Continued from How Would You Like That Cooked? “Rea” Vol.6
“How would you like it cooked?” “Rea.”
Thank you very much for dining with us today.
As always, I’m packing plenty of words into this installment as I pen this column for you all.
_
Having safely passed the Sendai Girls’ tryout (*see last issue), I wanted to move into the dojo right away, but…
Because I had only watched pro wrestling for the very first time in July, decided right then that I wanted to become a pro wrestler, and took and passed the tryout the very next month in August, I didn’t have nearly enough savings to relocate immediately. Before I could officially join the dojo, I needed to build up a war chest.
Never in my life had I regretted my failure to save money more than I did that day.
You never know what life is going to throw at you, or when. Saving money is important. Make sure you’re all putting money away, everyone.
By the way, I’m still living a life completely foreign to the concept of savings ^_^ (Zero credibility, I know).
Well, anyway, I started working multiple jobs to scrape together my funds.
That said, there isn’t anything particularly exciting about the process of saving up money, so I’ll just share one brief memory that stuck with me.
While I was working at a certain amusement park in Yokohama, I spotted someone wearing a Senjo T-shirt. When I went up and called out to them, it turned out they were the tour photographer accompanying a school trip from Miyagi Prefecture.
Like I said, just a tiny little story.
Balancing farm work alongside jobs at that certain amusement park and a certain massive warehouse club store, I steadily built up my savings, and by May of the following year, I had finally hit my target amount.
Then, on June 1, 2022, I loaded up the car with my belongings and headed to Sendai with my parents. Since it was already night by the time we arrived, we stayed at a hotel and spent some final family time together.
The next morning, on June 2, we headed to the Senjo dojo where I formally greeted everyone on the roster.
Since that day was dedicated to moving in, they showed us to the dormitory, and we got to work unpacking my things.
And then…
The time to say goodbye to my parents finally arrived.
We walked to the entryway, and all three of us were choked up, unable to find the words. After a brief silence, my mom said through her tears, “Do your best and stay injury-free. Since it’s you, Rea, you’ll be just fine. We’re rooting for you.”
Then my dad simply said, “Give it your all, Rea,” and started crying, too.
That was the very first time I had ever seen my father cry.
Honestly, it caught me completely off guard. He can be so moody, and when he’s in a bad mood, there’s nobody more difficult to deal with—to the point where I had always said I’d never want to marry someone like my dad.
But despite all that, he was a deeply devoted father who doted on his kids. And my mom was the exact same way, of course.
So while I still don’t want to marry a moody, high-maintenance guy like my dad, I do want to build a family with someone who loves their kids as fiercely as he does.
Well, there’s no way I’d ever say that to his face, though lol.
…Anyway, back to the story.
I kind of figured my mom would cry, but I never in a million years expected my dad to shed tears, too.
The second I saw my dad crying, the tears started pouring down my own face.
I truly felt just how deeply loved I was.
And so, after three grown adults stood there bawling together, the moment to part ways finally came…
I gave my parents one last hug and saw them off. Then I closed the front door and walked back to my room.
Suddenly all alone, a wave of emptiness……
…didn’t hit me at all.
Because the exact second I stepped into my room, I spotted something they had left behind.
Heeeeey!!!!
What are you guys doingーーーーー!!!!
Give me back my tears from five seconds agoーーー!?!?
Thinking just that, I called them up and said, “Hey, you forgot something!”—but they had already merged onto the Tohoku Expressway and couldn’t turn back to get it…
Thankfully, it wasn’t anything they urgently needed, so it all worked out.
I still remember how, after crying my eyes out, that clumsy little antic completely sucked the tension out of the room before I could even bask in the emotional afterglow—leaving me suddenly and ravenously hungry.
*By the way, the first meal I cooked after moving into the dorm was “daraku-men.” Not many people know what that is, right? Nothing comes up even when I search for it online, so maybe its official name is something else? My grandmother, who is from the Tohoku region, used to make it for me all the time.
