Hello. I am Tatewaki, a third-year student at Kamiyama Monosasu Juku.
It's already been five months since I became a student!
We have just finished our graduation project, which was created by all the students working together, reviewing all the technologies we have learned so far, including HTML, CSS, Jquery, PHP, and Wordpress.
With the remaining time at the cram school, students will continue to acquire skills in line with their individual career paths.
With graduation fast approaching at the end of December, each student is now looking ahead to their own destination and beginning to grasp their future.
I would like to look back on how I have changed during the special time I spent in Kamiyama Town as a member of the third class of Monosasu Juku.
This time's Kamiyama Monosasu Juku reporter
Ayumi Tatewaki :
A third-year student at Monosasu Juku. Originally from Banshu, Hyogo Prefecture. I like writing. I've recently become fond of mountain climbing. I love Celtic music and am trying to learn the fiddle. I grew up in a place rich in nature, not dissimilar to Kamiyama, so I feel at ease in places where nature is visible everywhere and where there are few people. I get excited when the altitude increases. I can't help but envy the life of the second-year students living in Tonomiya, so I often visit them.
Before joining the Kamiyama Monosasu School
In my previous job, I worked at a small local printing company, where I mainly designed and produced printed materials such as flyers and posters issued by public facilities and government agencies, and worked as a data checking operator for a mail-order printing business that took orders from all over the country.
Seeing a printed matter that I had agonized over before being released into the world, or seeing a printed matter that had been carefully proofread and printed successfully reach someone's hands, behold it, and fulfill its purpose - I felt joy and a sense of accomplishment in knowing that my work was helping the world.
However, with the emergence of major mail-order printing companies that allow easy ordering online, the spread of simple printers that allow easy printing at home, and the increasing digitalization of many things in our daily lives, the momentum toward a paperless society is unstoppable, making the business situation for small printing companies tough.
As I witnessed the current state of the industry, I began to feel a sense of crisis about continuing to work with only printing knowledge.
How should I work from now on? I wanted something extra to use in addition to the printing knowledge I had cultivated up until now... It was around the time when I was feeling this way and had read an article in last year's Nihon Shigoto Hyakkaten magazine about recruiting for the second class of Kamiyama Monosasu Juku, titled "Work with people you want to live with."
For me, who studied newspaper publishing at a junior college, the curriculum that allowed me to learn both my favorite subject of "writing" and web knowledge of "coding" was very appealing.
However, when the second batch of Kamiyama Monosasu Juku was being recruited, I had just been in my second year at the company. I still had a lot to learn, and I wanted to work there for three years, so I decided not to apply.
A year later, the long-awaited recruitment ad for the third batch, "Choosing Your Way of Life," was posted. The recruitment requirements had changed from the second batch, and the article read, "Choose your own way of life." I remember applying with excitement, thinking that if I acquired the skills, I might be able to choose where and when I work... a possibility I had never even considered before. The words of the school's principal, Mr. Ito, "I want you to acquire the skills to choose your own way of working," while being strict, made me ready to take the first step. So I filled out my resume with determination and made it to the interview. I strongly promoted my past experiences and the fact that I had decided to join the school a year ago, and was lucky enough to become a student.
Special times spent as a student
Yuzu scooping event at the 4K Film Festival
The position of a student. I'm sure that in society, it is a vague and moratorium existence. However, as I mentioned in my previous article, "being a student is a status symbol," the people I met in Kamiyama Town warmly accepted the existence of students.
Perhaps it is because Kamiyama has a long history of regional revitalization that the town has worked on as a whole, which has resulted in a large number of immigrants, and perhaps it is because Shikoku is a place where the pilgrimage culture is deeply rooted that the town is so open to newcomers.
When I introduced myself as a student, I was often invited to join by people who would say, "Oh! You're a student. Why did you come to Kamiyama? I have these ideas and I'm doing these things. Do you want to join us?" I was also given a lot of advice from people in a variety of positions.
Until I actually came to Kamiyama, I never thought that my status as a student would be accepted so favorably, so I am still amazed that the words "I am a student" are so well-recognized.
We have had the opportunity to look back on our lives, relearn through the cram school, and stop and think about our own future. I think it's because of Kamiyama that we are able to accept our struggles as we move forward and accept that it's okay to go at our own pace.
This time, the curriculum was aimed at acquiring skills, so I didn't have many opportunities to interact with the local community, but I was still able to get to know a lot of people while living in Kamiyama.
I've met people through the weekly movie nights, the reforestation and other events organized by Green Valley, and helping with the Food Hub Project (weeding the fields, picking Awa Bancha tea, harvesting rice, and making locally produced lunches for Josai High School). At events held at Nishibun House, the housing project where I'm staying, people from Kamiyama who run cafes, shoe shops, dye shops, and bag shops come to visit. And there are people who create spaces where these people can thrive through events. I've met a wide variety of people.
At the 4K film festival that was held the other day, all the students set up a stall. I was surprised at how many familiar faces there were in the stalls on the same street, from elementary school students to the elderly. Every time I saw a familiar face, I would say "Oh, hi!" or "How are you?" It was a day when I felt lonely leaving Kamiyama after graduating, even though I had made so many new acquaintances in the town. The town where I was born and raised is also a rural town surrounded by mountains. However, unlike Kamiyama, there is not much of an atmosphere that easily accepts newcomers. Perhaps it is precisely because Kamiyama has many people who are trying to make their own work with their own hands that we are able to spend time recognizing and respecting each other.
