028 Interview with Mare the Actress!

In this episode, we chat with Mare, a theater actress based in Tokyo! She shares how she began acting as a child, how she fell in love with musical theater, and how she became fluent in English. Mare will also be performing a new original show in early December 2025 — check out her Instagram @behope_bemare for details! More info on the duo showcase available at: https://note.com/mareinny/n/n2f0aa3354ff8

Transcript

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Kuli English Podcast. It's me, your host, Chris. And normally I do these episodes by myself, but today I have a special guest, and instead of me introducing the special guest, let's let the special guest introduce herself.

So, go ahead. 

Hello, Chris, and hello, people listening to this podcast, I'm Mare. I'm an actor, especially for musical theater, and I have been working as an actor for about 20 years. I've started performing on stage when I was 11 years old, and since then I always loved doing theater.

But on the other hand, I loved studying English, and I loved traveling all over the world. I loved trying something new. So yeah, I'm not just the actor, but I'm doing many different kinds of stuff at the same time.

Yeah, you do.

That's who I am. And I met Chris a month ago, and now I'm here. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, there was the musical comedy night thing, and that's where I first saw you. And you were not only a performer, but you were also the emcee.

Yes. Yes, yes.

And that was really amazing. Thank you. And this is all true, right?

On the podcast, it's all true stuff. But that was the first time I went to see some kind of musical comedy thing. I actually didn't know what to expect, because I've seen comedy things, and I've seen musicals, but I've never seen both of them.

And so we go there, and we're sitting, and it's a warm kind of family thing. And I saw it, and you're an amazing emcee. I've seen a lot of emcee stuff, and it was amazing.

Thank you very much. That's why we started creating that kind of show, because in Japan, musical theater is not that popular compared to movies or TV dramas, but it's kind of getting popular. A lot of big theater is always doing some new shows.

But we don't have much opportunities to show small, tiny group of people doing funny things, singing funny musical songs.

You were so good.

But that's something I really liked about musical theater. So I just wanted to do something like that in Tokyo. That's why I started thinking about that comedy show called LOL, Laugh Out Loud.

So the first show was held in 2019. I produced it, and I translated all the English songs into Japanese, and I collected all the people and friends, and I made a show. I directed it, and I performed, of course.

Then that was the second time to do it like live, because we've been doing it offline during COVID. We've been doing it online during the COVID, and that was the second time to do it offline.

And a lot of those have actually never been performed by anyone else.

I don't think so, especially in Japanese.

Because you translated from English to Japanese.

Yes, yes.

So it's kind of original, then.

Yes, I think so. Because thanks to people who wrote the song and composed the song, now we could perform in Japanese.

That's so good. I'm really happy I went.

Thank you for coming with all the friends of you.

Oh, yeah. The whole gang. Five or six people.

Oikawa-san, too, who filmed the podcast. Yeah, so then this is probably a good way to segue into the question. But you were talking about musical theater, and you've been doing it kind of since you were 11.

In the beginning, it was musical theater from the beginning, or was it a different kind?

No, it was dance. So have you ever heard of Morning Musume? It's one of the popular Japanese idol girls group.

And when I was three years old, that group was very hot. That was like everyone loved Morning Musume. And I was one of them.

And I always mimicked what's playing, like them, and then dancing in front of TV when they were on a TV show. Then I wanted to be a part of Morning Musume.

Do you remember this? You were only three, right?

Yeah, three.

Do you remember?

I remember all the songs and a little choreography. So I really loved it. But maybe my mom or dad was always talking about me loving Morning Musume.

That's why I think that I remembered it. But that's why I started learning dancing when I was six years old. But before that, I was into swimming.

I loved swimming.

Like swimming in the water?

Because my mom used to be a swimmer. So it's kind of a natural thing in my family to become a swimmer. And I was taking a lesson in the swimming pool.

And that building is kind of a sport gym. So there's a swimming pool, and there's a studio. And the studio was going to start a hip hop dance class for kids.

Oh, OK. That's where we noticed that, oh, now is the time to start taking dance lessons. And I jumped in, and I was just obsessed with dancing.

What about swimming? You forgot about swimming.

