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| "Women's Life and Health"
is the interview series that features active
professional women about their health, lifestyle and career. |
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| Interview
vol.5 |
Yoshimi Yasukawa -Part1 |
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| Yoshimi Yasukawa |
| Yoshimi Yasukawa, a student at Todai, was born in Wakkanai, Hokkaido, in 1987. She attended four different public elementary schools, in Kanagawa, Gifu, Saitama, and Tokyo, because her father, a member of the self-defense forces, was transferred to these prefectures. In 1999, she entered Oin Junior High School in Tokyo, and in 2005 graduated first in her class at Oin High School. She entered Todai, straight from high school, with the intention of entering a premedical course. In September 2006, Heibonsha Ltd. published her book Todai No no Tsukurikata in a pocket edition and it attracted great interest. In 2007, she will enter the School of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the university. |
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| What was the response of people around you after publication of your book? |
| As might be expected, the greatest response came from friends. Friends I met on campus would say “I bought your book” or “I saw you in a magazine.” Some of them read my book in great detail. One told me, “You book says you try to get up after six hours of sleep, but always end up sleeping another two hours” (laughs). |
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| What was your parents’ response to the book? |
| My parents didn’t say anything in particular when the book was published. When I appeared on a TV program after the book was published, however, they pointed out a small fault. They said to me, “You looked fine but you might have looked better if you had tried to be a little bit friendlier” (laughs). |
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| Did you ask your parents for advice while you were writing the book? |
| Now that the book has been published, it seems to be a book on education written from a child’s standpoint, but when I originally planned the book I intended to make it a how-to book for students wishing to teach themselves before taking university entrance examinations. When I decided to write a book and thought about what might be a good subject, I asked my mother for her ideas. She said, “I think what makes you slightly different from others is that you decided not to attend a cram school before taking the university entrance examinations.” That’s what made me think I might try to write about that experience, although the concept later changed through discussions with Heibonsha’s editors. Also, when I tried to recall what I was like as a child, I needed a lot of help from my mother. For instance, I didn’t remember any details of the training I received when we lived in Hokkaido. |
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| Did you experience any special difficulties while writing? |
| I didn’t have much difficulty in writing itself because all I had to do was translate images into words. The greatest difficulty for me was editing and rewriting. That took a lot of time. As might be expected, I sometimes inadvertently used colloquial language, and the editors were tough in pointing out many of my word choices. So the process was a good lesson for me (laughs). |
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| Do you think you changed, and maybe matured some, in that process? |
| Yes. Although I am still not quite 20 years old, writing a book allowed me to close a chapter in my life and confirm what kind of person I am, so first of all I thought that was a good experience. After the book was published, I had several opportunities to be interviewed, which was also a good experience for me. |
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