My wife and I encouraged each other as every day was full of “firsts.”

My son is 10 months old now (*at the time of the December 2024 interview). It feels like it’s been so long! I can’t believe we finally got to 10 months. When something happens for the first time, it really stays with you, doesn’t it? Especially in the first three months, we had to do everything for the first time, and it was hard to get information on what to do. No matter how much we did, there was always one challenge after another. My wife and I would encourage each other, taking it one month at a time. When one month was over, we would say, “Let’s keep at it for one more month!” Gradually got used to the grind. In the beginning, we were feeding the baby milk every three hours, always together. But then we realized, “If we keep going at this rate, we’re both going to collapse!” We started taking turns at night after that. We also tried various ways of putting the baby to sleep. We found that the sound of a plastic bag making a shuffling sound was effective in stopping crying and calming babies, so we recorded the sound and played it to him. From around 4 months of age, we started feeding the baby milk in a dark room after his bath, and he would sleep until morning, meaning that we could sleep soundly until morning as well.
Now when I’m at home, I try to watch the baby as much as possible. I usually give the baby milk at 7:00 a.m., baby food at 10:30 a.m., milk again at 3:00 p.m., baby food again at 6:30 p.m., then bath at 9:00 p.m., milk at 9:30 p.m., and bedtime.

My own experience of parenting strengthens my feelings of gratitude to our viewers.

Until now, when I heard people at work, whether older or younger than me, say “We had a baby,” I had no idea that this kind of thing was going on behind the scenes. Now I’m amazed to think that parents in this world are having such hard times every day, yet they never show it in their faces.
Recently, even at live events, I see parents holding children as young as ours while watching the show. Some are even giving their children milk as they watch. In the past I might have thought, “Why do they have to feed them now?” But now I get it. When babies need milk, they need it now! When I see people coming to our show venues at shopping malls on their days off with their children in tow, I wonder if they left home with enough milk for two servings in anticipation of the event. If I see people lined up early in the morning to get numbered tickets, I think, “Maybe this guy, the father, left home first while the mother made arrangements, and they agreed to meet up here.” I imagine that everyone is trying to make the most of their precious time to live. Everyone makes the most of their precious time to come to the live event. I feel even more grateful to our viewers.

We manage our time and use various services to support both home life and work.

Since the birth of our child, there have been a lot of changes in my life, both at work and at home. Before, the office would give me a schedule and I would simply let my wife know about it. Now I ask my co-workers to let me know as soon as they decide on a schedule, or ask to talk to them about more time off. I used to have a lot of business trips that involved an overnight stay, sometimes as much as half of the month, but now I’ve arranged to reduce them to about one-fifth of their previous level.
In terms of daily life, we have learned to plan our activities more carefully, such as leaving early and checking how many days’ worth of milk we have left. Traveling by train with a stroller is time-consuming, so we have to check the route in advance, confirming the locations of elevators at train stations and so on.
We also research and use various government and private services, such as babysitter support and temporary childcare services.

Why I value my alone time with our child

Since my wife usually watches the baby, when I am home I encourage her to go somewhere and enjoy herself while I watch the baby. I want my wife to have some time away from the baby so that she can refresh herself during that time. Otherwise, my wife will end up watching them with me, and even if I am taking care of the baby, she will naturally keep an eye on me, not sure that I know what I’m doing! Of course, this only tends to cause stress for both of us.
Also, I find that minding the baby alone sharpens my senses! I have a poor sense of smell, so until then I didn’t immediately notice when the baby pooped. Now, when I watch him alone, I realize, “Oh, he just pooped!” From that experience I realized how important it is for me to spend time alone with our child.

So my comedy live experiences don’t really help? Getting our son to smile is a trial-and-error process.

One of my strengths in parenting is reading to our child. When I read picture books to him, I gesture expressively toward him, saying things like, “Oh, look at the stars, twinkle, twinkle!” I try to be as emotional as I can (laughs). (Laughs.) When I say, “Good evening, Mr. moon,” they are happy when I do that. Acrobatic play is also very responsive. For example, “high, high, high! However, I don’t know if my experience in live performances for children has helped me in raising my own children. (Laughs.) When I tried to make my child gag, he didn’t respond at all at first. Finally, after about 4 or 5 months, he started to respond a little bit. Recently, while holding her in my arms, I say things like, “Pi-ya, Pi-ya,” and “Daijobu,Daijobu,” and I’m pretty serious about it (laughs).
Conversely, what I’m not very good at is washing my child’s face. On the contrary, I am not good at washing children’s faces. My wife is good at washing right up to the edge of the eyes. I am afraid to do it, so I stop just before. I sometimes worry that if I bathe them all the time, the dirt around their eyes will accumulate (laughs).

My “nameless chore” is “Nume-bearing.

You call chores that don’t have a specific name but are essential to your life “chores without a name”. It’s been a hot topic for a while now.

(Related article: Let’s spread the word about “Housework with No Name! Catch-phrase decided – I gave a name to “Housework with No Name”)

In our case, I’m the “slime-remover. I’m in charge of removing slime from the drains in the bathroom. I am also in charge of keeping bugs out of the room. I’m in charge of getting bugs, which my wife hates, out of the room. I also take out socks. We have a dog, and he is usually cute, but for some reason he is obsessed with socks. We call him the “sock zombie.” When he finds a sock, he gets really excited and turns into a monster, so when we take the laundry out of the dryer, we take the socks out.
We try to remember to say “thank you” to each other when we do something for each other. And lately, when I do something myself, I make sure to say, “I did this for you! I also try to say “I did this! Sometimes people don’t notice if I don’t tell them, so I tell them without sounding condescending (laughs).

Recommendation for “Pi-ya” who do not compare themselves too much with others.

I now think that first time parenting is often overloaded with information, but it’s okay not to worry about it too much. Don’t compare too much with others, but with “Pi-ya”. The gag “Pi-ya” was originally started because I thought the word was funny, but I later added the meaning of “stop comparing” with “Pi-ya”. For example, when a child reaches a certain number of months, weaning or starting to eat twice a day, and so on…. But each child has his or her own growth speed. When they get older, they will have to take entrance exams. I think people tend to think “because everyone around me is doing it” or something like that, but we should keep the spirit of “Pi-ya” and “Daijobu,Daijobu” in mind. Rather than worrying about comparing them to others, I would rather cherish the time I can spend with my children and notice what they like to do and what they want to do.

My goal for the future is to convey the appeal of vegetables through the power of laughter.

One of my future goals in my work is to promote vegetables. For more than 10 years, I have been singing a series of “vegetable songs” for children, such as “Song of Tomato,” “Song of Burdock,” and “Song of Green Pepper,” at live performances and in videos, incorporating the appeal and knowledge of vegetables. In 2024, I will host the “Vegetable-1 Grand Prix,” a comedy contest using vegetables as a theme, in order to promote vegetables with the power of laughter. I would like to make it an even bigger contest.
In my private life, I want to lead a life where I am not pressed for time. I don’t want to make too much homework for myself. Ideally, I would like to have a life where I can say to myself, “What am I going to do today? My dream is to live in Northern Europe in the summer and in a tropical country in the winter.