I kept it. I kept swimming. And I did dance.

So maybe twice a week, swimming. Twice a week, dance lessons. So I was very often visiting that sport gym.

Wow. Yeah, yeah. You got two plus two.

It's like four times a week.

Yes. Yeah, very active child.

And you liked it?

I really loved it. The bath? Swimming.

Yeah, yeah, you liked it. Yeah, dancing.

I really liked it. So I started from dancing. Then I started learning.

So that was hip hop. But I started taking the lessons of jazz dance where it was a different location. And the teacher of the jazz dance class, she told me about the audition of musical theater.

Like a family musical where a lot of kids are going to play. So she was like, if you're interested in singing, maybe you can also start doing musical kind of stuff. Have you watched it?

And I had never seen musical before. But I would love to try something new. So I went to the audition, and I sang a Do Re Mi song in front of people.

The sound of music, Do Re Do?

Yeah, yeah, Do wa do, natsu no do. And I danced, and I made it. So that happened when I was 11 years old.

And that was my first musical show I was in. So that's how I became a musical actor.

So you were a swimmer, and then you became a dancer. And then you became a musical actress. And you liked it the whole time.

I feel like a lot of kids, especially for me, I think I talked a little bit about it when we were setting up. But there's like piano lessons and stuff. And a lot of the stuff, maybe in the beginning, I like it.

But then, I don't know, after a while, I'm like, I don't really want to do it that my parents make me do it or something. But for you, for all these things, you wanted to do it. It was never like, oh, I have to do it.

I remember I didn't feel that way. But for the swimming, I was not a kind of person. I am not currently a kind of person who loves fighting, like competing.

So that's one of the reasons I quit taking lessons of swimming. I still love swimming, but not want to be a player, like not want to be, how do you say?

Like a competitive swimmer.

So but but like for dancing or doing theater, it's kind of it's with the people and we aim to the same goal. It's not competing each other. Maybe audition is one of the competition kind of stuff.

But because everyone has to make one thing all together with a limited time and place. And that's something I really love about musical theater, because it's not a game. It's it's art.

Yeah, you like work with those people.

Yeah.

And probably with those people, you become pretty good friends, right?

Yes. Within a very short time period, we became, you know, very long term friends.

Oh, are you still in touch with any?

Yes, yes. There are a lot of people who's very good friend of mine. And after I performed in the first show when I was 11, I started wanting to continue this musical theater as my life, not the life long term, but I wanted to do it more.

And I took so many auditions. Then I met one of my best friends in the musical Annie.

Right.

Annie. In Japan, there are not so many popular musicals where children can play. So Annie and some other there are only a few works that children could be in.

So Annie was one of the most popular musical.

And it's really competitive, right?

Yes, it is.

Do you know how many people applied?

I'm not sure, but like maybe 1000 or 2000 kids want to be Annie every year. And but I was not the youngest age of kids when I started taking an audition of Annie because the youngest one is like four or five years old who wanted to be an Annie. And they, you know, apply to the audition every year.

Maybe they're forced to.

That's when you were still swimming.

Just playing with the water. But I was at the moment I was like maybe 12 or 13 years old already. So I'm within the kids community, like kids actor community.

I was a kind of older, you know, older kids.

You're the top dog.

Yeah. So it was it was nice. Like I was glad I started later in terms of, you know, because I could do I could go to the lesson by myself and I could choose which audition I wanted to take.

But if I were, you know, four or five years old, there is no, you know, like a choice. Maybe parents have to take care of everything. Then I took an audition for Annie and I made it.

And out of the thousand people, right?

Yeah. But like it was very competitive. But for the older kids characters, it's less it was less competitive.

So like 500.

I'm not sure. I don't know about the exact number, but that was a double cast. So that means a one role will be played by two different people, a different cast.

And me and Mano, another actor, we became very good friends. And we are also friends of family. And we are now still contacting each other to make something new to start with.

That's super cool. So you've known her for such a long time. She's like a childhood friend.

Yeah.

She's still doing like musical acting stuff.

We're oh yeah. We both are doing musical theater stuff.

Did you ever have some point where you were thinking maybe I won't do musical theater? Maybe I'll change and do something else.

