Um.. I saw the first episode of the new show called Bijo Houdan (which directly translates as "Beautiful Woman Free Talk". Lol). From there I'm guessing each episode will see guests come on and just talk about anything they like for 20 or so minutes. It reminds me a little of Futarigoto but this is actually a more serious talk show for a change (maybe that depends on the guest of the week though^^;). This first episode sees Takahashi Ai-chan conversing with a pleasant obahan named Hosokawa Kayoko. She is the wife of former Japanese Prime Minister, Hosokawa Morihiro.



I haven't seen Ai-chan bare her soul like this on TV for a long, long time. Maybe she found it easier to talk to Hosokawa-san who seems like a very calm, mature and understanding person. She just has that overwhelming motherly aura about her..

Almost immediately Aichan posed the first question, which was "Do you like yourself?".. And we can clearly see tears start to well up in her eyes. Nande?!



Hosokawa-san answers, "I've never been asked this my whole life or thought about it before but.. I do like myself. Do you not like yourself?". So Ai-chan talked about her lack of confidence, how she found it hard to like herself and she's not good with expressing herself in words.

"..Even now", her eyes became a little teary again. Ai then asks Hosokawa-san whether she had moments when she had to hold back her tears. Hosokawa-san says when she was about 23 years old and had to live in Europe all alone and felt isolated, but surprisingly didn't really shed tears of regret. "Maybe I didn't battle (against difficult situations) like you do. ...Maybe your expectations for yourself are too high?"


Looks like Ai-chan realized that it might be true^^. Hosokawa-san hit the nail right on the head..

"If you look at things that you can do well instead of those you can't, you won't be worried. Don't focus on your weak points.", was her advise to Ai-chan.

Next question, marriage xD Well I'm gonna stop here and not talk much more about the rest of the show because it might go on forever (and I'm really tired :P). They went on to talk about life, marriage, Hosokawa-san's experience as a First Lady, and about being a leader. It was a really wonderful first episode. We get to see a more personal side of Ai-chan and find out a little bit about what goes on in her head. As I've thought all along, she has a lot of self doubt and has problems with her self-confidence. Poor Ai-chan..

Random shots from the rest of the show follows..


Ai lauging when she talked about how she can't imagine herself being married (Me! Me! Marry me, Aichan!) xD


"It must be fate!", she says excitedly when hearing about how Hosokawa-san met her husband again by chance in Rome (before they were married).


"What will your marriage be like?". This question made Ai-chan look like she was thinking quite hard (lol).


Ai explaining how she doesn't feel much like a leader when she compares herself with the past leaders of Morning Musume..


"You can be the type of leader who leads through kindness.." Okay I put this here because I just realized there's no photo of Hosokawa-san anywhere except that tiny one at the start. Gomen ne, obahan..



Her eyes were teary many times during the whole conversation. The tears finally flowed at the very end.. But we won't find out why until the next episode :(