Continued from How Would You Like That Cooked? “Rea” Vol. 4
Thank you for visiting our establishment.
This time, just as I mentioned the week before last, I’ll be talking about my upbringing—well, how I became a pro wrestler—at super speed!
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Going back 11 years____
Rea Seto (3rd Year Junior High School Student) “My dream for the future is to be a patissière! I love candy, so I want to make amezaiku!” Note: Even back then, I had the simple, single-celled mindset of “I want to do it because I like it.” (See my first column.)
“So, I’m going to enroll in the food science department at an agricultural high school!”
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Rea Seto (1st Year High School Student) “I enrolled in the food science department to become a patissière, but since it’s an agricultural high school, we naturally have agriculture classes too. Bugs are scary, I really don’t want to do this…”
While I did harbor those feelings, my heart couldn’t help but dance a little at my first real encounter with farming.
Also, at an agricultural high school, aside from regular extracurriculars, there’s something called the “Agricultural Club.”
Simply put, it’s a club activity unique to agricultural schools that revolves entirely around farming.
At my school, joining a regular club was optional, but joining the Agricultural Club was mandatory.
The Agricultural Club, or Noku for short.
(Which Noku should I join… It’s all so entirely unknown, I can’t even imagine…)
While agonizing over this, the adolescent Rea Seto ultimately decided to join the “Vegetable Research Group” simply because there was an upperclassman whose face was exactly my type.
The activities of the Vegetable Research Group (hereafter referred to as the Veggie Group) went like this:
We managed the vegetables grown at the school for sale, and depending on the season, we’d brainstorm what we wanted to grow and raise it from scratch in the Veggie Group’s fields. (By “from scratch,” I mean starting all the way from distributing the appropriate fertilizer into the soil for the target crop and plowing the land.)
Then, we would harvest the grown vegetables, bag them up, and sell them on a designated day every week.
That was the gist of it.
The actual agriculture classes were largely the same.
Well, the classes did have a lot more sit-down academic lectures, though!
But since I already liked biology to begin with, I really enjoyed taking those classes.
Living those days so closely connected to agriculture, the version of me that used to shriek and whine over bugs disappeared before I even realized it.
Through actually doing the work, I learned the hardships and joys of farming.
Just when you think everything is growing perfectly, heavy rains or a typhoon can flatten the entire field, or crows and mice might eat your crops. There were definitely sad moments like that.
In farming, “Nature” is the “Enemy.”
Because it doesn’t always go right, the sense of accomplishment when you safely bring in a harvest was absolutely tremendous.
Captivated by agriculture in that way, my dream of becoming a patissière gradually faded away…
“I want to do agriculture in the future!
Why, you ask…?!
Because I love agriculture✨”
Just like that, by the summer of my freshman year, I had completely changed my mind.
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Rea Seto (3rd Year High School Student) “I need to start thinking about whether to go to college or get a job soon. What I really want to do is agriculture…
…But realistically, shouldn’t I pick something more stable and needed for a lifetime than farming…?
I’ll go to school for early childhood education.”
Note: That’s what I thought at the time, but agriculture is absolutely a profession needed for a lifetime, too. I hereby thoroughly scold my past self.
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Rea Seto (1st Year Junior College Student) “Man, everyday life just feels so bland. I can’t stop thinking about farming…
…Ugh, it’s no use!
If I’m not doing something I actually love, I can’t put my heart into anything!
I enrolled here, but I’m going to look for an agricultural job instead…!
I knew it, I really want to do agriculture!”
After that, I dropped out of junior college and spent my days looking for employment in the agricultural sector.
And then, I finally had a fateful encounter__
Spring 2021
“I’m having a tough time deciding where to work…
…Hm? What’s this?
Agriculture × Joshi Pro-Wrestler…?”
While I was hunting for farm jobs, an interview article about Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling suddenly appeared before me.
At the time, my knowledge of “pro wrestling” was completely limited to what I’d picked up from manga, anime, and dramas. I knew it actually existed, but it felt somewhat like a fantasy, something strictly two-dimensional; I hadn’t really grasped the reality that flesh-and-blood human beings were actually fighting in a ring.
And right in the middle of all that, this incredibly bizarre, utterly mysterious combination popped up:
“Pro Wrestling” × “Agriculture.”
Being the physical embodiment of the phrase “Curiosity killed the cat,” there was no way I wouldn’t be interested when faced with an article like that. I opened the site and read it.
When I finished, my honest reaction was just “Wow, amazing” (Konamikan). But my interest in Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling had suddenly and fully ignited.
From there, I researched them and watched match videos on YouTube.
And then, thinking I wanted to see it live at least once, I looked up their event schedule.
And I will never forget it.
July 11, 2021. Korakuen Hall.
Row P, Seat 24.
The sight I saw sitting in that seat on that day.
I was just purely, overwhelmingly moved.
It was my very first time attending a pro wrestling show, and I went with almost zero prior knowledge (like the ongoing storylines and such), so honestly, it was full of things I didn’t understand.
But the fierce battles unfolding right before my eyes.
The things I had only seen in anime, manga, and dramas were happening in reality.
How beautiful it was.
I wept.
Then, after the show ended and the fans began leaving their seats one after another, I stood there, rooted to the spot.
At that moment, the only thing occupying my brain was:
“I am going to become a pro wrestler.”
That, and nothing else.
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Thank you for visiting us for the 5th serving of “How would you like that cooked?” “Rea.”
I wanted to tell you the entire story of my upbringing up until I became a pro wrestler, but there’s no way I could fit it all into just this column.
So, I’ll cleanly (?) wrap it up here, right at the exact moment I resolved to aim for pro wrestling.
Well then, see you next week.
I look forward to your next visit from the bottom of my heart.
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-A Horror Movie I Watched Recently-
The Backrooms
“There is no turning back.”
Translator’s Notes:
- “How would you like that cooked?” “Rea.”: The Japanese title of the column is ‘Yaki kagen’ wa ‘Rea’ (『焼き加減』は『レア』), playing on the homophone of Seto’s ring name “Rea” and the English word “rare,” referencing the doneness of a steak. Her recurring greetings (“Thank you for visiting,” “5th serving”) lean heavily into this restaurant metaphor.
- Amezaiku: Traditional Japanese sugar crafting, where artists pull and sculpt heated, pliable candy into intricate shapes, often animals.
- Konamikan: Japanese internet slang short for shougakusei nami no kansou, which roughly translates to “impressions on par with an elementary schooler.” It is used self-deprecatingly to mock one’s own overly simplistic or basic reaction to something deeply impressive or complex.