Meeting friends who are truly important to me
Also at the 4K Film Festival. From the left: Moro-chan the genius, Maa-chan the 3rd grader from Permanently Neutral Nation, and Ucchi, who has the reputation of being a mad dog.
The presence of my friends who I spent six months with was a huge help.
A friend who you can talk to on an equal footing, regardless of age or gender. I never thought I'd be able to find someone like that as an adult, so for a long time it felt strange.
The youngest and oldest are almost 10 years apart in age, but we are all in the same position as students. I am one of the three youngest students, 25 years old. I learned a lot from the older students, such as how to interact with people and how to think about things. When I was in trouble or worried about something, they would give me advice or just listen to me. I can't tell you how much I was helped by the relationship, receiving specific advice from the experience they have gained as they have grown older. I am not good at relying on others, but all the students are accepting of each other and support each other, so when I am in trouble, they will give me advice, I can be trusted with things I can't do, and I can naturally do things that I would not have been able to do before, and I have been able to be myself.
In addition, the 10 students are truly unique. Each student's previous occupation is truly diverse: agriculture, car mechanic, sales, aviation industry, video industry, DTP operator, web production, and living in Italy. Each has their own area of expertise. The student who worked as a car mechanic rushes over when my car is not working properly. The only student with practical experience in web production generously teaches me how what I learned in class can be used in actual work, and also shares his knowledge. The student who worked in video production used his work experience to create a movie that will be displayed on the top page of the graduation project. The student who dealt with customers in the aviation industry has a really beautiful way of using language. These students have something that I don't have.
Because of their diverse personalities, the third-year students often clashed over things like how to live together at the ski resort and which house to assign the shared rental car to, even after they left the resort and started living separately. However, it is true that they respect and accept each other. The "disjointed third-year students incident," with their diverse personalities, caused problems in many areas, but it will surely become a fond memory after they graduate.
At the "Git, Suss, Gulp Course" held over two days the other day, the instructors from the Coding Factory (CF) who came from Monosus' headquarters in Yoyogi said, "I wonder if they get along or not." This was the perfect way to describe the third-year students. They get along (probably). They're just too strong individually and repel each other, so they don't have a sense of unity.
When the students began to worry about their future careers after graduation, I started talking to them more than ever before and spending more time with them.
I thought he was a cold person, but he was actually a very passionate person, and I wondered if he was really thinking about that. I wondered if he was really like that. I thought we got to know each other well over the past five months, but I now realize that we still have a lot to learn. I feel like meeting new people is immeasurable these days.
Summer vacation river play
My own change through the cram school
When we become adults, it is often difficult to remain true to ourselves.
Because that's how it is around me, because that's how the world is, because that's the company's policy, etc.
The first thing I realized while interacting with students and people working in Kamiyama was that before I joined the school, I had been neglecting my true feelings. I was shocked to find that it had become difficult for me to speak honestly about how I felt and to act naturally without being conscious of anything.
However, as I spent my days with the 10 students, and as I met and talked with many people in Kamiyama, I slowly but surely began to be true to myself with everyone.
Everyone who works in Kamiyama is serious about their life, their work, and the fact that they live here. While living here, I had many opportunities to see the impact of the work of the people of Kamiyama. The Nishibun House where I live was renovated as part of the Private House Renovation Project. This project involves a team of young people from the town, including carpenters, lumberjacks, equipment engineers, furniture makers, and architects, who repair and utilize abandoned private houses. The Nishibun House, whose owner was having trouble finding a use for it, has become a home for many people and young people to live in, through the hands of many people. Through the sincerity of the members involved in the project, it will become a completely different future. I was able to see the impact that each of them has on the town through their professional work, and it was an opportunity to think about my own way of living and working.
Talking casually with local people, talking about myself, and simply enjoying the present were things I wasn't good at before. While living in Kamiyama, I was invited to various events and had many opportunities to meet new people. I was a little interested, so I thought, "Let's give it a try!" and I have tried various things.
As part of reforestation efforts, they cut logs with chainsaws, exercised in sports competitions held with our sister school, Kamiyama Juku, participated in rice harvesting, and even tried their hand at karaoke, which they are not good at...Rather than doing something specific, I feel that it is by accumulating small daily challenges that they are able to speak and move freely.
What I think now
I had been planning for a year and made a big decision to join Kamiyama Monosasu Juku.
I will be working at Monosus in Yoyogi from January next year. I enrolled in the school with the goal of becoming a front-end engineer, but I decided to focus on what I want to do and what I am good at, and aim to become a web director.
I had never left my parents' home, either as a student or after entering the workforce.
I left my parents at the very late age of 24.
Now that I've finally reached my goal after struggling along the way, I feel like I'm walking through life on my own two feet. I find every day so enjoyable. I've made precious friends to spend irreplaceable time with, and I can be myself without pretense. I feel that these past six months have definitely been a turning point in my life, and will serve as nourishment for the future. There isn't much time left, but I want to cherish the time I have here at Kamiyama as a student.
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