People Who Want to Become Adults Who Can Keep Taking on Challenges

Once upon a time, in a small village surrounded by mountains and rivers, lived a young man named Ayumu. Ayumu had a dream since he was a child: he wanted to become an adult who could keep taking on challenges.
Many adults in the village stopped challenging themselves as they grew older. They would make excuses like, "I'm too old now" or "It's impossible at this point," and chose to live stable, predictable lives.
However, Ayumu's grandfather was different. Even past the age of ninety, he continued to grow new plants, travel to places he had never seen, and maintained a curiosity that rivaled that of any young person.
When Ayumu asked, "Why are you able to keep challenging yourself so much?" his grandfather replied:
"As long as there is life, a person can grow. It is the moment you stop challenging yourself that you truly grow old."
Moved by those words, Ayumu left the village to go on a journey of self-improvement. At first, he was sometimes so scared that his legs would tremble, but he took it one step at a time, learned various skills, and met many people.
Sometimes he climbed steep mountains, other times he crossed rough seas, and occasionally he failed and got hurt, but each time he stood back up and faced new challenges.
Ten years later, when Ayumu returned to the village, many of the villagers were living the same lives as before. But Ayumu had changed. He had acquired skills and wisdom, and above all, he had become an adult with the courage to take on challenges.
Ayumu created a place of learning in the village. It was a place where anyone, regardless of age, could take on new challenges. The villagers, who had visited timidly at first, began to change little by little.
An eighty-year-old grandmother learned to write for the first time, a fifty-year-old farmer tried new farming methods, and teenagers began to talk about their dreams for the future.
Later, Ayumu told his disciples:
"Getting older is no reason to stop challenging yourself. In fact, because you have the foundation of experience, you can fly even higher. Being an adult who can keep taking on challenges is what makes life rich."
And so, the proverb "The seeds of challenge grow at any age" spread from that village.
And they lived happily ever after.
That was the preface for the 1043rd Namunin Interview, written on March 30, 2025, at 11:34 PM, by someone who thinks so!!!!!!!

[Preface: qbc / Yasuhiro Kuribayashi (Writer / Organizer of Namunin Interview)]

Joining us this time is Rio!

Age: Early 20s
Gender: Female
Occupation: Student (4th-year university student)

Current state: I'm living such a wonderful life right now that I'm actually scared something terrible might happen in the future.

Pump:
What are you doing these days?

Rio:
I'm a fourth-year university student and will be a new member of society starting next month. I currently live in a share house, and since I'm moving to a new place next month, I'm busy with moving preparations and just spending time relaxing.

Pump:
How are you feeling? With so many things changing.

Rio:
I do have a vague anxiety about whether I'll be able to keep up with work.
But there are 20 other people joining the company at the same time as me, and I've met them about three times so far.

They are people I really feel like I want to work with, so there's a part of me that's looking forward to it.

The reason I found out about the company I'm joining is that there was a senior student who took great care of me during my university days, and that person is one year ahead of me and works at the same company, so I heard about the business content and the atmosphere of the workplace from them.
That person is like a mental stabilizer for me.

So, I'm spending my time without feeling too much anxiety about work. I'm just thinking, "Whatever happens, happens."
Also, as for my daily life, I'm truly happy.

I'm living such a wonderful life right now that I'm actually scared something terrible might happen in the future.

Pump:
How long has that feeling been going on?

Rio:
I think it's been since around October of last year.
It's not like any one big thing happened, though.
Regarding the share house, there are about 40 people living there in total.
It's a large share house, but there are no feuds or major troubles, and it's a home where we can interact at a comfortable distance from each other, so it's very easy.

I feel like life in the share house is really fun, and I feel blessed with the people around me. Also, I worked at a drugstore until last month, and everyone including the full-time employees, part-timers, and other students were good people.
I'm shy and can't really talk to people on my own, but there were people who would talk to me in a friendly way, and part-timers would teach me all sorts of information.

So, I started feeling happy around October of last year because I feel so blessed with the people in my life.

Pump:
How do you feel about moving soon?

Rio:
I wonder... my father was a frequent transferee, and because I moved every two or three years myself... I was born in Kumamoto, and then lived in Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Saga, Kochi, and now my parents' home is in Kagoshima... so I've moved around quite a bit, which makes going to a new environment or doing new things fun for me.

