Hikaru Utada recently expressed helplessness after a post she wrote about eating soba seemed to have created a divide in opinion among netizens.
The whole soba incident sparked on 18 February, when the Japanese singer posted on X, “Before heading to a soba restaurant for the first time, I thought to myself, ‘I’m alone and it’s so early so I don’t need to make a reservation, right? No, I’ll call just in case,’ and made a reservation. But after I sat down, people who didn’t make reservations started coming in one after another, only to be told, “We’re fully booked from early today…” and disappointed, and I slurped down the delicious soba.”
The post received innocent comments originally, with some saying that making reservations is a basic etiquette while others praised her for her “life wisdom”.
However, the discussion immediately turned negative when some netizens began criticising Hikaru, saying that she was pretending to be a common person by sharing the said post about her eating soba. Others slammed her superstar status, saying she was mocking those who didn’t make reservations.
The singer came up with a response two days later, writing, “I heard that this was causing a bit of an uproar, so I thought ‘Huh? Why? Are people saying Hikaru is just trying to act relatable, like ‘She’s got enough money to buy the whole soba shop anyway,’ or something?’ So I checked X, and sure enough, there were actually some people criticising me, saying things like “She has a bad personality” or “She’s scheming.” Seriously. People really don’t get the humour.”
(Photo Source: Hikaru Utada IG)