I think there are some moments and I'm not sure maybe that kind of period will come soon or not. But I think the most I remember the most the time during COVID. Of course, everyone had a very hard time.

But for theater people, we couldn't do anything because we couldn't get together.

Yeah, it's really tough.

And it was really live product, the theater itself. But we couldn't be in the show. So I was very not stressed, but I was very in a hurry.

Because if I couldn't be on the stage, I felt like I was nothing because nobody could see me. And then if nobody saw me, that meant I was not existing. That kind of way of thinking was, yeah, it was in my mind.

And then I rapidly started doing InstaLive, online musical show. You tried a lot of stuff. Did a lot of things and burned out.

Yeah.

I think it's good that you tried though.

Yeah, it was really fun. And everyone needed like, everyone wanted to try that kind of stuff. So I was glad that I encouraged people who wanted to try the same kind of thing.

And also I invited some friends and people, not only in Japan, but based in the US. I collected that kind of people to get collaborated online.

Oh, yeah.

To sing, to dance. So it was really fun. But then after COVID, we could now, you know, again, start performing on the stage.

Then I was really passionate to, you know, re-perform on the stage. And I've done like, I remember five shows in a year. I've done it.

Then normally, maybe two or three shows in a year is pretty much enough. Because it took two or three months to get ready for one show. But like, I've done five.

You did so much.

I don't know why, but I was really passionate.

Because you had all this pent up willpower from COVID.

Yeah, I had so much energy and motivation. But like, it was really tough physically and mentally. And some, you know, like a different difficult thing had happened in my life at the same time.

And I feel like, oh, maybe I have to stop running in that kind of style. Then I didn't quit. But I decided to take rest a little bit.

Because, yeah, I was at that time, I was living with my family in my home home. And it's very, the location is such a nice place. It's really easy to access to Shinjuku, Shibuya.

And then the rehearsals and the shows will be around that area. So it was really easy to live with my family. You know, get fed by my parents.

And cozy home where I can sleep all the time safely.

It's like a home base.

Very home based life. But the thing is that because physically it's really close to the theater industry. So I couldn't escape from, you know, any of it.

And I decided maybe I should escape here. I love my family and my home, but I had to escape here to somewhere else. Where the air is very different.

Like people are different. So I moved to the different place where the ocean was close by. And yeah, that was maybe like the moment I started thinking about a new kind of new lifestyle.

Not only doing theater. That was in 2022, 2023. Yeah, that's what happened.

But I think it's really important to every now and then you do something that you want to do. Even if it's not like, you know, the perfect move in your career or something. So probably taking a break.

Of course, it's better if you actually don't take a break and you keep continuing. And then you'll get more famous. But I mean, taking the break was probably, it probably felt right for you.

Because you decide to do it and you do it. Then there's like this trust with yourself. Oh, I know I worked really hard, but I want to take a break.

And then you listen to yourself and take a break.

You can always come back. And you did come back. That's why.

Oh, and then I forgot to ask you about, I guess, like language things. Because like this whole podcast is supposed to be for learning English stuff. And then so I wanted to ask you.

Number one, like your English is really, really good. So it makes me think like, I'm sure there was some English influence growing up. Because it's like above a certain level that people would expect for someone who started learning late.

So I guess I wanted to ask you, like, what's been your journey with learning English? When did you start learning? Do you remember not being able to speak English?

I remember. Yeah, I remember. And even now, I feel, you know, sometimes, oh, my English is not enough to communicate with the people, to understand that kind of, you know, world.

But when I was... So my parents, they both can speak English. So that's such an advantage, right?

My mom used to live in the U.S. And my dad, he was based in Japan. But he was traveling all over the world for his job. So yeah, since when I was zero, maybe they were communicating not...

Their communication is in Japanese. But they have international friends. So when I was born, you know, friends of my parents would come to my house and, you know, to see me and maybe talk to me in English or not.

I don't remember because I was a baby. But then when I was growing up, my mom always made me, led me to watch English singing channel or, you know, like a dancing kids channel. I saw a lot of Disney movies in English.

Yeah, that situation made me get interested in English and also curious and love English. It's not something that I was forced to learn. But naturally, there was a English content around me.

