People who have regrets about things they should have done when they were young

Once upon a time, in a certain village, there lived an old man named Kuinosuke. Kuinosuke would always say to the young people, "I should have done it when I was young."
Kuinosuke's heart was filled with many "I should have done it" regrets.
I should have gone on a trip.
I should have told the person I loved how I felt.
I should have challenged myself with new things.
I should have read more books.
I should have been more filial to my parents.
One day, a mysterious boy appeared in the village. The boy asked Kuinosuke,
"Grandpa, is it too late now?"
As Kuinosuke tried to answer, he suddenly realized something.
"That's right... maybe there are things I can still do even now."
From that day on, Kuinosuke began to change.
First, he started telling old stories to the children in the village. He decided to create the memories now that he wished he had collected when he was young.
Next, he started taking walks to the nearby town. It was a small first step toward the travels he wished he had taken when he was young.
And then, he started reading books at the village library. He realized that reading is a journey one can take even after getting old.
Strangely enough, as Kuinosuke began to move, the young people in the village also began to change. They found a new meaning in Kuinosuke's words, "I should have done it when I was young."
"Let's do it while we can."
"Let's start while there is still time."
"It's not too late to start today."
These voices spread throughout the village.
One day, Kuinosuke spoke to the young people in the village square.
"It is true that there are many things I wish I had done when I was young. But just regretting them won't start anything. Today is the 'young time' of tomorrow."
Later, Kuinosuke became known as the most active old man in the village. And it is said that he would say this:
"Regret can sometimes be a guidepost for the future. What is important is the courage to take a step forward when you realize it."
And so, the proverb "If you start today, there will be no regrets tomorrow" spread from this village.
And they lived happily ever after.
That was the preface to the 823rd Namonai Interview, written on October 29, 2024, at 6:03 PM, which I think is true!!!!!
[Preface: qbc / Yasuhiro Kuribayashi (Writer / Organizer of Namonai Interview)]

Joining us this time is Morimorio!

Age: Early 40s
Gender: Male
Occupation: Company employee

Present: We inevitably have many opportunities to talk only with people in the same industry or medical professionals.

Mimihamukokoro:
What do you do for a living now?

Morimorio:
I work as a pharmacist at a hospital.

Mimihamukokoro:
What kind of work do you do specifically?

Morimorio:
I work as a playing manager at a hospital specializing in cardiovascular medicine. My main job is preparing medication for hospitalized patients and for outpatients.

Mimihamukokoro:
You just said "main job," so are you doing anything else besides that?

Morimorio:
It's in the realm of hobbies, but I own a camper van. I do a little bit of writing for a web media outlet related to camper vans.

Mimihamukokoro:
So you are a writer while traveling in a camper van.

Morimorio:
That's right. I use my camper van to write articles about my own vehicle and experiences using facilities for sleeping in the car. I also use my main job and my hobbies to provide content about medicine and articles about board games you can play inside the car.

Mimihamukokoro:
How about your work as a pharmacist? How do you feel about doing it?

Morimorio:
Well, I always work while thinking about how pharmacists are viewed by the general public.We inevitably have many opportunities to talk only with people in the same industry or medical professionals. I always work wondering if the common sense we hold is really how it looks to the general public. I don't likeenvironments that are too biased, so I have quite a few hobbies like camper vans, various board games, and golf, and I oftensoloenter those communities to talk to various people.

Mimihamukokoro:
When did you start feeling that you "don't like" that?

Morimorio:
Well, from a relatively early stage after I started working, I began to feel that "this industry is very narrow." In the end,when you're young, you don't have that many hobbies, so if you just go back and forth between home and work, you end up feeling like you're living in a very narrow world, and I've been working while feeling that sense of unease.

And that feeling exploded all at once four years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. As I communicated with people far away online and joined online communities, that feeling became even stronger.

Mimihamukokoro:
How do you feel about working as a camper van writer?

Morimorio:
Many camper van users are in their 40s to 60s. And it's common for people to think, "I'll work until retirement and then travel in peace." But by then, many people have some kind of illness or vision problems, and they end up giving up on traveling.I have a desire to share information as a pharmacist to educate and enlighten people so they don't get sick in the first place.As a concrete activity, I was interviewed by a certain camper van magazine and had an article published on the theme of disaster prevention measures from a pharmacist's perspective.

However, I personally think that if you tell people who don't have any major illnesses to "manage your blood pressure properly" or "drinking too much alcohol is bad for your body," many of them will push back. They'll say, "Let me do what I want." Medical professionals are told to "educate and enlighten citizens, especially about cardiovascular diseases" to reduce the number of such people in the future, but I personally have a huge doubt about whether that will really be accepted by the general public who are not sick.