In that sense,I don't dislike moving at all.
I have a sense of excitement about what kind of place an area I've never lived in before will be, or what kind of people I'll meet.

Pump:
How are you spending your time specifically right now? Like, what's your daily routine?

Rio:
I usually wake up around 8 or 9, have breakfast in the shared kitchen, and spend the morning tidying up from moving.
I like taking walks, so I go to cafes in the afternoon.
I also like spending time alone there, relaxing.

I drink coffee, look at my phone, and things like that, then I come back and have dinner with the other residents.

Pump:
Do you have any interests? Like hobbies?

Rio:
I love watching live performances, and right now there's a group called XG.
They are a seven-member girl group made up of Japanese members, and they are a group that is getting a lot of attention around the world.
I also like a girl group called HANA that debuted recently.

Also, during middle and high school, I was in the tea ceremony club and the flower arrangement club, and engaging with Japanese culture was a big deal for me.
The reason I became interested in Japanese culture is that I'm an only child, and my parents' educational philosophy was that they really wanted me to be independent.
They also wanted me to have a broad perspective and take on various challenges boldly, so they had me apply for homestay programs since I was in elementary school.

Since I was about elementary school age, I would leave my parents for about a week to go to places like Thailand or Europe for homestays, and I had those kinds of experiences.
I really loved the moments when I could introduce Japanese culture at my homestay destinations through things like tea ceremony and kimono dressing experiences.

That was the trigger for me wanting to properly learn Japanese culture.
I studied that diligently for six years in the tea ceremony and flower arrangement clubs in middle and high school, participating in competitions and working hard at it.
I didn't study it seriously in university, but... around the second semester of my third year, I developed panic disorder.
I broke my health.

There wasn't one big cause, but... I'm not good at conflict, and I'm called a pacifist... but there was a time I got caught up in trouble between friends, and there was a time when my happy life was completely turned upside down.

That triggered me to become bad at speaking in front of people, and even if I had things I wanted to say, I couldn't say them.
That's how I developed panic disorder.

At my worst, I would have hyperventilation that wouldn't stop for about 30 minutes even at home, and I couldn't even walk to the convenience store three minutes away.
I couldn't even go to university anymore.

I talked with the hospital and we decided I should take a year off.
At that time, I went back to my parents' house, and since I couldn't go outside and couldn't do anything, it was a period where my family were the only people I could talk to.

I only had time to think about what I wanted to become in the future.

When I thought about it that way, I felt, both physically and mentally, that no matter what company I joined, I probably wouldn't be able to work at that same company for my whole life.

If that's the case, rather than living in fear of what to do if my mental health breaks down, it's easier to think about what I want to do after I quit, even if the company isn't a good fit and it doesn't work out.

So, when I thought about what I wanted to be like after that, I realized that introducing the Japanese culture I had been learning for so long to people around the world would be rewarding for me.

I wanted to live with that as my goal.

I had learned Japanese culture in middle and high school, but I couldn't imagine making it my job, so I thought I'd try working, even if it was just a part-time job.

For the first six months of my leave of absence, I wasn't in a situation where I could work, but when I started to have some mental breathing room, I first went to a Japanese tea manufacturing company in my hometown in Kyushu and pleaded with them to let me work as an intern for a month, and they let me work.

There, I was able to study how tea is distributed and what the potential of Kyushu tea is like.

That study was so much fun.
It was so much fun that I started to think this must be my true calling.

That internship was the starting point, and since the brand still had low name recognition, I felt that my sense of purpose lay in expanding that awareness.

After finishing my leave of absence and returning to Tokyo, I felt like I wanted to see the current state of the tea industry in Tokyo.

At that time, I happened to see a feature on a Japanese tea specialty shop on YouTube, and the store manager was someone of my own generation.
That person also spoke about wanting to convey the appeal of Japanese tea.
It was similar to what I wanted to do, and I felt I wanted to learn and absorb as much as I could from them.

After watching that YouTube video, I found their Instagram and asked them myself to let me work there.
So, starting this April, I have been working at that specialty shop in Asakusa.

Although that shop is a specialty store focused on Japanese tea, the person at the top who runs it originally trained in desserts.