That's why I was... Yeah, I started, you know, getting curious about English.

Like, is it what does everyone think about English? Because sometimes like in a normal Japanese family, sometimes people think like, I have no interest in English. I don't care.

I wish I had it, but I'm not willing to put in the work. But then in your family, I guess if both your parents already speak English, then they see it as like, oh, this is fun or they see it as like, oh, this we want to give this as a skill to Mare so that she can have it.

Like, what was maybe they were not supposed to strictly, you know, let me learn English. But for them, it's one of the communication tools. So they have a lot of friends around the world.

That's something really nice. And that's something that they want me to experience as well. So English is one of the most strongest tool to get communicate with people.

And you do have friends kind of throughout the world, right?

Right now, yeah. Thanks to my parents and the advantage. And one of the funny stories was.

So if I remember correctly, when I was three or four, I started understanding Japanese languages, right, and started speaking and communicating with my parents. Then if some something when my parents spoke something secret, they started speaking in English, right, because now I could understand what they were talking about so that they changed their languages into English. And that made me more curious about what they were talking like.

That's something secret. That's something that I.

Well, what kind of secret?

I don't know. Like, I don't remember.

Maybe I guess you didn't understand English at the time.

No, I don't. So, no, I don't remember. So but that really made me, you know, you know, know more and more and more.

Yeah, that was kind of maybe good motivation for me.

Yeah, it's like there's if you understand it, you'll get to know these secrets or these fun things.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's good.

And I while I'm talking to you, I just I just remember the very important thing. Oh, yeah. In terms of my English journey, my very first friend of my life was a half American and half Japanese.

She was born in a year ago, a year before I was born. She was born in the same apartment that where we lived.

Oh, God, that's best friend material.

And then her mother was American. So her mother and my mom was, you know, like communicated very well. Then, you know, they had a baby at the same time.

So we were very close as a families. So that influenced me a lot.

Do you remember playing with them?

Yeah, I played a lot with her.

And when you play, you speak in English with them.

That was mainly in Japanese, I remember. But her mother talked to me in English sometimes. So it was very natural to listen to her speaking English.

OK, so there's a lot of different sources of English and also motivation to understand.

Thanks for letting me remember all the reasons, like all the elements of my English journey. But I've never took any English classes as like a kid's lessons. No, I've never I've never had that lessons because English is always, you know, was surrounding me.

It was just used and sometimes it's there. So you kind of pick it up.

It was more like music or movie, that kind of art, art things. So that's why I was always loving it.

Oh, that's that's really great. Like I'm sure I'm sure a lot of other people, like if they hear this, they'll think, oh, I wish I had that. I wish I had that kind of influence there.

And because it sounds like it's just it's just part of your life. It's not something that you have to like really, really work for. It's just it's there.

If you learn it, then you can understand your parents secrets. You can understand your friend's mom. So, yeah, that's that's really great.

And then so so now, like, do you feel like your English skill has given you more options in life?

Yeah, yeah, of course, of course, because because I can. Most of all, I can communicate with a lot more people like me compared to, you know, not not speaking English. Yeah, so it's it brought brought in my life options.

Yeah, I now I use English for my work job, so I use English every every day. Using English every day. That's really important to me.

So it's a nice, nice opportunity to have like, yeah, so the communication in terms of communication. So my occasion of my childhood is very grateful. Then I was I went to public school, public elementary school, junior high and high school, and I went to private uni.

But those public schools are just like a normal Japanese public school, except for the high school. High school is public, but it's a metropolitan, metropolitan, international high school. So there are a lot of students from overseas, not only Japanese.

And they speak English better than Japanese.

Very well, very well. Then there was a moment I got shocked by my English skill because till junior high, I was a Japanese, normal Japanese girl who could speak English a little better than other people, other students. But once I entered into the high school, there were native speakers all over the high school.

Then I felt really not ashamed, but I felt less, oh, I spoke English so well. Then there were four classes for English because the high school itself focused on English educations. So there are four classes and the top class was only for native speakers.

So I could I could never be in that class. Then second class was like advanced and intermediate and the beginner.

So where were you?

