由美:アメリカでライブをやらせていただくと、アメリカの方って非常にノルのがうまいというか、それはやっぱり文化の違いだと思うんですよ。話は長くなるんですけど、フィラデルフィアに行ったときに、夜中の3時に車が止まってたんですね。で、トランクがあいてて、そこにでっかいラジカセがあって、男女が道ばたでラジカセをかけて踊ってるんですよ。そういうのって見たことないですよね、日本にはないし。それにインタビューの質問で…、 亜美:どういうときに「get up and danceしますか?」みたいなことを聞かれて…、 由美:「いや、そんなこと全然したことないです(笑)」って。リズムにのるのがうまいとか、ずっと小さいときからたぶんあるのかな、って感じで。日本はアメリカにはないもの、団結力みたいなものがあって、それは日本ならではだと思います。
When we do live concerts in the United States its a tremendous
amount of fun because the audience really gets into the music
so quickly and so easily. I think there's a real difference
in culture there. I'm going to go off into a tangential story
that occurred when we were in Philadelphia. It was in the middle
of the night - 3am. We saw a car stopped in the middle of the
street. Their trunk was open, they had a huge cassette-radio,
and it was just blaring music and there were people dancing
to the music. That's a scene that you would never see in Japan.
When we were being interviewed in the United States, someone asked us, "when
do you get up and just dance?" And we didn't really kind of comprehend the
question because the answer is never! You just don't do that; this is a
very different culture. But I think that in the United States people respond
to the rhythm, pick up the rhythm, pick up on the music and just really
get into it very very quickly. I think it's something people in the United
States have been doing since they were small children. On the other hand,
you could say that Japan comes together as a group and you get this really
group ethic that comes through in a Japanese audience.
In Asia, the most enjoyable thing about performing is that we
feel like real idols. So every country is different but every
place is really enjoyable to perform in. And I think if you
really want the answer to your question you should see us perform
in every country in the world!
We're going to be riding on a float and we won't understand
the details until we actually get there. We don't have this
kind of parade in Japan so we really don't understand the situation
and we can't really compare it to anything. We've been told
that we'll ride around the city on the float and then at the
end we'll stop by Macy's and be allowed to sing a song.
Q. 日本の記者、アメリカの記者、どちらの方がバカな質問を多くしますか?
It's hard to answer that question however I can say in the United
States we were once asked by a journalist, "when you open
a package of M&M's, which color M&M do you eat first?"
We really didn't know how to respond. We thought, "well
maybe red?"