Starting October, Kawashima Umika will be a regular on ZIP!. She will appear on Mondays to Fridays, from 5:50 in the morning. Kawashima will partner up with Masu Taichi, one of the most popular male announcers in the industry. It was only last month that Kawashima graduated from the idol group, 9nine. In such a short time, she has secured herself a big role, following the footsteps of previous hosts such as Mari Sekine (31) and Kie Kitano (25).

The news came as a big surprise for Kawashima. “I was so surprised that I thought it was a joke. But this came at the right moment, now is the time to move forward. I want to present an exciting program without any accidents,” She commented.

Graduating from an idol group wasn’t the only graduating she did. Earlier this spring, she graduated from Meji University’s Faculty of Arts and Letters with a degree in Psychology. She added, “Since my studies relate to today’s current society, I’m going to take this opportunity to utilize that. I’m happy to finally contribute something. I’m glad I went to university.”

Kawashima’s been getting used to waking up at 3 am every morning. “Recently, I don’t have to use my annoying alarm clock. Everyday, I’m greeted with “Umika-chan” [from my mom], so I’ve been looking forward to but. But I don’t want to see my mom,” She joked. In addition, she shared her plans to become more active and improve her physical fitness. Some of her personal goals include participating in MOCO’s Kitchen, a cooking segment hosted by Hayami Mocomichi as well as doing fashion segments and outdoor shooting.

Via Yahoo JP