Anyway, with my stomach full, I went to sleep that night to rest up for training, which would begin the next day.
・
・
・
The next morning, I woke up before my alarm even went off.
My life as a trainee was starting today, and I was filled to the brim with both nerves and excitement.
Firing myself up to give it everything I had, I headed to the dojo alongside my senpai.
Once we arrived at the dojo, the first things they taught me were how to properly clean and how to greet my seniors.
As training time drew closer, my heart started pounding faster and faster.
And then, the clock struck 10:00 AM.
Training had officially begun.
_
I ended up spending almost the whole column talking about family love.
How embarrassing.
But starting next week, the Senjo trainee chapter finally kicks off in earnest!
Please look forward to it.
Well then, see you next week.
I sincerely look forward to serving you again soon.
・
– Favorite Horror Movie –
The Human Centipede
I’ve watched all three of them—1, 2, and 3.
The first one is my absolute favorite, though in the second one, even though the main character doesn’t speak a single word, he is genuinely repulsive and terrifying; I honestly gained so much respect for the actor for pulling off a performance like that.
As for the third one… well, I guess it’s a classic Western movie trope? Like, the further a franchise drags on, the more it loses steam. Something like that.
“I’m sorry…”
Translation Notes
- “How would you like it cooked?” “Rea.” (
『焼き加減』は『レア』): Rea Seto’s given name (レア) is written and pronounced identically to the English loanword “rare” (as in how a steak is cooked). She frames the opening and closing of every column like a host at a steakhouse or restaurant welcoming customers (ご来店いただきありがとうございます/ “Thank you for visiting our establishment”) and wishing them a fond farewell (またのお越しを心よりお待ちしております/ “I sincerely look forward to your next visit”). - War chest (
軍資金/ gunshikin): Literally “military funds” or “war chest,” this is a common Japanese idiom used playfully in everyday life to describe startup money saved for a major life move, a big purchase, or a new venture. - Senjo (
仙女): The universal Japanese shorthand for Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling, formed by combining the first kanji of Sendai (仙) and the first kanji of joshi (女, women’s). - “A certain amusement park” / “A certain massive warehouse club store” (
某遊園地/某巨大倉庫スーパー): In Japanese print media and blogs, writers routinely prefix businesses with某(bō, “a certain unnamed…”) to avoid unauthorized commercial naming. In the Yokohama area, “a certain amusement park” points to either Yokohama Cosmo World or Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, while “a certain massive warehouse supermarket” is a transparent nod to Costco. - Tohoku Expressway (
東北道/ Tōhoku-dō): The main toll highway running north from the Greater Tokyo Area through the Tohoku region, passing directly through Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. Once a car passes through the toll gates onto a Japanese expressway, it is impossible to turn around until reaching the next interchange kilometers away. - Daraku-men (
だらく麺): As Seto notes,だらく麺(daraku-men) does not appear in standard Japanese culinary dictionaries or search engines. In the Tohoku region, home-cooked noodle dishes often carry hyper-local dialect names or family-specific phonetic corruptions (potentially derived from regional terms for thick, starchy ankake noodles or simmered udon thrown together with leftover vegetables). - Senpai (
先輩): Senior wrestlers/trainees at the dojo. In traditional Japanese wrestling dojo culture, new trainees (renshūsei) are paired with slightly more experienced senpai to learn fundamental dojo etiquette—specifically cleaning protocols and the booming, formal vocal greetings required when seniors enter the building—before they are even allowed to take bumps in the ring. - “I’m sorry…” (
「ごめんよ…」): A famous line from the 2009 horror film The Human Centipede (First Sequence). In the movie, the Japanese captive Katsuro (played by Akihiro Kitamura), who is surgically placed at the front of the “centipede,” tearfully apologizes in Japanese ("Gomen yo...") to the two women attached behind him right before he loses control of his bowels.