Newlyweds Welcome!: Tomorrow's broadcast

Takashi Fujii and Sakura Inoue are the hosts of the long-running variety show "Shinkonsan Irasshai!" (ABC TV/TV Asahi, Sunday 12:55 p.m.). On the June 15th broadcast, the husband, a shot put athlete who has won the Japanese national championship more than 10 times, and his wife, a triathlete ranked 5th in Japan, appeared. The couple, both athletes aiming for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, livened up the studio.

Her husband holds a record of over 18 meters, something only 15 people have done in Japanese history. He has won the National Athletic Meet twice in a row and the All Japan Corporate Championship twice, making him Japan's number one athlete more than 10 times. Meanwhile, his wife is currently ranked 5th in Japan as a triathlete, and has won the National Athletic Meet twice in a row and the Asian Triathlon Cup.

Our staff visited Machida, Tokyo to meet this couple. At 7am, the wife arrived on her bike to a training ground 10km from their home. After swimming 5000-6000m for about 2 hours, she ran. Finally, she did some bike training, bringing the 5-hour training to a close. On some days, she would ride her bike for over 100km in the afternoon.

In response to the rigorous training, his wife smiles and says, "There are three events, so I can have fun and not get bored." He was a swimmer until he graduated from university, but he wanted to aim for the world, so he started triathlons. The day before the recording, he participated in the "Osaka Castle Triathlon" and won 10th place.

Meanwhile, her husband trains at Kokushikan University. After muscle training with a 300 kg barbell, he moves on to practice using a shot put. The shot put for general men weighs 16 pounds (7.26 kg), the same weight as the heaviest bowling ball.

When we visited her home, we found a wide selection of training and care goods. The meals were also prepared for athletes, with her husband in charge of cooking that day. She showed us a perfectly balanced dinner of large portions of rice, stir-fried offal, new onion soup and salad, vinegared dishes and lassi.

Her husband was born in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. His father, a city hall employee, lost his life while guiding evacuees in the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred 10 days after he graduated from high school. He said of his father, "I hope he'll be able to watch this in heaven."

The two met 13 years ago. The husband and wife were in their second year on the track and field team and a freshman on the swimming team at Kokushikan University. They happened to be in the same class, and the husband fell in love with his wife at first sight, saying she was cute, but they both graduated without ever exchanging a word.

The husband, who continued to play sports after graduating, was riding his moped to the university's athletics stadium as usual when his wife, who worked as a teaching assistant in the physical education department, called out to him, "Please stop." In fact, she was directing evacuation drills, but the startled husband ran away.

Later, when they met again at the grounds, the husband asked, "I used to like you, so why don't we exchange LINE IDs?" He knew that his wife had started triathlon, so he said, "I wanted to support her if there was anything I could do," but he was satisfied with just exchanging LINE IDs and didn't contact her for a year.

Eventually, the wife asked her husband for advice on the sport, and they began to have conversations. A year later, the husband invited the wife out to dinner, and she accepted due to the athletics custom of "following the words of the seniors." They talked about the sport, and as they were leaving, the husband confessed his feelings to her, but she turned him down as it was too sudden. From then on, the husband continued to reject her over 10 times, but the wife said that "his way of confessing was the worst." However, one day, something happened that completely changed the wife's mind.

The wife invited him out to dinner and wrote a letter about her feelings, hoping to confess her feelings to him. As usual, the husband said, "I love you," so she gave him the letter and said, "I felt the same way," and they started dating. The husband said, "I still remember the contents of the letter," but the actual letter was already...

After six years of dating, they got married in December last year. At his wife's suggestion, they decided to hold a public ceremony in Rikuzentakata this November. The reason for this was that her mother-in-law told her that her husband's father "loved home." Her husband's mother, who came to watch in the studio, also thanked his wife, saying, "I'm sure he's happy in heaven."

At the end, the husband read a letter to his parents and wife. The touching words of gratitude brought even MC Fujii to tears. The studio was filled with emotion.