Former Japanese table tennis representative Kasumi Ishikawa will appear on the two-hour special of Nippon Television's popular variety show "The! Tetsuwan! DASH!!" airing on June 7th at 7 p.m.
Ishikawa is taking part in the "100-Person Diner" project, where he will prepare impromptu dishes using local ingredients to help revitalize a depopulated town. He will visit Chikusa-cho, Shiso City, Hyogo Prefecture, along with Shigeru Shigeru Jojima, Shintaro Morimoto Yugo Kochi and Yugo Kochi from "SixTONES," and Joichiro Fujiwara from " Naniwa Danshi ."
The town, once bustling with over 6,000 people, now has a population less than a third of that. To fulfill the townspeople's wish to revive the town's major event, the "Townspeople's Grand Sports Day," which had been discontinued for 21 years due to the declining population, the DASH members decided to take action. They split up and went around to the town's schools, interacting with students and calling for the holding of the "100-Person Cafeteria" and the Grand Sports Day.
Wearing an apron, Ishikawa stood in the kitchen, exclaiming, "I'm making the biggest batch of kinpira I've ever made in my life!" as she struggled to create a massive, impromptu dish for 100 people. In "log table tennis," a game originating in Chigusa Town where logs are used as rackets, she engaged in a serious match against the townspeople, leading to a dramatic turn of events where the Olympic medalist Ishikawa was pushed to the brink.
Ishikawa commented, "I don't think you often see such a large group of people coming together and having so much fun, from log table tennis and relays to the dance we all did at the end. I really want everyone to experience that sense of unity. Log table tennis was especially fun. The food was also a major highlight. I was so happy that people enjoyed the dishes I made using the wonderful ingredients grown by the local community. It made me glad that I cook regularly."
In this episode, Ryoma Takeuchi will appear in the popular segment "Grill Yakai".
