# ゲスト：神田愛花さん「私はアップルパイが好きです」（2026年10月24日） - Show: ナイツのちゃきちゃき大放送 - Published: 2026-10-24 - Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1669139924_2ea64c70412e.html - Audio: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TBS7834253563.mp3 - Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary. Freelance announcer Kanda Aika (神田愛花) joined Naito no Chaki Chaki Daihoso (ナイツのちゃきちゃき大放送) to recount the behind-the-scenes story of a two-year, two-summer Route 66 road trip with her husband — complete with rental-car disasters conquered purely by guts. She also laid out her conviction that she was a New York sheepdog in a past life, her lifelong devotion to Barbie, and, for the first time publicly, revealed that anago is her least favourite sushi topping. ## What this episode answers ### What troubles did Kanda and her husband run into on Route 66, and how did they get through them? Last year an engine-oil warning light forced a mid-trip rental-car swap; this year the left rear tyre lost pressure so severely they had to stop for an emergency refill — all managed with almost no English through what she calls sheer guts. ### What is Kanda Aika's basis for believing her past life was a dog living in New York? On her first visit to New York she learned the streets faster than at any other destination and felt a clear sense of having been there before; she also cites her deep loyalty and habit of going to the front door to greet her husband every time he comes home as proof of her innately canine nature. ### Why does she have such a deep attachment to Barbie dolls? During an American trip after leaving NHK she walked past a toy store and discovered career Barbies — including a newscaster, the job she had always wanted — realising Barbie had already fulfilled every dream she couldn't; befriending the Japan chapter president of a Barbie fan club later moved her to start wearing a Barbie necklace herself. ### Why is anago her least favourite sushi topping? When the soft flesh is glazed with sweet simmered sauce and pressed against the roof of the mouth, the boundary between sauce and fish disappears into a texture she finds deeply unpleasant; grilled with salt, she says, she can eat it without any issue. ### Under what conditions would she accept another acting role? She would gladly accept a lead role because she can work at her own pace and the responsibility falls entirely on her, but she has no intention of taking supporting or bit parts. ## Article ## Drama Debut and the "Stiff-Acting Check" The episode opened with co-host Hanawa revealing he had been watching an affair drama starring Matsuda Genta, at which point it came out that Kanda had appeared in it as a coffee-shop worker — her very first acting role on terrestrial television. Hanawa confessed to a habit he calls "stiff-acting check" (scanning dramas for wooden performances) and was immediately called out for applying it here. He recovered quickly: "The visuals carried the scene — she's so striking that work just comes to her." Asked about future acting, Kanda gave an instant, unequivocal answer: lead roles only. "If I'm the lead I can work at my own pace and the responsibility is mine," she said, making clear she has no interest in supporting or bit parts. ## Route 66 — Two Summers, One Crossing, Endless Trouble The centrepiece of the episode was the story of Kanda and her husband driving Route 66 from Chicago westward, a project completed across two consecutive summers. The pace was roughly 500 km a day; Kanda spent the whole journey in the passenger seat cheering her husband on. American rental cars feel completely different from Japanese ones, she said, and each year produced at least one crisis. Last summer the engine-oil warning light came on mid-drive, forcing a vehicle swap. This summer the left rear tyre lost so much pressure they had to stop for an emergency refill. Neither was easy to handle with almost no English, but Kanda laughed it off: "You can get through anything on guts alone." The soundtrack for both years was Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. Her love of America has deepened through years of travel centred on cities served by JAL direct flights. She holds a car driving licence for land and a first-class maritime licence for sea, and has maintained JAL's top-tier frequent-flyer status for 14 consecutive years — a combination she describes as conquering land, sea, and air. ## Past Life: A Sheepdog in New York Kanda's attachment to New York goes beyond ordinary fondness. The very first time she visited, she felt a calm she finds nowhere else and navigated the streets faster than anywhere she had ever been — a clear sense, she said, of "I've been here before." Her conclusion: she must have lived in New York in a past life. She is equally certain that past self was a dog. Her fierce loyalty to the people she chooses, and her habit of going to the front door to welcome her husband every single time he comes home, strike her as evidence of a fundamentally canine nature. Her husband's assessment is that she was specifically a herding dog — a Border Collie type — who kept a flock in order. The theory eventually expanded into a full narrative: a farm dog who relocated to the city and was adopted by a New York family. When it emerged that fellow guest Demisu had actually lived in Georgia, Kanda laughed that she instantly shrinks in the presence of someone who has genuinely lived in America. ## Barbie Fulfils Every Dream I Couldn't Kanda's mother, an Americaphile, gave her a Barbie as her very first dress-up toy. There was a period of drifting away from the brand, but after leaving NHK she was walking past a toy store on a trip to the American East Coast when the interest reignited. American Barbie ranges carry an enormous variety of careers; she spotted a newscaster Barbie — the exact job she had once dreamed of — and was moved: "Barbie got there before me." She later found a Barbie with a pink cruiser to match her own desire for one ever since earning her maritime licence, cementing the conviction: "Whatever dream I couldn't fulfil, Barbie will fulfil it for me." More recently she befriended Az-san, the Japan chapter president of a Los Angeles-based Barbie fan club. Together they visited what is said to be the top Barbie-selling store in Japan, where Kanda bought a necklace spelling out "Barbie" — feeling, she said, that she had finally earned the right to wear it. She also picked up a "New Yorker Barbie" (Barbie cap, trench coat, blue-striped shirt dress, Manhattan skyline background). ## Least Favourite Sushi Topping: Anago — and Waikiki Wins After All In the Yaho! Topics corner, Kanda made what was presented as her first-ever public declaration of a least-favourite sushi topping: anago (conger eel). Her objection is precise — when the soft, fluffy flesh is covered in sweet simmered sauce and pressed against the roof of the mouth, the boundary between sauce and fish vanishes into a texture she finds deeply unpleasant. Grilled with salt, she said, she has no problem with it at all. She also noted a broader discomfort with dishes that take something crisped — agedashi dofu, cold ganmodoki — and then soften it in stock. To close a sushi meal she returns to tuna; at yakiniku she likewise finishes with beef tongue to "go back to the beginning." On Hawaii: her mother began insisting on "seeing all four seasons in Hawaii" when Kanda was around third grade, taking her four times a year, school absences included. She went through a phase of performing connoisseurship — pushing the Big Island, championing off-the-beaten-track spots — but now says she has come full circle. "I respect people who can just honestly say they love Ala Moana Shopping Center," she laughed, firmly back in the Waikiki camp. She closed with an announcement: a self-funded podcast she makes with her cellist friend Hitomi-san called Aika to Hitomi (愛香とひとみ), released every Saturday at around 5 p.m. ## Takeaways - Kanda and her husband completed Route 66 over two summers, handling a different rental-car crisis each year on guts alone, and holds licences and statuses covering land, sea, and air. - She delivered two signature convictions — that her past life was a New York sheepdog, and that Barbie has already fulfilled every dream she couldn't — each backed by specific, unwavering personal episodes. - Her dislike of anago stems from the texture created when sweet simmered sauce makes the boundary between sauce and flesh indistinguishable, though she can eat it without any problem if it is grilled and salted.