I'm currently thinking how glad I am that I decided to take this interview after stumbling upon a tweet about the Namumeijin Interview while scrolling through Twitter on a sleepless night.

Once upon a time, in a quiet village, there lived a young person named Nemurenu (Sleepless). As the name suggests, Nemurenu spent many days unable to sleep at night.
One sleepless night, while walking along the bank of a small stream, Nemurenu noticed a mysterious light. It was letters formed by fireflies.
“I want to hear the stories of those without names.”
These words were floating in the light of the fireflies.
For some reason, Nemurenu was drawn to the light and replied, “Please, let me hear them.”
Then, the fireflies led Nemurenu to various places.
To an old woman running a business in a corner of the market.
To a farmer silently growing crops in the field.
To a girl picking medicinal herbs in the forest.
To a craftsman making tools in a workshop.
Each of them had a wonderful story that no one knew. As Nemurenu listened to their tales, they felt their heart warming up.
An old man said, “We may be nameless, but there is meaning in each of our lives.”
A child said, “Every day is the beginning of a new story.”
Nemurenu realized that the firefly light they had found by chance had brought such wonderful encounters.
Later, Nemurenu said, “Not being able to sleep that night was actually a great blessing. If that hadn't happened, I would never have encountered such wonderful stories.”
And so, the proverb “An unexpected treasure on an unexpected night” spread among the villagers.
And they lived happily ever after.
That is what I think, and this was the preface for the 934th Namumeijin Interview, written on October 29, 2024, at 3:44 PM!!!!!!!
[Preface: qbc / Yasuhiro Kuribayashi (Writer / Organizer of Namumeijin Interview)]

Joining us this time is Ms. Ohno!

Age: Late 30s
Gender: Female
Occupation: Knitter

Current state: It would be fine if it ended at any time.

qbc:
What do you do for a living right now?

Ohno:
What do I do?My job is a knitter.

qbc:
By knitter, do you mean knitting?

Ohno:
Yes. It's like a general term for someone who gets paid to knit.

qbc:
I see. Do you work individually?

Ohno:
I belong to a company, and it's like I get assigned work that comes into the company and knit it.

qbc:
Anything else besides work?

Ohno:
Affiliations other than work, or what should I say?

qbc:
What do you do besides work?

Ohno:
Outside of work, I'm in a local brass band. Is that what you mean? Is that right?

qbc:
Well, it's not about whether it's right or not, I'm asking what you do, so besides work and the brass band, what else do you do?

Ohno:
Something like that. Yes.

qbc:
Is there nothing else you do besides sleeping, commuting, and eating?

Ohno:
Yes, that's right.

qbc:
If there's something you don't want to talk about, it would be better if you just said that.

Ohno:
No, it's not like that.

qbc:
Do you not read books, listen to music, or watch TV either?

Ohno:
That's right! Right now, there's a YouTuber I'm hooked on, so I'm either catching up on their videos or trying my best to read books.

qbc:
Who are the YouTubers you watch the most?

Ohno:
Right now, I'm into QuizKnock, so if I have any free time, I'm watching them constantly.

qbc:
How many years have you been watching QuizKnock?

Ohno:
Very recently.It was like it suddenly came out of nowhere, and I got hooked.

qbc:
Since when last month?

Ohno:
No, it wasn't like that; it was sudden.

qbc:
You don't remember when it started?

Ohno:
You mean when I got hooked, right? It's recent.
Really just a month, one month.

qbc:
About a month. What kind of books are you trying to read?

Ohno:
I have a hard time choosing them myself, so I see books that pop up on Twitter saying they're interesting... I don't know, there are people whose book recommendations I've read before and found interesting, so I continue to read books they recommend, or I find the content of someone's regular posts really resonates with me, so I want to know what they're thinking and choose to read the books they recommend.

I wonder what it is... it's mostly essays.

qbc:
Do you remember whose essays they are?

Ohno:
Nami Kishida, and also Riko Murai.

qbc:
How long have you been doing knitting work?

