Hiroshi Tanahashi’s life story can now be told in this series of autobiographical interviews, available for the first time in English!

<–Ace’s HIGH #1: Kindergartner of the Century?

Ace’s HIGH #3 Tanahashi discovers pro-wrestling!–>

–So, last time we talked about your relationship with girls growing up… tell us about your first love.

Tanahashi: Oh, man, now we’re getting personal! I’d have to say it was first year of junior high. I’d really kind of picked on girls all through elementary, but then I fell in love…

–And what sparked that? 

Tanahashi: A friend of mine went to a different school. One day I was looking at his elementary school graduation album and I saw this really cute girl in there. I was absolutely smitten.

–Love at first sight. So what did you do about this crush?

Tanahashi: ‘K’-san? I told her. Three times. 

–Three times!

Tanahashi: Once for each year of junior high. And she turned me down each time. Her friend would arrange for us to meet, and I just figured each time, no matter how nervous I was, I should go for it.

–All or nothing.

Tanahashi: In my teenage head, I thought she was sending me signals. I thought I had a chance, you know? Like I thought she’d say she understood how I felt. And… Crashed and burned (laughs). The third time, though, I really wanted a reason. So I asked ‘Do you like someone else?’ ‘Yeah.’

–Who? 

Tanahashi: Shoji Narita, from ‘Otoko Gumi’

–The boy band? (laughs) You weren’t going to compare!

Tanahashi: For years I couldn’t hear an Otoko Gumi song without getting pissed off (laughs)

–All the same, you were quite forward for your age. Were you confident with girls at the time?

Tanahashi: I was pretty outgoing, and a bit of a playboy. In between hitting on ‘K’-san once a year, I had two other girlfriends.

–Really? What a mover! (laughs)

Tanahashi: We-ell, some pretty cute girls would end up asking me out… I had it going on then (laughs). But when I say ‘girlfriend’, my first girlfriend was when I was 13 or so, but we didn’t do anything more than walk home from school together. Think things never even got PG rated.

–And the second girl?

Tanahashi: We ‘dated’ for like, three days. I broke up with her.

–Only three days?

Tanahashi: She was the cutest girl in the school! But the other kids were teasing about it, so I broke up with her. Man, she was cute though! Every now and then I still kick myself about that. (laughs)

–Like ‘you idiot, Tana!’

Tanahashi: Such a waste (laughs)!

–Mind you, that’s a pretty good hit rate with the ladies. Did the other kids see you as a playboy?

Tanahashi: I think so. I put that image out there. That’s probably why K-san turned me down, really. She wasn’t the only one I professed my love for either. I was putting in the work, I think (laughs)

–At this point, as you were getting bigger physically, the girls were drawn to you as well?

Tanahashi: Yeah. I was still playing the clown all the time though. Actually, I joined the school cheer squad around that time, too. You might not think it, but the cheer squad boys were popular with the girls. 

–They stood out at school sports day, I can imagine. 

Tanahashi: One thing I can remember about the sports day, you know the ‘Bo-otoshi’ event?

–The pole rush, I guess you’d say? One team has to protect a vertical pole in the ground, while the other team rush it and try to grab the flag that’s at the top. It’s quite a rough event!

Tanahashi: I remember all of a sudden seeing a path open up and there being nobody in front of me. I figured ‘this is my chance’ and rushed up and took the flag. I remember the girls cheering like it was yesterday. 

–You can still hear them now (laughs). That idea of the star athlete getting the girls is pretty universal.

Tanahashi: After that, the younger girls in school would be coming up to me… Hey, is this all this interview is going to be about?

–It might split the fanbase a bit. You came to be known for your muscles; did you have an athletic build at this point?

Tanahashi: I was already going to the gym by second year of junior high. I wanted to be the pitcher on the baseball team and I figured that if I had stronger arms I could throw the ball faster. So I’d go to the gym, and I, ah, ‘borrowed’ a 3kg shot put from school and would throw it in the rice fields.

–That sounds like an old Antonio Inoki story.

Tanahashi: Heheh. But I wasn’t throwing the shot put, I was trying to *pitch* it. Like, 3 kilograms with baseball form. I’m lucky I didn’t separate my shoulder.

–And what position did you get on the team in the end?

Tanahashi: Right field, heheh. I liked baseball, but I wasn’t very good.

–What got you into baseball?

Tanahashi: Well, growing up in Gifu, Chunichi Dragons games would be on TV a lot. There was a player then called Kenichi Yazawa. My mom would talk about all the things he did for charity and disadvantaged people, and that made me a fan of him and a fan of the team. 

–So how did your team do?

Tanahashi: Elementary was no good at all. Junior high, we’d be out of the city tournament in the second round. We sucked. But my biggest memory was the last game we played in junior high, that summer. It was bottom of the ninth, we had two outs and I was at bat.

–Like something from a movie. What happened?

Tanahashi: Grounder to right field (laughs). Like ‘really? It’s going to end like that?’ I couldn’t believe it, seriously. Ah well…

Ace’s HIGH #3: Tanahashi discovers pro-wrestling!–>