Kiko Mizuhara 水原希子

100wendybirds:

4 years younger than me, my sister Yuuka is KIKO’s angel.  She is the world’s cutest girl.  No matter what, I don’t want her to be hurt and more than anyone, I’m always praying for her happiness.  

Once in a while Yuuka comes to Tokyo and say, “KIKO, buy this” and starts begging for clothes.  Only in those moments do I say, “it isn’t KIKO but Big Sister, right?”* and if she corrects herself for the moment and calls me “Big Sis <3,” then in the end, I end up buying her tons of clothes (haha).

But, when we lived under the same roof in Kobe, all we did was fight every single day.  For no reason at all, KIKO would make her cry and even if she’d go tell on me to Mama, I’d go “Hu-uuh” and act like I didn’t know what she was talking about. Thinking about it now, I wonder if I was a bit jealous.

What significantly changed our relationship was when I moved to Tokyo and we started living separately. She’d call me and say “Cause KIKO ain’t here, its boorinnngg. Come home, ‘kay”* or send photo-emails asking me advice like “what do you think about my outfit today?”  My little sister just naturally became adorable to me, and all of a sudden we became super close sisters that can talk about work or love or anything.  If Yuuka right now brought along some weird boyfriend, I would definitely lecture that guy (haha).  Yuuka has a dream for the future so, in order to make that dream come true, I want to back her up as much as I can.

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Translator’s notes

*In Japanese, you would usually address your older siblings as Big Brother/ Big Sister instead of using their first names.  It is more polite/proper.

*This quote is in Kansai-ben (Kobe-ben).

100wendybirds:

She is the most pure, the most stylish, and the most feminine of anyone.  That’s why Mama is the person KIKO has always admired.  We’re connected in the deepest way.

But, I didn’t realize that until I moved to Tokyo so that my modeling work could really begin.   When we lived together, I’d often get mad at the littlest things and I couldn’t really face her honestly.  But, after living in Tokyo for some time, I had this massive failure at work and was really depressed you know.  Of course I thought she’d give me a huge scolding but then she said, “You’ve got to make the best of working hard* and, if things are rough, why don’t you come home to Kobe?”　She really saved me. This person is always putting me ahead of herself.　If working didn’t work out and I had to go home, she’d kindly welcome me and say “welcome back.” 

It is because I have this “#1 place in the world that I can be at peace,” that KIKO can get used to working and playing and even love with all my power.

*「頑張るだけ頑張った結果なんだし」might be literally translated as, “Working hard is just the result of working hard” but it sounds weird (?)     

100wendybirds:

About Family

The Kiko that is here today, the modelling work that I’m able to do, is all because of the support of this loving family. About that which I love best in the whole world, My Family.

Papa

Papa, basically, really really really loves KIKO (haha).  Whether by phone, email, facebook, in all kinds of forms, he contacts me almost every day.  Once in a while, living apart between Japan and Texas starts to feel like just an illusion.  Because of my work and the time difference, it is hard to get the timing right so actually I only have a proper conversation with him like once a month, and at that point he’ll often whine “why don’t you caaallll” (haha).  

The #1 thing that links this papa with Kiko is music.  From R&B to Blues and Jazz, Country and even Rock, in any case my papa is serious a music fanatic and ever since I was little, he’s always made me listen to music.  That I enjoy music now is really my papa’s influence.  After all, he took me to kindergarten while blasting Beatles and Queen in the car ride (haha).  And so to KIKO, papa is less someone who plays some role in society and maybe more a “Best Friend,” a very close presence.  We talk about stupid things on and on, and this time in Texas we went and saw the movie “Jackass 3D” together and stuff.  When we’re together, we are always laughing - he is that kind of a presence.

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My comments: This confirms some of the things she wrote in her self-bio that I translated earlier.  It must be hard to not see your father very often but it is nice that they keep in touch almost daily in other ways. The confusing thing is, under the photo the caption explains that he is also very strict!