While training, they became captivated by the charm of Japanese tea and created the shop with the idea of making desserts that pair well with it.

As that person at the top learned more about Japanese tea, they found someone of my generation and the process led to them becoming the store manager.

I started working there in April, but I realized that the restaurant business is difficult, to say the least.

The shop was popular, but the management structure was not well-developed at all.
It was a situation where they were barely scraping by financially.

Seeing that reality, I started to think that perhaps I don't want to manage a tea restaurant myself, but rather manage the business side of tea-centered restaurants.

Through that part-time job, I strongly felt that I wanted to provide support from the operational side for small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.

Since I eventually want to return to Kyushu, I decided I wanted to work for an organization that supports tea businesses, whether they are restaurants, startups, or small and medium-sized enterprises in Kyushu. When I thought about how to decide on a place of employment, I found the company I have a job offer from now.

It is an organization that supports small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.
Since it matched what I want to do in the future, that is how I decided on my place of employment.
When I look back on my life, I think that Japanese culture and tea are intertwined with my own life.

I mentioned earlier that I like watching live performances.
Groups like XG and HANA both have a strong will to share wonderful Japanese culture and entertainment with the world.

I felt that what I am drawn to—sharing the culture and entertainment that Japan should be proud of with the world and seeing people around the world enjoy it—is my greatest sense of purpose.

Past: Appearing on television might have been the biggest thing.

Pump:
What kind of child were you when you were little?

Rio:
My parents said I was very easy to raise. I didn't cry or scream even when I was a baby.
I was never able to express my own opinions from a long time ago. I wasn't the type to show my own will; I was more like, 'It's fine to just get along with everyone around me'... I think I was a quiet child.

Pump:
Do you have any memorable experiences regarding your relationships with the people around you?

Rio:
I think I was a quiet child in elementary school, but despite that, I was the type to do unexpected things, like leaving my parents to go on a homestay by myself.
Even from the perspective of those around me, there was a gap... people would say things like, 'Rio-chan, how can you do things like that?' but I just thought of it as my personality.

I wanted to do things that others wouldn't.

I never put it into words, but that's something I had always thought.
I think being told that was a kind of joy for me.

Pump:
Do you have a specific example?

Rio:
The first thing that comes to mind is appearing on TV might have been the biggest thing.
I applied for it myself and got on.

The reason I thought about applying was that there was a makeup artist I followed on Instagram, and I really loved their makeup style.
I had always hoped they would do my makeup someday.

That person's makeup is incredibly popular, and whenever they open up bookings, they fill up in about three minutes. It was hard to get an appointment, and I always thought it was no use.
Then one day, they wrote on their Instagram story that they were going to be on TV for the first time, featuring their own makeup, and that they were looking for models.

And they wrote that you should apply via Instagram DM, including reasons like how you want to change through makeup and why you wanted to apply.

I thought if I couldn't get an appointment normally, this was my only chance to apply, so I wrote down my thoughts at length and applied.
They chose me out of about 50 or 60 people.
And for the first 5 or 10 minutes of the one-hour program,
I was chosen as a model who was a woman wanting to change through makeup.

That was the biggest event for me so far, and I think my feelings changed significantly as well.

Pump:
What was the trigger for your feelings changing?

Rio:
(Originally) my self-esteem was a bit low, or rather, I wasn't confident in my appearance.

But somewhere inside, even if my appearance might be called unattractive by general standards, I had the confidence that I could definitely change depending on how I looked at it.
I wanted to convey that there are many kinds of beauty.
It might be presumptuous, but I really felt that I wanted people to understand that it exists.

It might be true that there are things makeup can't fix, but I had this thought somewhere that even with an appearance I wasn't confident in, I could change.
I had a wish somewhere that I wanted to use professional skills to make that happen.
So when the makeup model recruitment came up at that time, I thought, if I get picked, it has to be me.

Actually, through the makeup, people around me even told me that my expressions looked different.

People might think it's just makeup, but if you use makeup as a tool, you can change your mindset, and of course, you become brighter.
My posture changed completely, too.

People around me also told me that my way of speaking and my attitude toward others had improved.

The fact that I changed with just makeup was shocking, or rather, surprising.
That had a positive influence on me personally.
Apparently, the broadcast went well, and I heard there was a second round with other models.

