Akiko Suzuki Meringue June 2013 English Subtitles

This week again, we'll reveal the private lives of celebs. Merenge (Meringue) no Kimochi We have wonderful guests today. Let us welcome them all! Welcome. First time in a variety show. Ms. Akiko Suzuki. She is doing so great. Something's wrong with your voice today? Yes. For some reason I lost my voice. Are you OK? Too much drinking last night? No, no. I just got it down in the bronchial tube. We now have three hoarse voice people in the studio. Sorry that we're unpleasant to your ears. OK. Next we'll find things about Ms Suzuki. This is the video of her when she was little. Look how sharp Ms Suzuki's movements were. [Akiko, 8 years old] 2nd skater, Akiko Suzuki of Chunichi figure Club Cute! But look at the speed already. She really stood out. She did. Wow! Beautiful. [Akiko, 12 years old] Now She's 12. Her legs so long! She grew up so much all of sudden. So lovely! Cute. I got 3rd place in this one. That was awesome and so pretty! Oh, no. When I was little I was so fat I was called a Sumo wrestler. Really? And when I started skating I shrank like deflating. Your legs so pretty and body so flexible. Hey, get your hand off her! It's not just holding her hand. His thumb kept moving all the time! Anyway thank you for the great video. All right, next.. After this, figure skater Ms Akiko Suzuki will share her past days of great challenge. I lost about 15kg (33lbs) What!? The great scene of Ms Akiko Suzuki from the Olympics. [Vancouver 2010, age 24 at the time] [She got in 8th place in her first Olympics] This is making me cry. Great. Awesome!! Such a heartfelt performance. What kind of tears were those? For one, it was great that I could participate in the Olympics. And I was feeling that "Oh, the Olympics are really going to be over now." Lots of different emotions took over me and simply poured out. For your age you were actually aiming for the one before, Torino Olympics. Yes, I was trying to get in the team for Torino, in which Ms Shizuka Arakawa got the gold medal. For my age I thought I would be at the peak around that time.(at age 20) So I was trying to go to that Olympics. But when I became a University student I had an eating disorder and became ill. I lost weight and I got about 15kg (33lbs.) less than what I am now. What!? I could not eat. What started that? Before that I was going to high school from my home in Nagoya, and training there too. I moved to Sendai to seek for help from a coach and started to go to the University away from home. I told myself that I must do self-managing strictly. I became afraid of meat or fatty food. I gradually became unable to eat. I found it hard just to lead a normal life with too little physical energy. So I went back home and started to see a doctor regularly. How long did it take to recover from that disorder? I couldn't be in a competition for a year. And although I could be on the ice again I went all the way back to a beginner. I fell just by changing the direction from backward to forward. Oh---!! I had lost too much of my muscles. Oh, so you lost muscle strength being away from it for a year. Yeah, in my head I could image it all right, but my body had become totally something else. I started from simple walking. You did a super job to come back. That was for your spirit that loves skating so much, I imagine? Well, I think so. The only thing I can do is skating. I can't do any other sport. Such as handling a ball? I can't. We sometimes have such time as.., well, after a show, we all throw balls with our autographs to the audience. I get to feel that I want to throw as far back, more than what I actually can. I tried so hard with all my strength. I hit straight on the stomach of the person sitting right in front of me. Smoking fast! You had to practice every single day since you were 6. What about your love life? When I was in high school, I was dating quite normally. Oh, you were? That's nice! But it's just like, both of us were skaters, after everybody said "bye" to each other at the end of practice and left separately, we met at the parking lot of a nearby convenience store. So cute!! And just went back to the station together. That's great. Was he your Sempai (senior) or the same age? He was a year older. So You walked with your sempai talking about how you did in skating. We didn't talk about skating at all. I'm sorry! And after, you must have met so many guys. How is it going? How come I haven't met anybody..? Well excuse me, You're asking me that so seriously, and How come I haven't met anybody..? No, not to me either. How come I haven't met anybody..? So someone answer us! What are you gonna do about marriage? How long are you going to continue skating? What shall I do? But.. You're gonna continue a little more, right? Well, as far as competing is concerned, for now I am planning to finish my competitive career after the season of next Olympics in Sochi. So you'll do to your fullest up to the Olympics and then think about the future after. Right. That's the idea. I heard that you were a close friend of Daisuke Takahashi. Yes, well when I was in seventh grade he went in his first overseas competition and I was there too. So we've known each other for 15 years. We are like childhood friends. So you encourage each other. Yes. Today, from Mr Takahashi, we have some survey response on Ms Suzuki. We're going to read it. We both were in the same ice show till just a few days ago, he wasn't saying anything. Of course he wouldn't! This is how a "variety show" goes. Thank you. First question we asked him; what was her behavior that just made you laugh? "there were too many to remember." "For one, it seems that once I was in her dream and at the very start of a program I struck a strange pose. The pose she actually showed me was explosive I laughed really hard. Please show that to everyone at the studio." I want to see it!! I heard that Dai-chan, -- Oh, we call him Dai-chan, had a new choreographer for his program, and the rumor was that it was exceptional. And then it came in my dream. I guess I had shaped some image on my own, thinking, "something out-of-this-world is coming." And it was.... well, he's saying I should show it myself but Yes, please. I'm wearing a skirt (dress) so.. So I'll do what I can. Yeah, as much as you can. I don't know how much I can get it across. in skating, you can stand on one foot only because you keep moving. You can't be on one foot very well in a pose. So you can't keep it still. Right, you can't really keep still one-footed. But his start was like, he was holding his knee this high. This high? Yeah, and that was the very opening pose of the program. So you mean this? Right. Excuse me. Thank you! Like this. It was just like that. You can't keep still. I go wobble. Isn't that so much fun? It’s fun. And we asked, "what do you two usually talk about?" "When two of us have a drink we mostly talk about skating." "And at banquets after competitions when I get drunk, she always takes care of me. I am sorry." So I never can get drunk. There's always someone like that in a party! Skaters go turn and turn in a circle so you shouldn't bump into ....@3g!+&*q% Skaters wouldn't drink before a competition So once it's over we let loose like a bomb. He rushes to get drunk faster than anyone else. He makes a vow, "I'll never dance, today." Then five minutes later he starts dancing somewhere away from the table. You mean dancing like this? At full throttle. Serious stuff? Like this then? Right. They all have their choreographies. And he comes down dancing to fetch me saying "Hey, let's go!" And he makes me dance too. So now you both do serious dancing? After this, we'll have the three sisters of figure skating. Akiko Suzuki shows: The back stage of a skating show. Now we are introducing you the three sisters of Japan's figure skating. This is Kanako. This is Mao. This is Akiko. [Kanako Murakami]____________[Mao Asada] These hair bands are from some of our fans. You are so close to each other. We are always like that in the back stage. You are so very close friends with each other. Yes, we are. Both with Mao-chan and Ms Murakami. So that is the atmosphere between you. I thought you'd have more strained air because you are rivals. Not at all. We imagine some girl would chop your boot lace. You have nothing like that? We don't have any such thing. Especially the three of us in the video are close. Ours is an individual sport and we all want one's own best. We feel happy about another doing well. And comfort her when not doing well. That's admirable! Real sportsmanship. I think that's why Japanese skaters are getting better altogether. Oh, that's how it is. I will mend my small-minded self. I can't help wishing his joke fail when I watch another comedian on a show.