#25 現役美大生クリエイター・都さんと”恋愛えってなって”トーク！

Miyako Finally Makes It to the Studio on the Second Invitation

Miyako (都), a 22-year-old active art university student, has built an audience of over 900,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 2.1 million combined social media followers in just two years since launching her channel. The host of Ette Natte Radio had been eager to have her on, but the first offer fell through due to scheduling conflicts — Tokuyu FM had to step in before it finally came together. The host's chief manager added his own story: after discovering the same TikTok video on the very same day as the host, he immediately thought, "This person is absolutely extraordinary."

A Series of Recognition Incidents — From a Bar to Tokyo Geidai

Miyako's level of fame came through in a string of striking anecdotes. At a bar, a female actress from the entertainment industry spotted her but chose not to approach. Instead, she searched Miyako on her smartphone and then showed the screen to every other customer in the venue. What made the moment especially jarring, Miyako said, was that the photo the actress pulled up was "the least circulated photo of me on the internet." The bar crowd — mostly gay men and Chinese men — apparently lit up with excitement. Miyako could only laugh looking back at it.

At the Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai) culture festival, a viewer approached while Miyako was out with a male friend and tacked on, "Sorry to bother you while you're on a date." That single comment, she said, made her feel like the outing was effectively over. She noticed her YouTube upload frequency dropped noticeably in the aftermath. Wearing a mask feels unnatural, and since she hadn't told her companion about her online presence beforehand, these incidents have stacked up to the point where she now dreads going on dates at all.

The Love Life of a 22-Year-Old Who Has Never Had a Boyfriend

Miyako confessed that at 22 she has never once had a boyfriend. The biggest culprit, she says, is the back-and-forth on LINE between a first meeting and the actual date. "What is the point of all this meaningless small talk before we even get together?" — and by the time the date a week away arrives, her feelings have already cooled. She self-analyzes that she "can't sustain interest in people for long" and finds herself stuck in a dilemma: she wants to meet in person, but can't see people frequently enough for the spark to survive.

People often tell her she "seems like she'd be popular," but she hears that as essentially being told she isn't. Friends and staff have also pointed out that she tends to "keep her guard up" and is "hard to see in a romantic light" — something she acknowledged with a wry smile.

Matching App History — Ranked Systems and Apps for Foreigners

Miyako has experimented with several apps. Tocare (トーカレ), run by Tokyo Calendar, ranks users by looks and income; particularly attractive men receive a VIP crown. She called it "the embodiment of lookism," and noted that the volume of heavily filtered male profile photos was hard to look at. Coffee Meets Bagel, recommended by a Hong Kong acquaintance in her 50s, skews toward foreign users, and the few people she met in person were all genuinely impressive — though nothing developed beyond a one-hour coffee. She also revealed she is currently still using Tinder.

Fear of Future Loneliness and *This Is Us*

The thing that frightens Miyako most right now is the image of growing old and finding herself alone once her children have grown up. She has a more immediate worry too: that as her many female friends get married, they will simply have no time left to spend with her. She pointed to a scene in the Amazon Prime drama *This Is Us* in which a gay couple — isolated by a single female friend — ends up living quietly and happily with an adopted child, and said it underlined her feeling: "If I don't find a partner, I'm going to be scared."

Listener Corner: Found a Friend's Boyfriend on a Dating App — Should You Tell Her?

A listener named Ichigo Dorobo (いちご泥棒), a 26-year-old office worker from Chiba, wrote in with her dilemma. She had played matchmaker for a couple back in high school but has since drifted apart from them. Just after hearing through a mutual friend that the couple was "about to get married," she came across the boyfriend's profile on a matching app — his stated preference listed "long-term relationship" — and had already taken a screenshot.

Miyako's honest take: if it's before the wedding, she absolutely wants to be told. After marriage — especially once children are involved — she'd rather not know. For this particular situation, reaching out to someone you've grown distant from is simply difficult, and the realistic conclusion was to wait until the friend herself brings up something like "my boyfriend has been cold lately" before saying anything. Miyako also acknowledged the emotional complexity involved: "I understand why someone wouldn't want to be told — the responsibility ends up falling on the person who speaks up."