Ohno:
That's since I quit my previous job, so from July.

qbc:
Is it something you can just pick up and do? I assume it's a technical skill.

Ohno:
Well, let's see, it's the 2024 fiscal year now. I've been knitting as a hobby for about twelve or thirteen years.

qbc:
I see.

Ono:
They were recruiting online, so I applied, and they told me to try knitting this first, so I knitted it and showed it to them, and it was like, I passed, something like that.

qbc:
Do you not do knitting as a hobby?

Ono:
I don't know. It's like doing it as a hobby and doing it as a job are two different things.

qbc:
If I asked you what you do now, would you say you knit?

Ono:
Knit... hmm. Do you mean is it my main thing?

qbc:
No, it's just a question about what you do most often, what kind of person you are right now. So, I don't want you to think about hobbies or anything, I just want you to list things that come to mind.

Ono:
Well. There are two types of knitting work, needle knitting and crochet, and I can only do crochet. The busy seasons for needles and hooks are different. The busy season for hooks is over, and I haven't had any work for about two months now, so I've been basically unemployed for the last month and this month.

I'm just knitting for fun while watching my favorite videos.

qbc:
Are you knitting right now?

Ono:
Yes. Yes. Yes.

qbc:
Is there anything else you do, based on the current criteria?

Ono:
No, no, anything I'm doing... no, nothing in particular.

qbc:
Like shopping?

Ono:
Ah, well, I do daily grocery shopping, but I don't know. It's not something I love, so I don't think it's something I'd say "this is what I do," it's nothing special at all.

qbc:
I, I'm not really looking for that. I'm not trying to ask what you love. I understand. What made you start knitting?

Ono:
I got a job at a nursing care facility, and at that time I thought, "It would be useful if I could do it!" so I learned from my mother. I started because I thought if I had knowledge of handicrafts, I could suggest to the users, "Why don't we do something like this?"

qbc:
Did it actually come in handy?

Ono:
It did. Once they knew I had knowledge of handicrafts, the number of things I could suggest when users said they wanted to do some kind of hobby activity during their day increased.

If they try too hard, they complain that their neck or back hurts, so I think it was useful for helping them spend their time outside of bathing, meals, and rehabilitation in a fun way while telling them to take it easy.

qbc:
Does that include having them do it?

Ohno:
That's exactly it. I mean, I can't recommend things I know nothing about. If I can't suggest, 'Hey, there's this thing,' and someone asks me, 'I don't understand this part,' I wouldn't be able to answer or help with the work without that knowledge. So, it felt like, 'This was really useful!'

qbc:
Earlier, you mentioned hoping to find something. What is it that you're trying to find in this interview? What is that 'something'?

Ohno:
Ever since I dropped out of university, I've been in a state where I just can't seem to keep a job.

qbc:
If I may ask ahead of time, was it university dropout, then nursing care facility employment?

Ohno:
That's right. Though there was a five or six-year gap between dropping out of university and entering the nursing care facility.

qbc:
What were you doing then?

Ohno:
Um, I was working part-time jobs.

qbc:
A freelancer?

Ohno:
Yes.

qbc:
How many years were you at the nursing care facility?

Ohno:
Four years at the nursing care facility.

qbc:
How many years have you been a knitter now? Oh, was it since July?

Ohno:
Yes, that's right.

qbc:
Do you think you'll stick with knitting?

Ohno:
It's a job where I don't have to leave the house, so I'm not really sure.

qbc:
So it's a work-from-home job.

Ohno:
Yes, exactly.

qbc:
I see. To use the pillow word 'life,' what kind of mood are you in while living your life? How do you feel about your day-to-day existence?

It would be fine if it ended at any time.

qbc:
What is that supposed to mean? In terms of emotion, what does that signify?

Ohno:
Resignation, I suppose.

qbc:
In terms of emotions, which one is that closest to?

Ohno:
I'm not angry, but I'm not particularly sad either.

qbc:
Joy or amusement?

