Mr.Borubotei Ikeya & Miss.Reina Interview

We believe that life offers us chances to encounter various people from all walks of life. One of the main reasons why we love working in this industry is because these encounters are very delightful, and have given us joyful discoveries as we get to know the people we meet even further.
This time, we'd like to introduce you to a talented couple. A Swedish Rakugo "落語" performer, who we have had the pleasure of seeing him perform in fluent Japanese and a British bilingual voice-actress.

Above pic : Mr.Borubotei Ikeya and Miss.Reina, and Seiya

His stage name "Borubo-tei Ikeya", was chosen by his senior, a professional Rakugo performer. "Borubo" means Volvo, the Swedish automotive company, and "Ikeya" is "IKEA", the famous Swedish furniture retailer.

Rakugo is a traditional Japanese spoken art form and entertainment.
A rakugo performer (rakugoka) depicts a long comical story and plays multiple characters on his own.
Ever since he first discovered Rakugo, he has been attracted to the unique,
Japanese traditional verbal art, which has a strong tradition of passing down the skills and stories from one generation to the next.

Borutei Ikeya's partner, Reina, is a bilingual voice-actress from United Kingdom. Her decision for learning Japanese as part of her major at university was fuelled by her passion for acting. Before she began studying at university, she was initially interested in voice-acting in English. In addition, she found the thought of going to Japan and attending voice acting school where she could sing and act in Japanese very exciting, which played a big influence when choosing her degree.
She decided on choosing Japanese language and modern society as part of her degree, as a way to combine her love for acting and Japanese culture as a potential career path.
She made her dreams come true in 2013 and with a love and curious spirit for traditional Japanese culture, she continues her journey as a voice actress.

You can listen to more of their story from their interview in the video below.
They also explain their reasons for choosing the area they live in, aspects of Japanese culture which are sometimes difficult to get used to and offer some genuine, practical, useful advice which we believe will be incredibly helpful for anyone thinking of moving to or living in Tokyo.

Be sure to check out their interview!