Singer Akiko Wada appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on July 21. She talked about her interactions with Beat Takeshi, actor Akira Nakao, and his wife Shino Ikenami.
At the beginning of the program, a portrait of Wada drawn by Takeshi was introduced. When Kuroyanagi asked, "I heard Beat Takeshi is an old friend of yours," Wada replied, "I call him Take-chan. Before, I called him Takeshi because he was my junior. He's older than me, though." He continued, "All things considered, we've been friends for about 50 years. We used to drink together every night."
He also introduced another portrait that Takeshi had drawn for him. In the illustration, Wada is wearing a seat belt and carrying a car. "This is a Porsche. Takeshi said, 'Let's go for a drink,' and Higashi (Hideo Higashikokubaru), who was the driver at the time, was driving," he recalled.
Higashikokubaru said he was nervous about having Takeshi and Wada in the car, saying with a laugh, "When I told them to turn left at the next stop, they tried to go right, so I hit them on the head from behind, and I was so nervous I nearly fainted."
At the time, Wada had no idea what a Porsche was, and said, "If you put me in a small car, it was a Porsche." The picture was a birthday present from her a few years ago, and it also had the words "Happy Birthday, Akko-san" written on it. "If you look closely, you can see that she's fastened her seat belt, flipped the car over and put it on her back. It's impossible. That must be incredible strength," she said with a wry smile.
Nakao and Ikenami apparently came to see Wada's live performance at the Apollo Theater in New York in 2008. After watching a video of Ikenami, who said, "I want to talk about how amazing it is to perform at the Apollo Theater," Wada responded by saying, "He's doing live shows in Japan too, so please come along. Let's remember Nakao and have a drink somewhere."
