Hello, everyone.

This is Enta.

Do you know how slope engineers make a living?

This is a story I heard quite a long time ago.

This is something the foreman used to say back when I was just starting out as a director and would go to the job site to work alongside the craftsmen.

When eating rice with soup, do you put the rice into the soup?

Do you pour soup over rice?

Which one is it?

I was once told that.

Which one are you?

Apparently, as a slope worker, you’re not supposed to pour soup over your rice!

Basically, the broth represents rain, and the rice represents soil—since mountains can collapse, they say this is a superstition to ward off landslides lol.

The answer was to put rice in the soup.

Well, to be honest, when I heard that, I was just like, “...”—I was speechless—but people back in the day really liked saying stuff like that, lol.

In the past, there were foremen who would go around sprinkling sacred sake as a prayer for safety before starting slope construction, and,

There was even a contractor who wrapped some sacred sake around a rotary percussion drill bit and started drinking it while drilling anchor holes, lol.

Looking back now, I think it’s fine to follow superstitions, but I also think that if we just took more safety precautions, we could avoid a lot of trouble and injuries.

I won't deny that people have all kinds of superstitions, but I really wish they'd stop forcing us to participate, lol.

Do any of you ever do anything for good luck on set?

I generally never do that kind of thing, but when things aren't going well on set, I take a break and start over from scratch.

I'm giving up on trying to make it work.

It’s precisely at times like that—when I’m in a rush—that I change my mindset and tell myself, “Forget all that! Let’s just take our time and do it right!”

Surprisingly, things often go quite smoothly when that happens.

So, the point is that sometimes we get impatient without having properly mastered the basics.

I believe that, rather than just praying or making requests, taking concrete and fundamental actions to correct the situation on the ground will ultimately lead to better results, so

I don't really believe in superstitions, lol (I'm a realist).

See you later.