Imayama-san's Story Part 1

Having developed a distrust of people due to various issues at the nursery school where I previously worked, I, a good-for-nothing,

decided that I would never talk to anyone again🙊, and challenged myself to a job that wasn't childcare for the first time.

Cleaning a dormitory for international students

was just introduced to me by a friend. It was the perfect job for someone with a distrust of people. I couldn't communicate with the foreigners, and I would just clean the dorm almost entirely by myself and go home.

The only thing that annoyed me was that a Korean student would always dump their kimchi cup ramen directly into the sink, but before I knew it, I had spent two years doing that job away from childcare.

By the time I became a cleaning pro, I finally thought,

I want to talk to someone.

(It took me two years).

Again, at just the right time, someone from the corporation that ran my previous nursery school asked me, 'Why don't you come back to a different location?'

I was scared.

I wanted to touch babies again, but I would have to communicate with adults again.

But I'll give it a try!

On my first day of work, there were a few people I knew since it was the same corporation, and they welcomed me warmly.

'This is Imayama-san. You'll be working in the same flow as Ponkotsu-san, so please learn from Imayama-san at first.'

That was what I was told, and the person introduced to me was

Imayama-san was a veteran who was more than a dozen years older than this klutz.

Being a sloppy klutz, I

He looks serious, and kind of scary...

I thought, feeling wary. Just as I imagined, his work style was

He was meticulous in every way, never sat down, moved around briskly, and was the picture of seriousness.

For a sloppy klutz like me, learning from Imayama-san was painful, and by the time I went home, I was always

For a klutz who had spent two years cleaning in silence, this was intense rehabilitation.

About a month later, I realized something.

Imayama-san is very serious even with the children.

My childcare style as a klutz is always on the same level as the children. lol

However, Imayama-san's childcare is

He treats adults and three-month-old babies with the exact same extreme care and respect.

Ponkotu was surprised.

At how serious Imayama-san was.

However, one day...

When I asked another staff member,

"Imayama-san is really such a precise person, isn't he?"

and they replied,

That Imayama-san... a manta ray...!?!!

"Sure. A manta ray, right."

he said, immediately standing up smoothly,

and with a serious face, he mimicked a manta ray.

About two months later,

Ponkotu had come to love Imayama-san very much.

To Part 2