The first topic that comes up when I sit down with Oreskaband's singer/guitarist Naoko "iCas" Yoshioka isn't music or her band, it's a lunchtime variety show called "Waratte Iitomo!" The finale aired March 31 and she asks me if I saw it, which I hadn't. She insists that I watch it.
"After 35 years, you'd think that (show host) Tamori would have considered himself as having worked the hardest on that show," iCas says. "But in his final speech, he thanked everyone else and wasn't trying to shove his own contribution to the show in our faces. He wasn't looking for praise. That was cool."
That "Waratte Iitomo!" was on TV every weekday for 35 years is impressive, but iCas says she can't get over Tamori's humility.