SW5 'Sunworld and My Story' ~ Spring in the Blizzard (Youth in the Snowstorm)

Around the year 2000, the bubble had burst, and a heavy, oppressive atmosphere hung over Osaka. Yet, only around us, it felt as if there was a different heat source, bubbling with excitement.

The five members of 'K's Support Lab' were each sales professionals with their own unique weapons. When they unleashed their individual talents and hit the streets, our membership grew rapidly. The timing of the severe recession in Osaka and our business model clicked perfectly.

Those who gathered were presidents of small and medium-sized enterprises. Former announcers, fledgling web production companies, and even a 'budding politician' were drawn in. Incidentally, that budding politician is a man who would later be elected to the House of Representatives from Kobe as a member of the Democratic Party. 'Interesting guys are starting something new'—that energy held a strange reality in the chilled city.

Study sessions, drinking parties, individual introductions, and weekly fax blasts. It was a dizzying level of busyness, but on days with good sales results, we would head out to karaoke.

'In this freezing season, you...!'

We would belt out the popular T.M.Revolution song 'WHITE BREATH' while drenched in sweat. In the freezing streets of Osaka, only our fervor was trying to force the cold away.

Kikko and I had children. We were on the brink of wondering if we could really make a living tomorrow. It wasn't what a sensible adult would do. But even without money, we talked about our dreams in cheap bars almost every night.

'Hey, we're definitely going to crawl our way up from here.'

It wasn't just bravado. There was a desperate thirst for life in it. That was, without a doubt, the second youth of my life.