So, I thought that if we could talk about those things through shared hobbies, the way it's received might be a little different, and that's how I started my current activities.

Mimihamukokoro:
Has there actually been any backlash from healthy people, or is that just at the stage where you think it might happen?

Morimorio:
While working as a pharmacist, I do get asked for my opinion on weekly magazine articles at the counter where I dispense medicine. Also, although it's data from the US, it seems there's data showing that 'trust in doctors and hospitals has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic.' It's just my personal feeling, but I think the gap between medical professionals and non-medical professionals has deepened significantly. I feel that if things continue this way, it will be even harder to raise awareness and educate people about diseases through events initiated by medical professionals.That's why I've recently been thinking that it might be received differently if we raise awareness and educate people while hitting it off through shared hobbies.

Mimihamukokoro:
Besides things like board games and golf, do you do anything else in your free time outside of work?

Morimorio:
Basically, I have children, so I spend that time with my family.

Mimihamukokoro:
Is there anything you like about your job as a pharmacist?

Morimorio:
I've always been interested in things like preventive medicine.When it comes to cardiovascular diseases, I really empathize with the idea of being careful about your lifestyle—like your diet, alcohol consumption, and smoking—so that you don't develop heart problems, and I would love to be involved in that kind of work. Most of the people who come to the hospital have already passed the prevention stage and have become ill. So, when it comes to the heart, the biggest mission becomes 'making sure it doesn't get any worse'.

Mimihamukokoro:
How about yourself? Regarding your diet, alcohol, and smoking?

Morimorio:
I don't do any of that at all.So, for better or worse, it's difficult for me to understand the feelings of people who have made those things a habit.There's no way to bridge this gap.To put it bluntly, I could just end it by saying, 'If that's what made you sick, you should just quit,' but people are struggling precisely because they can't quit. That's why I think it would be more persuasive if someone in the same industry who has had similar experiences were to do the educating and awareness-raising.

Mimihamukokoro:
Is there a story behind how you ended up with a camper van?

Morimorio:
It started when I watched a YouTube channel called 'Kupio's Life in a Car.' The person has about 600,000 or 700,000 subscribers, and when they happened to introduce the car I'm driving now, I thought, 'Oh, I want to drive that!'

That person is someone who does DIY and various things to make their camper van comfortable, but I can't do DIY at all. I found one that I could simply say, 'Oh, even our family could drive this,' without needing any modifications, so I went for a test drive and bought it. The reason I set my sights on a camper van was because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as there was a very strong atmosphere, especially for medical professionals, that 'you shouldn't travel.' But I really felt, 'What is it going to be like if the years just go by like this while the kids are still small?' So I thought, 'If we have a camper van, maybe we can experience something out of the ordinary just by going out a little bit.'

I was never interested in cars at all, and to put it extremely, I felt like 'as long as it drives, it's fine.' But meeting the camper van and going to an owner's community meetup event with my family, we were able to make friends not just among adults but also among children on a nationwide scale, and having that extraordinary experience of eating and drinking and talking happily with everyone there is my best memory.

Mimihamukokoro:
When did you start working as a writer?

Morimorio:
I actually started this year. I had been searching and researching for a while to see if there were any jobs I could do online, and I ended up as a web writer. So, I thought, 'The camper van crowd is an older demographic, so maybe I can use my experience as a pharmacist,' and I set my sights on that and started at the beginning of this year.So, I'm writing articles by combining my hobbies, such as incorporating knowledge about medicine related to camper vans or introducing board games that can be enjoyed inside a camper van.

Mimihamukokoro:
Have you always had a passion for writing?

Morimorio:
Actually, I'm very bad at writing.It feels a bit strange that I'm doing something I have no interest in, but since it's something I'm interested in as a hobby, I guess I'm just doing my best with it.

Past: I really like the process of something starting small and then gradually growing and becoming big.

Mimihamukokoro:
Looking back, what kind of child do you think you were?

Morimorio:
I was a child who just followed the path laid out by my parents. I didn't rebel and just followed the path as I was told. So, I guess I was known as a 'good kid' by my school teachers.

Mimihamukokoro:
How did you feel about that yourself? Living life that way?

Morimorio:
I'm not sure. I did have a desire to try baseball or golf. But I was made to do lessons and drills assigned by my parents, and was always told to 'go study.' Well, looking back, I wonder if I even had a will of my own. I guess that desire exploded now that I'm middle-aged, and I'm taking various actions on my own (laughs).

Mimihamukokoro:
Did you like studying?