I was like the second.

Oh, OK.

Yeah, class. But like for me, the advanced class students look so shiny because they're Japanese, mainly Japanese people, but they spoke very well and they understood English very well. So I was like, oh, I have to learn more.

Like I have to study a lot more. That's why I decided to enter that high school, apply to the high school. So I studied a lot, a lot, a lot, like grammatically, vocabulary.

You study at home or how did you study?

I study at home and at school. I've never been to class school, but I was studying in the high school classes because the teachers were fantastic and there were so many good tactics and elements. And then debate class, discussion class, presentation class.

Yeah, a lot of different ways to use English, I guess.

Then English summer camp where, you know, you only have to speak in English if you use Japanese, like the teacher around you and don't speak Japanese, that's such a kind of thing that happened for the first first grade of the high school. So it was very strict high school. But thanks to that occasion, my English level got, you know, like a little bit improved.

Then I think third grade, when I turned to the third grade.

I could go up to the second, like, advanced class.

Oh, you made it!

You made it! I graduated! Congratulations!

Yeah, from the second level class. So, yeah, um...

So you went from intermediate mare to advanced mare.

Yeah, advanced mare.

But you never went to native mare.

No way! That was really... That was...

the people are really cool. But, yeah, I studied a lot in high school.

And then once you were in the advanced class, were you happy? You made friends with...

I felt enough.

What is it? You said... you described them as shiny.

Yeah, they're shiny.

They're like the...

Yeah, I don't remember I felt shine... shining. But, um, yeah, I remember that I was studying so hard.

Then I went to Sophia University to learn... to study English literature. Then during the uni life, I decided to go to the U.S., New York City, to see the authentic musical theater as an exchange student. So it was... I just went to the school, like a university in New York City. But the actual aim of my life was watching a lot of musicals and taking musical lessons.

So you've loved musicals like all your life, right?

Yeah, I couldn't stop.

What about like Disney movies? Are those... do you think those are kind of musicals or...

I think it's... Disney movie is more like, um, anime. But it...

it obviously has a musical elements a lot. So I... I'm...

I'm a Disney kid. So I always loved Disney... Disney music.

Did you have a favorite Disney movie?

What's that? If I pick one from Pixar or Disney?

Well, I know both. You know both? I probably have seen most of them.

Oh, so my favorite... there are a lot. There are a lot of good movies.

But my favorite is Little Mermaid. Little Mermaid? All the time.

Because I love swimming. I always wanted to be a mermaid. Yeah, when I...

when I was swimming.

That's not physically possible.

I always wanted to be a mermaid because the Ariel can sing, swim, you know. She was kind of my ideal role when I was a kid.

She can sing, she can swim, and then she can get a curse.

She can have legs as well. She can get cursed, too. She can lose her voice.

Yeah, that'd be pretty tough. You know, actually, this is a little bit unrelated. I think like two days ago, I had this dream.

It's not really a nightmare, but it's kind of like a dream. I dreamed that I married Ursula, like the octopus, like the villain. Yeah, and then I just...

I felt really bad because I didn't want to marry her. But she really wanted to marry me. She...

I remember... because it was her. She was purple, but it wasn't under the sea.

I don't know. It's a dream.

But you noticed that it was Ursula.

Yeah, yeah. I think I was talking about The Little Mermaid recently. So then I was thinking about it, and then in the dream, I see Ursula.

Ursula's like, oh, I'm excited for our wedding. And I was thinking, I don't think I want to do this. How can I say this?

And then I woke up, and yeah.

That's so fine.

A little bit unrelated, but...

Wow.

Yeah. Yeah, I think Disney... I always thought of Disney as like a really good introduction into like musicals for kids.

Because if you get a kid, and you have them watch like Wicked or something. Like Wicked, I think is a really fun musical. I've seen like the one on New York, and then I saw the recent one with Ariana Grande and stuff.

Yeah. I like both.

But then if you put like a five-year-old kid, and you make them sit for, you know, an hour or so. I don't think they're gonna like it that much. They need cartoons and lots of stimulus.

Yes. So they need Ariel to be like, la la la la la.

Yeah. Oh, my voice.