Ohno:
But the closest one would be sorrow, I think.

qbc:
Like sadness?

Ohno:
I'm not sad, but I think it falls under that category.

qbc:
Why did you give up?

Ohno:
Hmm.

qbc:
When did you give up?

Ohno:
Since I quit my previous job, so I guess since the beginning of this year.

qbc:
The reason you gave up?

Ohno:
It's like I can't participate in social activities, and I've been wondering what kind of work is actually suited for me.I'm not a millionaire, so I have to work to survive.

qbc:
If you had 300,000 yen coming in every month without doing anything, what would you do?

Ohno:
Could I live on 300,000 a month? If so,I think I would focus on my health.

qbc:
What else would you do besides that?

Ohno:
I want to take in a lot of information, so I'd like to watch movies, go to actual locations to see plays, go see musicals, and read books, things like that.

qbc:
I see. You want to continue doing that until you die?

Ohno:
Hmm, yes. Maybe I could even self-publish something as a hobby for my old age.

qbc:
Because social activity itself doesn't exist for you, right? Going to see things is just for your own enjoyment, isn't it?

Ohno:
Yeah, that's right.

qbc:
But do you feel like you're not really interested in society in the first place? Or is that not it?

Ohno:
I don't think that's it.

qbc:
What about things you're interested in? Do you read the newspaper?

Ohno:
We don't subscribe to one. My father said he didn't read it, so we canceled it.

qbc:
How do you get information about the world?

Ohno:
My father always has NHK on, so I guess that's it.

qbc:
I see. What do people around you say about your personality?

Ohno:
They tell me I'm serious.

qbc:
Serious. What do you think about yourself?

Ohno:
Well, 'serious' sounds good, but it means I'm inflexible and don't know how to cut corners. I don't understand the idea of relaxing and just getting things done in a practical way, so I'm always giving it my all.

qbc:
Is there anything people close to you, like family, a partner, or a best friend, say to you?

Ohno:
Yeah. Well, they told me I was serious. The last time someone mentioned my personality, they said I was serious.

qbc:
I see. What is your favorite food?

Ohno:
Favorite food. Can I list a few?

qbc:
Sure, go ahead.

Ohno:
Milk, right? I like beef. Also, I like salted kelp. And I like white chocolate. For ice cream, vanilla is the best.

qbc:
Yeah, I'd love for you to tell me about some delicious white chocolate.

Ohno:
The chocolate made at the cake shop near my house is delicious.

qbc:
Does that mean you haven't tried others?

Ohno:
No, that's not true. That's not true at all.

qbc:
That's not true, I see.
What makes a delicious white chocolate delicious to you?

Ohno:
Things like it not being too rich.

qbc:
Not too rich?

Ohno:
Yeah. Do you know the chocolate called LOOK?

qbc:
Yes.

Ohno:
The one that comes in a thin paper pack. That manufacturer recently released a pack with three different versions of the same type of chocolate.

qbc:
Yes.

Ohno:
Like for matcha, there's a light one, a regular one, and a rich one. For white chocolate, too, there's a light one, a regular one, and a rich one. Well, the nuance is a bit different, though.

qbc:
Uh-huh.

Ohno:
The regular one is definitely the best. If it's too rich, it gets stuck in your throat, and if it's too light, it's unsatisfying.

I think the one in the middle is the most delicious, it's really something. The white Crunky bar, the chocolate bar, that's a flavor I periodically crave to devour.

qbc:
I see. What do you think society is like?

Ohno:
I think it's something that people each maintain their own lives to keep running.

Past: When it comes to things like 'if I could redo my life,' I think there are certain points where you could start, but I feel like even if I started over from middle school, nothing would change, so I don't have any regrets, and I don't think it was necessarily good either.

qbc:
I see. Shall we ask about your past?

Ohno:
Yes.

qbc:
When you were little. I don't think you have memories from when you were a baby, but do you remember what kind of child you were around kindergarten age?

