Maki Watase (57), vocalist of the rock band LINDBERG, revealed that midway through her third year of high school she had already landed a job as a dolphin trainer at an aquarium in Hyogo Prefecture. She’d moved to Tokyo from Mie Prefecture for singing lessons and ultimately turned the offer down — a backstory that had the thread buzzing with theories that “it must have been her aunt’s connections” and nostalgic comments about her era-defining hit “Ima Sugu Kiss Me” (“Kiss Me Right Now”).
LINDBERG’s Maki Watase already had her post-graduation path lined up, but moved to Tokyo partway through her third year of high school… “Dolphin training and the like at an aquarium in Hyogo Prefecture”
Maki Watase (57), vocalist of rock band LINDBERG, appeared on TV Tokyo’s “Nikenme Dou Suru? ~ Tsumami no Hanashi” (Saturdays, late night at 0:55) on the 22nd, where she revealed the job she’d had lined up after high school graduation.
Watase, who was born and raised in Mie Prefecture, revealed she’d moved to Tokyo at 17. “I came out to Tokyo partway through high school, in my third year. I transferred schools. As a high schooler I was taking singing lessons to become a singer — I was commuting to a vocal school, all the way to Nagoya,” she said.
Watase Miku really helped me out back in the day (likely a joking mix-up — her name is Maki, not Miku)
3Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:08:30.12ID:Nxv5/mZ50
Aquarium jobs have insanely high competition rates though
Sounds fishy to me
4Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:09:19.48ID:QMcAPZ430
>>3
It's called getting hired through connections, that's what everyone's saying
7Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:13:11.53ID:XBq9kDMn0
I want to see you~ I want to see you~ so much, you~ (lyric from her hit "Ima Sugu Kiss Me")
8Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:13:37.00ID:8G/5emf/0
Was her idol era something she'd rather forget?
33Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:44:28.30ID:HHJ6HzLG0
>>8
Ohh, deear, my looove~ (mimicking the drawn-out way she sings the lyrics)
9Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:15:53.85ID:YHEwBGh60
Being a dolphin trainer sounds awesome honestly
Though it's probably brutal once you actually try it
11Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:17:40.90ID:6szP2/cy0
How do you even land a job that good
Even the guy with an Olympic swimming silver couldn't get one
17Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:25:54.23ID:LAf9s9hU0
>>11
She said her aunt worked there, so it's basically just connections, right?
12Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:18:27.88ID:ujT6xDSb0
Gives me Maxell cassette tape vibes (word pun: "Maki" sounds like "Maxell")
32Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:42:59.49ID:EK7ALUSD0
>>12
I did the Shinken Zemi correspondence course, so I remember the CM song "Munasawagi no After School"
13Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:23:35.31ID:aSPRa1e50
She was pretty popular, but her peak feels surprisingly short in my memory — maybe around 1990 to 1995?
44Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:57:00.61ID:aSPRa1e50
>>13
Right after that she went on hiatus for marriage and childbirth
Maki Watase's a rare case — someone who made it big both as an idol and in a band
15Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:25:30.96ID:TPC4pHt10
Turning down a job offer is a big deal even today, but 50 years ago it would've been a scandal
And getting hired through connections on top of that — I'd love to see her parents' faces
19Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:26:06.16ID:Eir8jAxb0
Kinosaki Marine World?
That place is great
20Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:28:50.84ID:YRy5XZXy0
Good thing it wasn't some shady scout
21Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:29:01.70ID:gvneZnlf0
With a hit that big, I guess turning down the connections job got forgiven
25Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:33:00.95ID:hynMybrE0
>>21
But it took a while before she made it big, so her aunt probably felt awkward at work for a while
22Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:29:28.38ID:E06hdb/H0
A one-hit wonder riding on just "Ima Sugu Kiss Me"
28Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:38:49.55ID:5wuMNOnV0
>>22
She also did Kyuji Fujikawa's entrance song, and apparently a soccer anthem too
58Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 11:13:24.02ID:0XGpU9Pa0
>>22
Go read Wikipedia and educate yourself 💢
23Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:32:19.12ID:GJk4nU7j0
"Believe in Love" — everyone surely carries a night of sorrow inside them (lyric from one of her songs)
27Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:37:10.07ID:YSuLAiY50
Right when she'd resigned herself to being a variety-show idol (baradoru),
the band suddenly broke big,
which made juggling both the idol and band careers feel kind of awkward
A rare type of artist
29Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:39:39.28ID:U/h60hbT0
Before the band, wasn't she doing gravure shoots in Young Jump or something?
30Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:40:08.05ID:lx2fYBrK0
Listened to it again after ages and it hit harder than expected
https://youtu.be/FJHJCK7PhaI?si=7nBTVrqjfwzollW-
31Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:40:09.27ID:teWfxWHw0
>>1
Wasn't it her hometown's Toba Aquarium?
34Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:45:41.70ID:gZUELeQj0
>>31
The "Kimochiku" Aquarium? (a joking mispronunciation)
35Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:46:33.64ID:sBvnMnGQ0
Forget all that, just hurry up and give us Maki Watase's complete song collection
36Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:47:01.09ID:dbIsLyXG0
A thread where the uncles and aunties reminisce about their youth lol
38Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:48:53.18ID:vSU+QU350
She wanted to be the next Seiko Matsuda, huh
39Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:48:53.37ID:GUpaMFiU0
She played the role of Masako Omata on Teruyoshi Yoshida's TBS Radio show
40Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:50:21.03ID:a1ofAR/t0
For the employment ice-age generation, it's "Munasawagi no After School," right?
41Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:52:51.17ID:/Xra9t6/0
Well, it's not necessarily a full-time position
Maybe turning it down didn't cause too much friction
42Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:54:25.16ID:DSjCIZK20
For idols of Maki Watase's generation, I always figured she'd get booked as a guest on shows like "Quiz Toshi no Sa Nante"
Guess I was wrong
43Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:54:28.62ID:Rw/Gif8b0
I love the line "Don't. You. Forget. Me~" where they skip class (lyric reference)
45Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 10:59:17.28ID:aiwLU3ZP0
Didn't she marry the guitarist?
47Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 11:00:51.03ID:SLHhs/JL0
Country folks all hate the idea of landing a job in Kansai lol
48Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 11:01:56.36ID:kxpb6JEW0
I loved "Ring My Bell" from Mezamashi TV
78Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 11:26:51.21ID:7YNLJfje0
There was a lyric like "the night Ichiro hit that grand slam~"
83Anonymous2026/08/24(月) 11:39:30.04ID:epESC/y40
>>78
I think the line goes "We haven't met since the day Ichiro hit that grand slam~"
On NHK they swapped in a different player's name when she sang it
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