Morimorio:
I hated it. I never thought studying was fun at all. I was especially bad at Japanese.I'm a pharmacist, so I'm in the sciences, but my best subject was Japanese history.But the reason I didn't go into the humanities was because I couldn't do Japanese.

Mimihamukokoro:
What did you like about Japanese history?

Morimorio:
The fact that you could get a good score if you just memorized the flow of history. I think that's also the subject I spent the least amount of time studying. Also, when you learn about the human drama and backgrounds of the warlords of the Sengoku period, there are so many things that are unthinkable in this day and age, which I find really interesting.

Mimihamukokoro:
Looking back at your life up to about elementary school, what was it like?

Morimorio:
As I said earlier, for some reason, I loved golf.But back then, it wasn't an era where there were junior schools or anything like that. So I would dig a small hole in the garden at home to make a cup, and play by myself in the garden like it was putter golf.

Mimihamukokoro:
Compared to other games, what was interesting about it?

Morimorio:
The fun of golf that I realized as an adult is thinking about the strategy depending on the course, or the exhilaration when a long putt goes in. But if you ask me 'why I was hooked on it' when I was a child, I actually don't really know.I think I can only answer that it was something intuitive...

Mimihamukokoro:
Looking back at junior high and high school, how was it?

Morimorio:
I wasn't the active type. If you compare it to the so-called 'sunny' or 'gloomy' types, I'd fall into the gloomy category.Also, for club activities, my high school was a bit far away, so I was in the 'go-home club.' Well, now that I think about it, I think it was a bit of a waste, but I feel like there's no point in regretting that now.

Mimihamukokoro:
If you could have joined one, was there any club you wanted to join?

Morimorio:
I wanted to do golf or quizzes. I don't think there were almost any schools that had those as club activities back then. It was an era before the internet was developed, so before taking the high school entrance exam, I didn't really research the high schools I wanted to go to.It felt like I just took the exam like everyone else and went to a school like everyone else.

Mimihamukokoro:
How about from after graduating university until now?

Morimorio:
I've worked while changing jobs at hospitals and pharmacies a few times, but at this point, I think the COVID-19 pandemic has been a turning point in my life. Until then, my life was just commuting between home and work, and enjoying golf as a hobby.

Mimihamukokoro:
Is there any change in your motivation for work?

Morimorio:
I don't really like workplaces in large organizations.I think I really like places like startups where I can try things out and work through trial and error from zero to one on my own. So, my motivation is very high when I'm in that kind of environment. I really like the process of something starting small and gradually growing and becoming big, and it feels really fun to be able to be at the center of that and make it move.Also, it's easier on the mind when you're alone.

Mimihamukokoro:
Rather than doing something with someone else.

Morimorio:
That's right. For example, even at a town pharmacy, if it's a small store, it's common to have one pharmacist and one receptionist, and I think that scale suits me better, if anything.

Mimihamukokoro:
At first, you described yourself as a 'child who followed the tracks,' but looking back, how do you feel you were raised by your family, including that aspect?

Morimorio:
I think the educational style back then was just, 'If you just listen to what your parents say, you'll be fine.' There was no way to check if that was really okay. I think I just obediently followed along while feeling vaguely uneasy about it.

Mimihamukokoro:
Did you ever clash with your parents?

Morimorio:
I didn't really have a rebellious phase, so to speak.

Mimihamukokoro:
At this stage, is there anything you haven't talked about yet?

Morimorio:
Two things. 'Things I'm currently troubled by' and 'things I want to challenge myself with in the future.'

Mimihamukokoro:
Oh, please, go ahead.

Morimorio:
First, regarding what I'm troubled by, my wife is quite into 'naturalist' and 'conspiracy theory' type things.
This isn't really something I can consult anyone about, so I'd like to take this opportunity...

One of the triggers was that I became interested in online work. But then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and she started talking about conspiracy theories... like 'there's a mastermind working behind the scenes to spread vaccines and reduce Japan's population,' or 'it's good to put cabbage leaves on your head for a fever.'

When I looked into it, it seems there are communities for naturalist women. It seems like someone says these things, and then the information gets spread around. Have you ever seen or heard about these kinds of conspiracy theories, interviewer?

Mimihamukokoro:
Well, just occasionally on Twitter and such.

Morimorio:
In my case, she just takes what someone wrote on the internet, posted on social media, or what's being talked about among her peers, and tells me about it.And well, she says things like 'whether you believe it or not...', but I watch her thinking, 'Well, you wouldn't say it if you didn't believe it, would you?'

Mimihamukokoro:
I see. So, is there anything you want to do about it in the future?

