Miyamoto talks about some non-gaming topics

When Shigeru Miyamoto is interviewed, he generally talks about games. That definitely makes sense given how he’s one of the most important people at Nintendo.

This month’s issue of Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream did something interesting though. A good portion of the discussion focused on the more personal-side of things. Nintendo Dream asked about Miyamoto about food, animals, and more.

Check out our translation below:

ND: Favorite food?
SM: It’s pasta. Or more specifically I like noodles in general.
ND: Your answer hasn’t changed from our interview 18 years ago.
SM: I became convinced recently. Noodles is my favorite food. If it is noodles like ramen [Chinese-style noodles] or udon [Japanese wheat noodles], everything goes. Anyway, if it isn’t noodles, I’m greatly troubled.

ND: Do you think you’d like to try living outside of Kyoto?
SM: Not really.
ND: What are the good things about Kyoto?
SM: You can go everywhere with a bicycle. As I’ve been living there, it has a very nice mood. Therefore I will certainly continue living in Kyoto.

ND: Least favorite food?
SM: It’s liver.
ND: The answer from 18 years ago was also the same. You couldn’t overcome it, right? (laughs)
SM: I could not. (laughs) I can’t overcome liver in eternity.

ND: There have been more people cosplaying Mario recently, don’t you think?
SM: There have been many alright. I’m thankful for it. It increased during Halloween and there was this television thing from Mercedes-Benz…
ND: Wasn’t that an official television commercial? (laughs)
SM: Luigi and Peach were also nice in the recent commercial. (laughs)

ND: Favorite animal?
SM: Pikmin. (laughs) If not, I have always liked dogs, however I like cats about as much, too.
ND: As you have both currently.
SM: I like both dogs and cats.

ND: A happy thing that happened to you recently?
SM: I really like bluegrass music (acoustic American roots band music), you know?
ND: Yes.
SM: The mogul of that bluegrass music world, a Dobro player Mr. Jerry Douglas, visited Japan.
ND: What is a Dobro?
SM: A resonator guitar made of metal which can be used in many ways in country and bluegrass. I too play it just a little, but Jerry is a genius player. He performed in a park in Osaka, but thanks to guidance from a friend of mine, I was able to bother him backstage and got an exciting meeting. There I took a commemorative photo with Jerry and two others. Jerry also has a camera of his own, and I heard that a commemorative photo that was taken together was later on his Twitter. (laughs) Anyway, I met the musician I had longed for and the performance was also the greatest of Japan tour, so it was truly an impressive night. Furthermore, the young bassist of the band was a fan of Nintendo’s Star Fox.

ND: What is your current obsession?
SM: My current obsession… I wonder what I’m fascinated with currently. “I forgot” isn’t an answer, right? (laughs)
ND: Ahahaha (laughs).
SM: However, one year prior I was fascinated with creating Pikmin short movies…

ND: How did you spend a vacation lately?
SM: I returned to swimming recently. Ah, that’s right, my current obsession is swimming.
ND: Swimming has really came back, right?
SM: That’s right. Although it had already been roughly 20 years, recently I set a few new goals…
ND: Was that distance or time?
SM: It is both distance and time. As I continue, I increase each a little. Swimming has been the specialty of my wife since she was a kid, so we have gone to the pool together for several years and thus I rival her in swimming technique. If possible, I also visit the gym during vacations, so that and swimming are both my current obsessions.

ND: Tasty food which you ate lately?
SM: Ah… I wonder what that was?
ND: What did you eat yesterday?
SM: (replying in no time) Cod roe spaghetti!
ND: You remember that well. (laughs)
SM: Tasty food which you ate lately… errr… why do you ask such a thing?
ND: It’s the question we came to ask all along. (laughs)
SM: Well I was trying to find the real answer and be funny while saying “Why?” (laughs)
ND: (laughs) If you don’t remember that, you can also send the answer via fax later.
SM: Ah, I remembered: hitsumabushi [chopped eel on rice]. I came to Nagoya [city] to eat hitsumabushi. As I thought, hitsumabushi was delicious there.