And then like Sebastian, under the sea. You know, I think it's a nice little introduction.

Yeah, sure, sure. I remember that I was watching Disney, most of all Disney movies. First in Japanese, and my mom changed the language into English.

But because we... I mean, when I say we, it includes my little sisters. But because we were watching those movies a lot of times.

Like maybe a hundred or thousand times, again and again. So that we remembered the lines of the characters correctly. So if it's...

If it turns... My sisters are not actors, but they remember. If the language can be replaced into English, we knew what they're talking about.

Because we remembered it in Japanese. So that it doesn't matter if it's English or Japanese. Then maybe naturally, we could start understanding what they're saying in English as well.

So that's my mom's tip.

Do you remember any words in English that you learned from Disney?

No, I can't come up with anything. What's that? But like Ariel's song, it has a lot of, you know, vocabularies.

It's a part of your world. Look at this star, isn't it? Every single word is, you know, new to me.

When I actually... When I learn how to sing it. Like vocally.

When I learn how to sing it in English, I have to, you know, like check all the vocabulary. And what does it mean?

When did you learn that?

It was like maybe junior high or...

Oh, okay. So not when you were a kid, but after you grew up.

Yeah.

Did you want to sing it at karaoke? Or why did you want to learn it?

I was taking a vocal lesson for taking an audition for Annie.

Oh, okay.

And I wanted to try some, you know, musical song with my teacher. Yeah, I picked that song because that was one of my favorites. Yeah.

And I used to love High School Musical a lot.

Oh, High School Musical. I remember High School Musical.

Yeah.

I can sing some of the stuff at karaoke too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the guy part. I do, I do.

Yeah, so High School Musical also, you know, influenced me a lot. Like a dream American teenager lifestyle school, you know, like a drama. And yeah, at the time I was watching Disney Channel, I always wanted to be a Disney star.

So I was always like thinking about how to be a Disney star, pop star idol like Miley Cyrus.

Oh, yeah.

I was really into it.

Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. I feel like your whole story with how you learn English, especially like the level that you speak at now, like it's just, it sounds so natural and integrated into your life.

It's not like something that you had to take away from other things to put into it. It's just there. Same with the story of like, oh, I want to understand my parents.

Or like, I want to be in advanced class. It's like, it sounds like they're really natural ways to do it. But I do have a question.

So you got this kind of like story where English was kind of a naturally fun thing for you to do, where you wanted it. You could see the value if you were to learn it. But then I think a lot of people listening to this podcast, they are probably, they probably didn't have that like a situation that you had growing up.

And then so they might have like a question like, Mare, how can I improve? So like a Japanese person, Mare, how can I improve my English so that I can make step forward? How can I get better?

And do you have any tips?

For me, I recommend you to sing in English.

To sing in English?

Because I believe that, you know, like we're listening to English songs very often on a daily basis. Every song, every store, every restaurant is playing English song, right? So if you can pick one song, one of your favorite song, you can just start, you know, like pretending that you are the singer and trying to, it's, I feel like it's fine not to understand every meaning of the language, but you can just mimic, like sing it.

Then after you feel like you complete the melodies and the rap lines, rap words, then you started writing down all the lyrics.

Oh, you write it down by hand?

Yeah, by hand. That's what I was doing when I was into high school musical. I wrote down and then now I understood, you know, like a meaning.

If I couldn't understand, I used the dictionary at that time, but now we could Google it very easily. So we could understand that.

You used the dictionary?

Yes, yes. We didn't have, we didn't have smartphone when I was a junior high school student. So yeah, I used the dictionary to dig in the meaning of it.

Yeah. So the good point of learning English from lyrics is sometimes it's too poetic. But it's really nice to remember the whole sentence, not only vocabulary, not only the single word, but the whole sentence.

So you can just copy it, that sentence into your, you know, like a daily conversation.

You can copy high school musical.

Yeah. We're all in this together. We're all in this together.

Maybe. What else? When you're feeling, you know, like a start of something new.

Start of something new.

Can I have this dance?

Oh, wow. How do you remember so?

I think I never actually watched all of them. I watched the first one. The first one's really famous.

Yes.

And then.