Ohno:
When we had free time in kindergarten, everyone would basically go outside, but I was the kind of child who would stay in the corner of the classroom by myself reading a book.

qbc:
I see.

Ono:
You know, like those picture books for toddlers.

qbc:
Yeah, yeah.

Ono:
How should I put it? Like books about the ocean, dogs, cats, animals—things like that. I'd read them from cover to cover, the ones that have photos, illustrations, and descriptions for fairly broad categories.

qbc:
Did you have friends?

Ono:
I had friends. But it was more of a thin and shallow—no, a wide and shallow kind of relationship. It's always been that way.

qbc:
What about when you were in elementary school?

Ono:
I could do well in school without really studying. I did well on tests, and I think I was a pretty cocky, annoying kid.

qbc:
How about middle school?

Ono:
Middle school... I didn't really have to study in middle school either. No, wait, I could study, and I was a class representative. At the middle school I went to, every three years, the grade level would get rowdy, with lots of kids with bad behavior, making it impossible to hold classes.

qbc:
Yeah.

Ono:
It happened to be my grade's turn to be the rowdy one, and I sort of ended up being the class representative, carrying the expectations of the grade head who wanted someone to manage things and make it work.

qbc:
You mean you were told to do it?

Ono:
It's not like they said it directly to me or anything.

qbc:
Yeah. Yeah.

Ono:
They said it to the whole grade, so I just thought, 'Oh, I see.' Before I knew it, I was the class representative.

qbc:
Thinking about it now, do you feel regret or satisfaction?

Ono:
I don't know. If I were to redo my life, I think there would be a point where I'd want to start over, but I don't think anything would change even if I started over from middle school. So, thinking about it that way, I don't feel regret, but I don't feel like it was good either.

qbc:
Yeah.

Ono:
What is it... I feel kind of indifferent, I guess.I think I was living as hard as I could at the time, though.

qbc:
Yeah. How was high school?

Ono:
After entering high school... Actually, I had been playing in a brass band since elementary school, and I wanted to go to a high school that would compete in the national brass band tournament, so that's how I chose my school.

I felt like I was doing just okay with my studies. I was all about club activities. Club activities were fun in their own right, but you have to decide on your career path, right, once you enter high school.
Depending on your desired career path, you get divided into humanities and science classes.

If you're going to take the national university entrance exam, you have to study math even in the humanities track. If you're fine with a private university, you can switch to classes that only cover humanities subjects without any math. I couldn't decide on that either, so I thought I'd just do everything. Choosing the national humanities track even though I had no intention of taking a national university entrance exam was the beginning of my downfall, so to speak. I'm terrible at subjects that require rote memorization, but I was just winging it. In Japanese, you read the text on the spot and think about it, right?

I was good at that, so my average across the five subjects in mock exams, or rather the total for the five subjects, was really good. Japanese pulled my score up, so I was placed in a class for students who were good at studying, which was really tough.

If you get a failing grade, you can't participate in club activities, so it was a matter of life and death. I joined because I wanted to do club activities, and not being able to do them was a matter of life and death, so I spent a lot of time on subjects I was bad at to avoid failing, which was really hard.

qbc:
What happened after high school?

Ono:
After high school, I went to a music college.

qbc:
A music college?

Ono:
I really think I was an idiot. I entered music college and stayed for a year, but I took a leave of absence for the second year and dropped out at the end of the second year.

qbc:
Why?

From the end of my first year, I felt like something was 'off,' and I ended up with depression. Now, I think I didn't have to work hard enough to get that depressed. I want to tell (my past self) that. Because of the depression, I tried to kill myself by overdosing before school started, so it was suggested that maybe I should take a break from school, and so I did. I could have gone back, physically speaking. But I quit.

I recovered physically, but I thought, 'What's the point of going back now?' So I quit.

qbc:
Can you say what you didn't like about it? Do you know? It seems like you reached that point through specific actions like overdosing.