Morimorio:
She's family, so I think it's difficult to get her to change anything at this point. But what I am interested in is where the source of these conspiracy theories is. Even when I look into it myself, a lot of the information is just 'I heard it from someone.'

She also talks a lot about things like 'a mastermind is pulling the strings.' I just think, 'Who is this mastermind? It doesn't really matter, does it?' There's a limit to what I can change myself.

Until now, I just thought of conspiracy theories as 'well, there are all kinds of people in the world.' But it seems there are quite a few people in the world troubled by conspiracy theories, and when it was covered on Abema,I thought, 'Ah, there's one right here.' I wonder who the source is.

Future: I do have regrets about things I should have done when I was in my 20s or younger.

Mimihamukokoro:
Imagining 5 years from now, 10 years from now, and even further until the end of your life, is there anything you want to do for the future?

Morimorio:
Yes, there is.Traveling around Japan in a camper van..

Mimihamukokoro:
Why is that?

Morimorio:
To backtrack a little, I almost died from an intestinal obstruction two years ago. Before that, I was just going back and forth between home and work, so I never really took the time to travel to other prefectures to see the scenery or walk around. I feel like I don't have that much time left to be healthy enough to spend time driving around the country. I'm thinking that, depending on the situation, I'd like to change jobs and move into an environment where I can realize what I want to do.

Mimihamukokoro:
By the way, is that something you can do at this stage?

Morimorio:
It's difficult. I have children, and if I did that, I'd be leaving all the time spent with them and the housework entirely to my wife. The challenge is whether or not I can find a compromise there.

Mimihamukokoro:
What about after your children have moved out, either to live on their own or because they've reached adulthood?

Morimorio:
Well, I would like to do it then if I could. But if I wait until then, I'll be in my 60s.

Mimihamukokoro:
By the way, why do you want to travel around Japan?

Morimorio:
I've been interested in traveling since I was young, but I didn't do it because of money. After the intestinal obstruction, I now have regrets that I should have done it when I was in my 20s or younger. After all, I had more freedom when I was younger. I think I have regrets that I can never fully overcome. Well, I suppose I probably made the best choices I could at the time, though.

Mimihamukokoro:
By the way, besides conducting awareness activities within that community, how do you think preventive medicine can be spread?

Morimorio:
Hmm... I don't have a clear answer right now.I think it would be good if I could gently correct information if I hear something in everyday conversations with various people that seems 'significantly wrong'.If I say 'you should do this, you should do that' from a position of authority, there's a possibility it could lead to an argument, and I really feel that that part is always 'difficult'. First, I hope to build a relationship where I can gently correct major misconceptions while participating in a community with shared hobbies and listening to the thoughts of various people who have nothing to do with medicine.

Mimihamukokoro:
Then, lastly, do you have any final words?

Morimorio:
Thank you for your time today. I think this time was very useful in terms of reviewing my future life. I don't think I would normally have the chance in my daily life to put my past and my current situation into words and talk about them. I think it was a very valuable experience. Thank you very much.

Afterword

Thank you, Morimorio-san.

Since I started doing interviews and listening to various people's stories, I really feel that there are so many people whose lives have changed significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. When I was taking online university classes from home, I was also enthusiastic, thinking, 'I'm going to get a full remote job in the future and continue living like this!!' But as in-person classes resumed and I experienced job hunting, I started to feel like, 'Well, working in the office in person is fine too.' My thinking really changes all the time.

Instead, the feeling of wanting to do several jobs rather than just one has sprouted. In fact, Morimorio-san's style is my ideal right now. When I went to Ama Town this summer, I was attracted to the 'Half-Official, Half-X' way of working. Of course, wanting multiple sources of income is one reason, but simply put, I get bored very easily. I have a strong curiosity and I get bored very easily.

So, I definitely wouldn't have chosen my current job offer on my own, but since I happened to come across it, I thought I'd take the plunge, and I got accepted, so I decided on it. I didn't really choose it based on salary or benefits. I chose it because it seemed like a very 'white' (good) company. But I want to get married in the future, so I do want money. I'm still struggling forever with what I should prioritize in a job, even though I should have finished job hunting.

I don't know if side jobs are allowed, and I don't even know if I'll have the capacity to do a side job after joining the company, but I want to be involved in as many different jobs as possible until I become a working adult and reach 65 or so. I felt that people with expertise like a 'camper van writer' are attractive, so I think it would be interesting if I could also make something I like my specialty and work on it. Anyway, I want to live with my antennas out for all sorts of things.

【Interview, Editing, and Afterword: Mimihamukokoro】

#UnknownPersonInterview #Interview #Pharmacist #PreventiveMedicine #CamperVan

You can also read past interviews in the magazine!

Recruiting interview participants!