Second one is summer vacation theme.

Yeah, I forget because it's like the main characters, like they fall in love and then maybe something happens and then they have a fight, but then they get back together.

Yes.

And then the next movie.

Same scenario.

Yeah, then something happens and then they get back together. And then it's like, it's not high school anymore, right? They already graduated.

Then I think there's a three.

Yes, the third one was a movie. The movie.

And then are they still in high school?

Yes, they actually graduated at the end of the third movie.

Oh, OK.

That was a that was focused on graduation. So the second, they're still high school students.

And same for the first movie. They're still.

Yes.

I thought they were seniors. I thought it was going to be like for the third one, they're like, oh, actually, you need to repeat high school because you failed. OK, now we have a an excuse for a third movie.

One more thing to learn English, like from my experience, you asked me, is there any moment that I feel I can't speak English? I'm not enough.

Yeah.

In terms of the skills, when I was studying abroad in New York City, there are, you know, of course, native speakers. And I was I was Japanese student and I was in the area. There are not so many Japanese people there.

So that was really tough because, of course, every class, everything was happening in English. Of course, I could I had many things that I couldn't understand, but I had to attend to the class to get, you know, like credits.

Yeah, you have to go.

And I have to submit reports. I had to raise my hands and ask questions. I had to join the discussion and do the presentation as a group.

It was really hard. But because I was not in Japan, I felt very brave. I don't know why, but there is no reason that I should be shameful or timid because nobody knows me.

So I could be very open. And if I made a mistake, it was fine because nobody judges you and nobody will remember you. That's something that I was talking to myself.

Then, yeah, at the beginning, I was really shy and I was taking some memos, notes to ask for teachers during the classes because that's something I learned from my friends who'd already studying abroad, who'd been already studying abroad. They told me asking questions is really important, especially in the US. You had to you had to ask at least one question at the end of the class.

So I was, you know, it's a good habit, you know, what to ask, what to ask. Then it was really, you know, I was really shy to ask at the beginning. But at the end, like a past half a year, I got used to it.

Raising my hands and I could get all the credits. And my score was kind of high compared to, you know, like a native English speakers because I was really engaging.

Yeah, they could tell you're trying really hard. The other people are probably like, oh, she's trying so hard.

But I don't I didn't care.

Yeah, that's good. Just, you know, don't worry about what other people think and then just make sure your experience is the best you can make of it.

But but it's really hard to do it, do the same thing in Japan with like a in Japanese community with your old friends. It's really hard because you have to show your, you know, like a weak weakness or like things that you don't really want to get open. So I recommend people to make a new community, like a new friends to where you can speak English bravely.

Yeah. If there's like a fresh start, then you can take advantage of it. But that makes sense.

I guess if you have other like Japanese friends from a long time ago, if they kind of remember you, they know who you are. There's like a little bit of an identity that you already have. So you can't just be like, well, I'm just going to ask anything I want and not care.

But then with the study abroad, then you get surrounded in English and you're like, well, I might as well just try 100%. So it sounds like a really good experience. I've heard similar stories from other people who study abroad.

And then those people who have the same idea, like usually their experience studying abroad is really, really good. And the other people who go study abroad, maybe with like they take their like two best friends or something, then it's a very, it's like comfortable. It's comfortable, but then you don't get as much like, I don't know, shigeki, like some kind of stimulus to like make you change.

So probably there's a little bit of like scariness to go with trying some new stuff, but it's also really good. And in the end, it ended up being a fantastic experience for me, right? Okay, well, I think maybe I'm not sure.

I should have checked the time when I started, but maybe this is a good. Yeah, it was really good. I'm really happy with it.

But before we end, I want to make sure that if there's any stuff that you want to talk about or any kind of announcements that you have, maybe for your thing coming up in December, then you can look at the camera over here and then like announce it.

Thank you for letting me have the opportunities. Yeah, so speaking of diving into a new community, a new world, I decided to go to Australia from next January to like, it was a, it will be one year journey.

Yeah.

Whole new experience. I've never been to Australia.

A whole new world.

Yeah, I decided to do a work, a working holiday, so that was a, yeah, that was kind of big news from me to everybody who's listening to this. Please cherish me. Please wish my luck.

