04 agosto 2006

Kurara's one little miss who doesn't miss a trick

Miss Japan, Kurara Chibana, draws a sword as she shows off a costume related to her home country during the preliminary competition for Miss Universe 2006 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, July 18, 2006. (AP)

If not for the tiniest quirk of fate, Kurara Chibana, Miss Japan and runner-up last month in the Miss Universe contest, could have been writing sleazy stories like this instead of being the subject of them, according to Josei Jishin (8/15).

Chibana, 24, had accepted an offer to work at Kobunsha, publisher of the women's weekly, and was poised to work there before she was chosen as Miss Japan and swept away into a world of pomp and pageantry, with a heavy dose of the latter, achieving this country's best result in the contest since 1959.

"When I applied to take part in Miss Universe, I had already received a job offer. When I was still in the race (for the Miss Japan title) it became clear that I wouldn't be able to work and participate in beauty contests," Josei Jishin quotes Kurara saying in a TV interview given on her return to Japan. "I always wanted to be a magazine editor, but when I thought of the options available to me at that particular time, I chose (the Miss Universe Contest) because it was the only time in my life when I'd ever be able to do that."

Kobunsha employees speak highly of the Miss Universe runner-up.

"She was lively and, though not exactly an athlete, clearly in good physical shape. When I asked her where she wanted to work, she had no hesitation in saying, 'For a women's magazine, but I'll do anything at all.' When I hit her with a bit of a tricky question by asking whether she would be willing to work in a non-editorial section -- which usually helps decide who really wants to work for your company -- she had no hesitation in giving a resounding 'Yes!'" the publishing company employee says, adding that Kurara was brim-full of confidence.

"When I saw on TV that she'd finished runner-up, there seemed to be something a bit different about her, but perhaps that was the make-up. I heard she was a kick boxing exercise instructor, but I was a little surprised how much she had slimmed down for the Miss Universe contest.

"The first time I met her, not long after we offered her a job, she was a little pudgy, but in the months since then she had thinned right down. I asked her how she'd done and she said that she had gone on a diet and increased the number of flamenco dancing lessons she was taking."

Flamenco has actually played a significant part in shaping Kurara in more ways than just her body. Inspired to learn more about the dance form, she spent several months living in Spain to master it, becoming fluent in Spanish along the way. She's also a fluent English and French speaker.

Kurara, who dazzled judges with the samurai sword she wielded as part of her outfit in the Miss Universal national costume section that she won, doesn't mess about when she handles her guys either, it seems.

"Guys were always saying sexual stuff around us, but the way she just brushed it off was really cool," a friend from Kurara's student days tells Josei Jishin. "She made me laugh once when she said she was going out with an older foreign guy at the time, but he was so wishy washy she literally had to beat him into shape." (By Ryann Connell)

August 4, 2006

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp

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