The fact that there was a second round made me think that there must be other people with the same worries.
I feel that being able to experience the power of makeup again was a big experience.

Pump:
What was your life like in elementary and junior high school?

Rio:
I moved from Kumamoto to Fukuoka when I was about to enter elementary school.
I transferred schools once in elementary school from Fukuoka to Saga, and I attended schools in Saga throughout middle and high school, but...

I have mostly happy memories, but I took middle school entrance exams.
None of the kids around me were taking middle school entrance exams, so studying in that environment was quite tough.

Since I started studying for the exams in earnest around the fifth grade, that was also the time I started overeating due to stress and gaining weight.
My hair started falling out from stress, and being teased about my appearance was a big deal.
Also, in the sixth grade, I left my hair styling to my parents, but one time I went to school with my hair in pigtails, and it seems people thought I was acting like a 'burikko' (pretending to be cute), and because they thought I was trying to act cute, they pulled my hair.

Experiences like that made me think, 'Just you wait,' and I felt the only way to prove them wrong was through my studies.
From then on, I studied with the determination that I would definitely pass, and I got into my school of choice.

I don't feel like I exactly 'proved them wrong,' but that was a major catalyst for my studying, and it remains a memory.

Pump: How about around middle school?

Rio:
Middle school was private, and it was a school where kids from various backgrounds gathered, including those from the Kanto region and Fukuoka, and that really suited my personality.

It was really fun to have various cultures come together and share that time.
Inspired by that life, I chose to major in urban planning and regional revitalization in university, and I started wondering what my hometown was like.
I started to feel curious about what kind of charm my home prefecture had.

We even had a class at school on how to promote the place where we lived.
I think my memory of starting to think about what we could do to make towns in Kyushu more vibrant and developed dates back to around my third year of middle school.

Pump:
How about your high school and university life after that?

Rio:
I went straight to high school through the integrated program, and for the four years from my third year of middle school to my third year of high school, I served on the sports festival cheering squad. Finally, in my third year of high school, because I had been taking dance lessons for a long time, I was entrusted with the role of dance performance director.
That experience was significant for me.

I did serve as president of the tea ceremony and flower arrangement clubs in middle and high school, but there were only about 20 members, and while it was fun...
The scale of the sports festival is different, isn't it?

First of all, getting the cheering squad's performance in sync was tough. Plus, our team was famous for having a strong performance. We always placed in the top tier, so there was pressure, and it was hard.
There was the difficulty of leading, and I didn't know how to lead, so I had disagreements with the squad leader and we had to talk things out, but as a result, we came in 3rd out of 4 teams.

We ended up 3rd in the performance category, which was incredibly frustrating, and even though I tried to move on, I couldn't easily do so.
I thought about all sorts of things, like what kind of charm I even had.
I had moments where I thought I was no good.
Living with low self-esteem is one of my memories.

Also, I ended up entering a flower arrangement competition.
It's a competition where a team of three from the school does flower arrangement within a time limit, and then gives a speech to be evaluated, and when I was president, we ended up going to the Kyushu tournament.
The three of us were me, another classmate, and one person a year younger.

The person a year younger was quite quiet, or rather, didn't say anything... I couldn't even tell why they chose flower arrangement, and even when I said let's practice, they would say they had to go to the dentist.
I couldn't gauge their level of enthusiasm.

Even right before going (to the competition), they said they wanted to go to the hospital, so it was a time when I struggled with how to build team strength. That club experience was very significant for me.
That, and the fact that it was a time when I was really struggling with what to do.

Mirai: I want to live my life helping many people by being close to them.

Pump:
Is there anything you imagine doing until you are no longer here, Rio?

Rio:
When I talk to my grandparents, I sometimes feel that their way of thinking is a bit old-fashioned.
It was taken for granted since I was a child, so it was natural, but I want to update the thinking of people like that.
I want to share Japan's proud culture and my own way of thinking in my own way.

Japan as seen from the world... the pride we should be proud of... I want to engage in activities like that in my own way.

Pump:
Is there anything you personally want to become, or don't want to become?

Rio:
A person I respect is Madoka Kabasawa, who used to work as a manager at Yoshimoto Kogyo and managed Kamaitachi and Toro Salmon.

