Hello, everyone.

This is Enta.

Today is Sunday and part of a long weekend, but our employees are working.

I have to work on Sunday.

The reason is that, although they carried out emergency repairs, they haven't been able to achieve the results they expected and seem to be having a hard time.

I'm really sorry for causing the director trouble.

And it’s precisely on those job sites where things aren’t going so well that equipment malfunctions and the like tend to happen...

This is exactly what they mean by “adding insult to injury”... orz

We will do our utmost to ensure that the project is completed on time, even if only by a little.

And it’s precisely at times like these that we need to be extra careful to avoid accidents.

"Adding insult to injury" means

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But that's beside the point.

 

It was Sunday for me, too, but I was busy from early in the morning volunteering at a children’s workplace experience event organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

We gave the children the opportunity to experience the joy of work and learn how things are made.

Kids usually have no idea what kind of work their dad and mom do, right?

And I don't think they understand how things are made either.

It was an event designed to let people enjoy that as a little experience.

Here in Iwakura City, we manufacture stainless steel accessories, and

Using a punch, make marks on stainless steel plates about 3 centimeters in size cut into specific shapes (hearts, stars, circles), and

We had them enjoy the process—which involved drilling a hole, stamping their initials, and turning it into a necklace.

My job was stamping, lol. It takes some practice, so it's actually pretty hard!

I got a bit of a culture shock here—I couldn't read the names at all! That's just how things are these days, lol.

There were also children with what are commonly called “flashy names.”

♬ "Even if you ask me their name, I wouldn't know who they are"—that's exactly what this is. (I think people older than me will totally get this.)

I seriously agonized over whether the initial for a kid named Ra○ku should be an R or an L lol.

Names are tough, aren't they?

But come to think of it, there aren't really any workplace experience programs in the construction industry—or rather, at a slope-construction company, are there? lol

Work experience in the construction industry usually starts with observing transit levels and other leveling tools, and sitting in the cabs of heavy equipment like backhoes.

There are better ones out there, aren't there? Something flashier!! For example, having a scaffolder put up a little scaffolding, or...

At Kakeya, I tried driving piles, tying rebar, driving anchor pins, installing formwork, and

There are so many more things in the construction industry that make you go, “Wow, that’s cool!”

Of course, letting amateurs try their hand at slope work is dangerous, so it’s out of the question, but,

I feel like we could probably manage something simple, like building a small slope inside the office and using a Lollip to move from the bottom to the top.

I really do think that by helping people understand what we do, we can better convey the appeal of this work.

I find myself thinking, “What if that’s the slope contractor of the future?”

I hope we can come up with initiatives that will help more people learn about this.

 

See you later.