Singer Rimi Natsukawa appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on January 28th. The third of five sisters, Natsukawa talked about her mother, sisters, and more.
Her mother is from Iriomote Island. She has a gentle personality, but she says she has been working hard since she was little. "I think my mother is the best grandmother," she says. Her mother now runs a Yaeyama soba restaurant in Ishigaki Island. When she feels lonely in Tokyo, she sometimes asks her mother to send her soba soup stock or teaches her the recipe to make soba.
Her mother also runs a snack bar, which she and her eldest and fourth eldest sisters are involved in, and it has celebrated its 25th anniversary, the same as her debut as "Natsukawa Rimi." When she mentions the name of the bar in various places and says, "If you go to Ishigaki Island, please come to our bar," customers really do come from all over the country. She even received a message from her mother saying, "Rimi. Thanks to your advertising, our business is booming. Thank you."
She said that customers who come to the bar request her and her younger sister to sing "Namida Sou Sou," and that her sister tells her, "Rimi, I'm sure I sing "Namida Sou Sou" better than you," but she said she is "happy" to be requested to sing by customers from all over the country.
