Pâtisserie Momochi #1 (2015.03.21)

For this week and next week, we have the special programme ‘Pâtisserie Momochi’! While this time slot used to host a three-person radio show, this time it’s just Momochi by herself. As to what she thought when she first heard about the programme:

Momoko: At first, I had no idea what ‘Pâtisserie’ meant, I couldn’t hide my confusion.

But she looked it up for those of us who similarly aren’t familiar with French, and she explains that ‘Pâtisserie‘ is French for a sweets or cake shop, a male pastry chef would be a ‘pâtissier‘, while the female equivalent would be a ‘pâtissière‘. Momochi thinks that ‘pâtissière‘ has a nice ring to it.

Momochi also notes that Airi had previously hosted her own solo radio show ‘Pâtisserie Airi’ over the past two weeks, which had gone over well with the listeners and Baron-san. The bar has been raised for Momochi, and expectations are high on her.

♪ Buono! – Last Forever ♪

Solving your bitter worries in a refreshing way
Pâtissière Momochi’s sweet recipe

For this segment, we have a 31-year old office worker asking for advice. This listener has a 3-year old daughter – who hates him, most likely because of his beard. Its roughness made her cry once, and now he has to shave every time he wants to play with her. Yet, she still hides behind her mother when he comes close. ‘How do I soothe this unpleasant sadness?‘

Momoko agrees that the listener probably had no ill intentions. After a long day at work or on weekends, he probably just wants to get close with his daughter and would like to give her a hug.

Momoko admits that she herself isn’t a fan of beards, and when she sees her father’s, it grosses her out. He normally shaves it, but on days he’s not working, he just lets it be.

Momoko: Why do you have to slack off just because it’s not a work day?

Fundamentally, she feels that girls don’t like beards. It may be a pain, but she recommends just keeping up with the finishing touches after waking up – you brush your teeth, wash your face, shave. ‘Why can’t my Papa do even that?‘

While she’s already 23 and can’t say things like ‘One of the things I hate about Papa is your beard‘ , in the listener’s case, his beard might be going too far, it might cause his 3-year old trauma.

Another consequence of his beard might be that his 3-year old might equate her father to a thief. And aren’t thieves frightening to a 3-year old? Here’s this thief, asking her to come out and play. That’s scary.

The beard was a dead giveaway

As a solution, Momoko proposes wearing a mask. With a mask on, the ill-effects of his beard will be gone. On the other hand, wearing a mask might make him look suspicious, so he could consider other non-mask alternatives that could cover his chin, with a muffler being one example. With his beard covered up, the source of the problem is dealt with, and they can play with relief.

Momoko also recommends getting the mother’s cooperation – ‘It’s your papa. A gentle person.‘ She thinks that if the whole family works together, it’ll lead to a happy resolution to his problems. ‘So please use this as reference.‘

Cover that with a mask,please

♪ Moon River ♪

To Tsugunaga Momoko, what is an ‘idol’?

Momoko: From a consultation we suddenly change to such a philosophical topic, that’s quite the huge swing.

Having been an idol for 12 and a half years, she feels that she’s got the aptitude to be an idol, and so she’s continuing as an idol… but recently, aren’t there just too many idols? It’s like half of humanity are idols. Back when she first made her début, you could count the number of idol groups on your fingers. Now, it’s like a third of the girls in a class will be idols. She has no idea why are there’s such a surge in the number of idols.

In her case, lots of people think that idols are wonderful, which makes her really happy about the current circumstances. A considerable number of people want to become an idol like Momochi, and that makes her happy… but there are just too many! She thinks that you can’t just become idols willy-nilly. Idols are something precious.

You can’t just willy-nilly become an idol like Momochi

Personally, she does believe that being an idol suits her. But coming to the topic about what isn’t idol-like about her, she comments that the idols of the current age divulge a lot about their private lives. She feels it creates a sense of affinity that helps them gain popularity.

For her, it’s something she can’t do, no matter how she thinks of it – work is work, her private life is her private life – she really makes a distinction between them. That’s the only stickler in her suitability as an idol. She thinks it’s a point to reflect on, but she even if she does, she’s already decided within herself that it’s something she won’t fix.

Blogging builds on that – she never has any idea about what to blog about. She knows that people do things like take photos of what they had to eat for lunch, but that just isn’t something that she can do. She ends up over-thinking things, like ‘What do the readers feel when they see what I had for lunch?‘ On the other hand, she gets that it might make people happy, knowing what their favourite artistes are doing.

Also, she can’t take selfies – she really dislikes it if people were to think, ‘Look at her, taking it that way, in order to make herself look cute’. And if she puts up a selfie, people might think ‘Ah, that Momochi think that she looks cute with her face at that angle, huh?‘ It stops her from taking that first step forward. So when she sees girls taking selfies, even ones who aren’t idols, she really respects them: ‘Ah, that’s amazing – they’re more of an idol than I am.’

Look at this girl, trying to act all cute

Those parts of her are where she thinks she’s not up to par as an idol, but besides that, she can 100% be an idol. From now on, she’d like to be an idol who goes along with the times, yet still advances on the Showa-era path of an exquisite idol. Even if she was born in the Heisei era. There might be people who think that she’s a pain because of that, but she begs for the kind support of those who follow her.

She wracked her brains to come up with a Buono! song that’s idol-like, and came up with the following, where you can feel the idol-ness from just the title:

♪ Buono! – Minna Daisuki ♪