Wish me luck.

Cherish you while you're still in Japan for like two more months.

Yes, so before I moved to Australia, I wanted to do, create something new. Then...

Started something new.

Started something new. I mentioned Mano, one of my best friends, since we met in Ani. And I invited Mano and Rino, one of my musical theatre friends.

I asked them to join my new project and we decided to do the duo play in December 3rd and 4th in Soshigaya, Okura. We're going to make an official announcement very soon. So maybe when you're listening to this podcast, I think it's open.

Yeah, probably.

Yeah, hopefully. Then we're doing, it's a devising. Have you heard of devising style?

No.

Do you know Chorus Line? It's one of the popular musical. But like it's a chorus line was made by devising style.

And devising style is based on our true stories. So it's a fiction, but based on non-fiction stories.

Like your life story.

Yeah, actors. So me and Mano, we are talking about, we were talking a lot about our, you know, lives, stories, families, friends. What happened?

Why did we start doing musicals? Why didn't we stop doing this? This whole, you know, thing, this whole journey based on our stories.

Rino, one of my friends, and she's also a writer, lyricist, director, artist. She does everything.

You and all your friends do everything.

Multi, you know, like artists. She's now writing the script based on our whole true stories. Then we're going to do a showcase.

That's what we call. Not just the play, but the showcase with maybe music or maybe a little bit of dancing. Okay.

That kind of style. So that's what we're now trying to create. So if you are interested in my life or what we are doing, please don't miss to watch it in person in Soshigaya.

December 3rd and 4th, right?

Yes.

Yeah, and I'll tag you in all the description stuff. If it's on your Instagram and stuff.

Yes, it's on Instagram. Yeah. Okay.

That's the announcement for me.

Okay. Do you have any other announcements you want to talk about?

What else? I don't think.

I didn't have anything, but I wanted you to talk about the December one.

Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you very much for the reminder. Yes, I think that's it.

Okay, well, thanks so much for.

And I have a podcast.

We should talk about your podcast a little bit.

So same as Chris. I have a podcast. It's in Japanese.

I speak in Japanese. I speak about my creation process for the deal play in December recently. And I've been doing the pockets for, I think, about four years.

So I started doing that during COVID because I was really alone. I wanted to talk a lot.

Everybody was alone. I wanted to talk.

And I invited some friends of mine as a guest to talk about their life and what they're thinking. So it's very freestyle podcast.

Yeah. I listened to some of it. I like it.

It's well, it's all in Japanese. So I only understand maybe 80% of it. But it really feels like it's like I'm becoming your friend, but it's a one way friendship.

It's like I'm learning about you and you don't know anything about me. But I'm just saying like, oh, okay. Oh, so that.

Okay, so that medicine is good for you. Oh, okay. Oh, this is your friend.

Okay. From Annie. Okay.

That's something that I really like about podcast because nobody interrupts you, right? Yeah. It's really fun to talk like as a conversation with, you know, like people like two of us.

But I love talking by myself. But I want to have somebody who's listening to this. I'm very selfish, but I don't want them to interrupt me while I'm speaking.

So podcast can, you know, like make this happen.

Yeah, I mean, it's fun to listen to, I think.

But it's nice to hear that you said you feel like you're a friend of mine. That's what I'm aiming for.

It's like a one way friendship. It's like, I know more about this person. I hear about this person.

But I say nothing.

So you don't know anything about me.

Yeah. But sometimes I'm like only listening, half listening. But because there's a lot of episodes.

Yes, yes.

Like sometimes if I'm like on the train or something, I'm listening to it.

That's something I really want you to do while driving, while cooking.

That's how I found out about the December thing.

Yeah, okay.

Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today.

And thanks for having me. It was really fun.

Yeah, yeah. Thanks so much for making time and everything. Okay, so that's probably the end of the podcast.

And at the end, I always say stuff like subscribe. And I usually look at the camera. Okay, so thanks so much for listening to the end of Kuli English podcast.

Again, this is Mare. And I'm going to be posting her Instagram and her other like SNS things up on the description. And with that, I guess hopefully we'll see you next Tuesday then.