“The Reality of Routines”: Aika Kanda Opens Up About Her Everyday Life

A beauty gift

A few years ago, the word routine began appearing frequently on television and in magazines. A routine is a set sequence of steps or a daily practice. In particular, the morning and evening routines of actresses and models attracted attention from women eager to learn the secrets behind their beauty.

I have always been the type of person who finds it efficient to follow a predetermined sequence of actions. For example, I have a fixed two-hour period from waking up in the morning until leaving for work. Everything I do from the moment my alarm goes off until I put on my shoes at the front door follows the exact same order and timing every morning. To avoid disrupting that routine, I have also been making the same breakfast menu for nearly seven years. Perhaps this is because, throughout my life, I have belonged to groups with a lot of rules and regulations—such as the middle and high schools I attended, which had strict school rules, and NHK, where I worked and where there were numerous detailed restrictions.

But when it comes to beauty, I have lived without any routines or even much interest, because it costs money, the results vary greatly from person to person, and whether or not you actually see results is so uncertain.

Yet this year, I suddenly found myself being pursued by a beauty routine. And because of it, I have been losing sleep and becoming worn down both physically and mentally.

It all started on my birthday last year. A stylist who has always looked after me gave me a “Pelvic Stretch Air Belt” as a birthday present. It is a thick fabric belt that you wrap tightly around the pelvic area. When you turn it on, it inflates with air. The pressure is supposed to correct misalignment of the pelvis, improve posture, and help improve your figure.

I had received beauty-related gifts before: hand creams, makeup products, skincare products, facial beauty devices, and so on. I am not particularly dexterous and often do not know how to use them, so I tended to leave them sitting in storage. But with this belt, all I had to do was wrap it around myself, lie down, and turn it on. Since I could read scripts or do research while using it, I incorporated it into my work routine and began using it around September last year, about four months after receiving it.

The feeling of being squeezed was like getting a massage, and it felt really good. I found myself thinking, “I want to do it one more time!” and eventually started doing it twice every night. Then, at the end of last year, after three months of using it, I felt that the waist of the clothes I had been wearing had become looser. So I stepped on the scale and discovered that I had lost a full 3 kilograms.

I had heard that improving your posture makes you lose weight, but was that really true!? At the same time, those three months had also been a period when I was deeply troubled by interpersonal relationships, so I wondered, “Couldn’t that be the reason!?” I was confused. Whatever the reason, the fact was that I had returned to the weight I had been in my mid-20s. I resolved, “I’m absolutely going to maintain it!”

The results were there, but

Since I wasn’t sure what had caused me to lose weight, I not only continued using the pelvic belt but also started doing stretches I could do at home. Even when I was staying at hotels for work in other parts of Japan or overseas, or when I had a drinking party to attend, I never skipped them.

A month later, perhaps thanks to my efforts, I had maintained my weight, and I also felt that my upper arms had somehow become slimmer. At one point, someone even asked me, “How is it that your shoulder blades are so clearly visible at your age? Are you doing something?” I was moved by the thought, “So even I can see results in my appearance if I make an effort!” My growing interest in beauty joined forces with my natural desire for efficiency, and a routine began to take shape.

And now, my pre-bedtime beauty routine consists of as many as 11 steps. I do stretches, apply moisturizing cream to my body while it is still wet before leaving the bathroom, and after drying off, apply another moisturizing cream and a whitening cream. For my face, I apply toner and then put on a face mask. At the same time, I use the pelvic belt twice, and after removing the mask, I apply moisturizing cream and eye cream and take supplements.

It is extremely exhausting. It takes a whopping two hours to finish everything. On days when I come home exhausted from work, I sometimes fall asleep while wearing the face mask and pelvic belt. I wake up in a panic once the mask has dried completely, which isn’t good for my skin and also leaves me sleep-deprived.

Which step should I eliminate? Every single one of them seems like something that would be better to do than not do, and I don’t have the courage to stop. But if I continue like this, it will eventually interfere with my daily life. The routine I created to achieve results efficiently has now become an enormous burden instead, and it is causing me a great deal of stress.

Aika Kanda was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1980. After graduating from Gakushuin University’s Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003. She left NHK in 2012 and became a freelance announcer. Since then, she has mainly worked on variety shows and currently appears regularly as the main MC of the daytime program “Pokapoka” (Fuji TV).

★ Her first book, Where Does the “Mainstream Path” Run? [Ōdō tte Iu Michi, Doko ni Tōttemasu ka?], a compilation of this series, is now on sale to great acclaim!

From the July 31, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”