Yoshizawa Hitomi
April 12, 1985 — Saitama
2000/04/16 ~ 2007/05/06
Yoshizawa: When I’d first just joined, I felt there was nothing I couldn’t do. I was pretty good at all kinds of physical exercise so even without any prior dancing experience I just thought, “well, I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.” So when we actually started with the dancing lessons, I was just astonished. I had no sense of rhythm. My body just froze — I couldn’t move at all.
— You applied for the auditions without any prior experience in singing or dancing. You weren’t thinking of it very deeply — you couldn’t even picture what it would be like if you actually passed.
Yoshizawa: I saw them advertising it on “ASAYAN” and it’s not like I had zero interest in the world of entertainment, so basically I just thought, “I’m not going to pass anyway, so I might as well apply.” That’s how it all started.
I had no idea that having good reflexes and having a good sense of rhythm were two completely separate things. It was to the point where my body simply couldn’t get used to rhythm. When the teacher would talk to me about rhythm, it was as if they were speaking to me in some sort of an alien language — I literally couldn’t make any sense of what they were saying, and so I was in a constant state of panic. Honestly, at that point I thought to myself, “it’s quite possible they won’t let me continue.” When I thought about all the many choreographies I would have to learn, I felt that there was just no way I was going to be able to do it.