She has now left Yoshimoto Kogyo and is on a working holiday in Australia.
You can see her life there on YouTube (@kabasawa_madoka), and I just love her personality.
She is on a working holiday without even being able to speak English, but instead of being too negative about not being able to speak, she acknowledges her own weaknesses while continuing to learn greedily and positively, which is incredibly cool and I respect her.

I am a person with high pride, so if I were in Madoka's situation, even if I went abroad, I would be completely depressed about not being able to speak, and because I wouldn't want to get hurt, I think I would end my working holiday life without communicating much with those around me, but I think I must learn from her as a working professional, as she honestly says she doesn't know what she doesn't know and grows while reflecting every day.

I mentioned earlier that I am happy, but I think this is a passive stance.
I think this is not good.

There is probably a part of me that is spoiled by thinking I am happy.
It's not about being blessed with people, but I don't think I will reach the next step unless I take on challenges and break out of my shell myself.

As an ideal, I want to be an adult who can take on challenges, knowing the importance of having a challenging spirit and breaking out of my shell, while also acknowledging that I have a personality that reads the room too much and often goes along with others as part of my individuality, without forgetting curiosity and a desire for improvement.

Pump:
What kind of existence is the end of death for you, Rio?

Rio:
I might not be thinking about it negatively.
It might be a life with many hardships, but I want to face death when I can still think that it was fun...

Pump:
Was the question a bit difficult?

Rio:
...I couldn't answer well.
But what I really always think is that I don't want to live a life of just drifting, so I want to take on challenges boldly even in things I don't know, without being satisfied with the status quo.
I want to help many people by empathizing with them for the hardships I have endured before I die.

Pump:
What do you think is the reason for your desire to empathize and help?

Rio:
I think the primary trigger was probably being bullied lightly in elementary school.
They would bully me by comparing me with things that were easy to understand and lower than themselves, like appearance.

I thought it was ugly from that time on.
I was really angry at the narrow-mindedness, so I didn't want to become that kind of person, and I thought I wanted to live my own life... a life where I am not swayed by those around me.

I have also talked to people who have gone through various hardships even if they seem bright on the surface.
I believe that if I talk about my own bitter experiences or my own hardships, they will talk about their hidden side.

That is why I believe I can empathize with people for the first time.
Because I have a desire not to be looked down upon for simple things, I want to gain various experiences and move forward so that I can also empathize, and the greatest joy is to be told that someone's thinking has become easier.
I think I want to take on challenges as a goal to become that kind of person.

Pump:
Lastly, I would like to ask if you have anything left to say, how is it?

Rio:
I have nothing left to say.
I am sorry that my sentences were all disorganized.
It was a good opportunity to look back on myself, and it was a very good opportunity for me to think again that the things I want to do now are because of my past experiences.
Thank you for listening.

Afterword

Regarding Rio-san's final comment, "I'm sorry for my disorganized writing," it goes without saying that this is also due to the quality of the interviewer's (my) questions.

Thank you for taking the time to carefully consider my questions throughout, even though I feel sorry for my own immaturity.

As an interviewer, I often explore the sentiment of "wanting to be there for someone" that I sometimes encounter.

The verification of how different the personality or character found there is from my own (this so-called interview) at the very least enriches my own values.

In the somewhat unstable repetition of working and returning home, I wonder if this unwavering "yardstick" might be what supports me in the end.

I'm writing this on and on, and oh dear, I'm trying to sound cool, and now that I can't turn back, here is an associated episode.

Since Rio-san is from a rural area, I heard that when the parents of an acquaintance of mine, who is also from a rural area, came to Tokyo and saw the Shibuya Scramble Crossing, they couldn't help but say, "Hey, is there a festival going on?" due to the sheer number of people.

My hometown is Ishikawa Prefecture, and I came to Tokyo around the age of 20. I have lived in Tokyo ever since, and I have now lived here longer than I lived in my hometown.

Looking back now, when I first came to Tokyo, memories like "Oh, I was being ripped off back then" or "That behavior was out of place and everyone around me was cold" are seared into my memory like a brand.

Listening to Rio-san's interview reminded me of those nostalgic memories from when I first came to Tokyo.

[Interview, Editing, Afterword: Pump]


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