her, and to say thank you for that time. It might sound foolish, but I truly feel that way.

★ The author’s first book, a collection of this series titled “The Path I Call the Way of Kings: Where Does It Lead?” is now available and receiving great reviews!

Aika Kanda / Born in 1980, Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating from the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Science at Gakushuin University, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003. She left NHK in 2012 and became a freelance announcer. Since then, she has been active primarily on variety shows, and currently, she is a regular main MC on the daytime talk show Poka Poka (Fuji TV).

From “FRIDAY” September 26, 2025