Ono:
I had always been someone who wasn't doing too badly compared to others. At the end of the school year, there are exams, practical exams. You play an instrument and finish one solo piece.
When the results came back, I was really let down, and I feel like that was the deciding factor.

qbc:
Was that your first setback?

Ono:
First...? I had always felt that even if I practiced and practiced, things weren't going well—not that I wasn't improving, but that things just weren't working out.

I was practicing, but I wondered why. I think the moment when everything I had built up collapsed was when those grades were announced.

qbc:
I see. And how was your life as a part-timer after that?

Ono:
For my life as a part-timer, I had a job sorting packages at a transport company warehouse during the busy mid-year and year-end gift seasons, and it was like I was just filling in the time during the other periods.

qbc:
Yeah, I see.

Ohno:
So, I would register with a day-labor dispatch agency and go to places they introduced me to. For the companies receiving the dispatch workers, and for the dispatch agencies deciding who to send, it's easier to request someone who is used to going there.

Because they know it's easier to request them, it was basically like being dispatched to the same place all the time.

qbc:
I see. Was there a reason you got into welfare and nursing care work?

Ohno:
During my time as a freelancer, I went volunteering with someone who was volunteering at a nursing care facility through a connection of my mother's. We were doing what you call music recreation, like singing songs and things like that.

Back then, I was still getting the newspaper, so I saw a job advertisement on a Saturday or Sunday. It said they were looking for someone in charge of music recreation at a newly opening nursing care facility, and they told me, 'Look, a new place is opening up.'

I thought I might apply for it. And then, it turned out I got the job.

qbc:
How do you feel when you're playing in a brass band? Or should I say, when you're involved in music?

I love ensemble playing. At those times, I feel a sense of satisfaction from playing together with everyone.

qbc:
What kind of state is that 'satisfaction'?

It's the feeling that everything I want is fulfilled, without any excess or deficiency.

qbc:
Yes.

There are many other things I need, but I'm savoring the happiness of being able to be immersed in that.

qbc:
I see. Knitting is like that too, but do you like tasks where you repeat the same thing or focus intensely?

Ohno:
Yes, that's true. It is.

qbc:
Are there others? Things that are different when you do them?

Ohno:
Something I proposed at the nursing care facility. What was it called... Diamond art, where you follow instructions on a glue-covered board to stick on small beads... what was it... a task where you stick them all on to make a picture.

qbc:
Yes.

Ohno:
When my mind feels restless, I do that sometimes. I still do it occasionally now.

qbc:
Yes, yes. I see. If you were to pick turning points in your life, you can pick as many as you like, but which one do you like?

Ohno:
Maybe when I was entering high school. From the time I was choosing a high school, I was told to study and to properly balance my studies and club activities.

I felt like I had to put myself in a situation where I wouldn't get good grades on tests unless I studied really hard.

qbc:
I see. How were you raised by your family?

Ohno:
I think I was raised without any hardships. It's not that they bought me whatever I wanted, but when it came to lessons or things I wanted to do, I was never told no because of money.

My high school club fees, well, it was a private high school, so there were club fees on top of that, and we had training camps in the summer and spring, so I stayed overnight. That meant even more money. I think I was a very expensive child.

Even for music college, they didn't really nag me about how expensive it was.

qbc:
Yeah. I see.

Ohno:
However, my father didn't really participate in child-rearing or education; he was just a salaryman who worked diligently until he retired at the mandatory age. But my mother raised me and my younger sister by herself—what we call 'one-op' parenting now—so she was always saying things like, 'You have to be proper.' I was constantly told things like that. She would get really angry at me for having messy handwriting. I was the type of person who would get a lot of acne on my face.

So, she would stare at my face and say it looked terrible, and ever since I was born, I've been on the heavier side of the growth curve, so she would suddenly stand up, look me up and down, and say, 'That stomach is terrible.' My mother never praised me. She would also tell me that I was inconsiderate.

Future: I am in a state where I cannot envision a future.

qbc:
Shall we ask about the future? I want you to imagine 5, 10, 30 years from now, and finally, the point where you die.
After envisioning the future, I'd like to hear about what kind of thoughts you have, how you want to create it, and what you want to do.

Ohno:
The future, huh.I want to become an adult, but there's this part of me that wonders what an adult even is. If you look only at my age, I'm at the timing of a mature adult, but I feel like I can't fully become one.

I've always had this feeling like I'm a child, and I saw someone on Twitter saying that being an adult isn't something you become, but something you perform, but I don't even understand that.

I don't know. Even if I did understand that, I feel like I don't really want to change, and I don't know if I can change, so I'm looking for answers outside of myself.

That's why I end up talking about wanting to read books or get input, and why I try taking interviews. I try talking to people, but I am in a state where I cannot envision a future.

qbc:
If you were to envision it, I'll ask the Ohno-san of 5 years from now. What are you doing now, Ohno-san? Are you not a knitter?

Ohno:
I hope I'm a knitter.

qbc:
What else are you doing besides being a knitter? Are you still in the brass band?

Ohno:
Uh, let's see. For the brass band, we have a regular concert coming up this year, and after that's over, I'm thinking of calling it a day.

When I think I have to go, it's not exactly an obsession, but I start feeling like, 'No, no, no, I can't,' and I become like someone who doesn't want to go to work in the morning. Even though it's supposed to be a hobby, and I'm supposed to be doing it because I like it.

So, it's like I'm taking a little break.

qbc:
That orchestra, doesn't 'organic' mean something like biological? Wait, was it 'ORCH'? That means organization, and the prefix for orchestra is the same, right?

Ohno:
Yes, yes.

qbc:
It means common sense. So, that's also a society, and I thought maybe it doesn't fit.

Ohno:
That might be true.

qbc:
You mentioned earlier that you just have to participate in society, but I think you see people who don't participate in society quite often, especially on the internet. I don't think it's rare for people to be unable to participate in society.
In that sense, why do you feel the urge to participate in society?

Ohno:
I wonder. Maybe it's because I have a desire for approval.

qbc:
You can get approval for not being able to participate in that society through your role.

Ohno:
I've never thought of that.

qbc:
Because, this might sound discriminatory, but for example, people are told that they have developmental disabilities and that it's hard for them to adapt to that child's society, but many of the people who are told that feel relieved. When they realize, 'I see, that's why I didn't fit in like this,' that is a form of approval.

In the sense that you understand your own position.

Ohno:
I see, I see, I see.

qbc:
In that sense, if society means entering a top-tier university and joining a top-tier company, then only a few percent of people actually fit into that. These days, even buying a detached house is a world of only a few percent, and it's actually a path that's hard to own a home on. In that sense, I think it's a question of which society you participate in.

Ohno:
Yeah.

qbc:
I ask a question about the future, and if there were an ideal society, how do you think you would feel spending your time there? You know what kind of society it is.

Ohno:
Yeah. Yeah.

qbc:
But in an ideal society, how do you think you would feel?

Ohno:
I wonder. I want to feel like I am a piece of that scene, that organization, that society. It's the same feeling I had when I was performing earlier; I have other things I need to do, but I feel fulfilled with this right now.

qbc:
Did you find anything? Through this interview.

Ohno:
I found it.

qbc:
What is it?

Ohno:
You mentioned earlier that it's about which society you choose to participate in, right? I think I'd like to give that some thought.

qbc:
Yes, yes. For the final question, I always ask if there's anything you'd like to leave us with—it could be a final testament, a message for the readers, or just a monologue to yourself now that the interview is over.

Ohno:
I was scrolling through Twitter on a sleepless night and happened to see a tweet about the Unknown Person Interview, and I'm really glad I decided to take it.

Afterword

Is life a trap? Who knows.

[Interview/Afterword: qbc]

[Editing: Mun]

#UnknownPersonInterview #Interview #Neet #Knitter #ThingsIWantToDo

You can also read past interviews in our magazine!

Call for interview participants!