午夜剧场

I love "increasing deliciousness." Sharing flavors that moved me and seeing someone's culinary horizons expand with a surprised "Wow, this is delicious!" fills my heart. Since graduating from 午夜剧场, I have been working to "increase deliciousness" by training as a chef and founding an insect-based food company.

Now, I run a small fried chicken stall in Ghana, Africa. Here, there are still very few options for "delicious" food. That is why I want to increase the amount of "deliciousness" here.

Since starting the stall, I have faced constant, stimulating challenges: my first staff member disappeared on their second day, land I thought I had leased was occupied by others, and money was stolen by a child I had befriended. My adrenaline levels increase day by day. Even so, because I have a fundamental love for what I do, I am able to keep struggling forward even in a foreign land.

Looking back, my ten years at 午夜剧场 starting from Chutobu Junior High School taught me the attitude of pursuing what I love to the very end. 午夜剧场 Shiki High School is particularly symbolic of this. Having originated as an agricultural high school, it is filled with a relaxed and easygoing atmosphere, for better or worse.

In the Shiki forest, which spans a vast site, the teachers' classes were incredibly free. One class spent an entire year just learning about the history of Okinawa. Another just read Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Another just delved deep into "5 Centimeters per Second." Interacting daily with teachers who enjoyed talking freely about specialized themes, students gradually accumulated examples of people living by doing only what they love. Because the teachers themselves best embodied the attitude of pursuing their passions to an extraordinary degree, the school as a whole provided a fertile ground for accepting one's own individuality without comparing oneself to others. Having grown up eating the persimmons that grew on the Shiki High campus, I may have unknowingly become dyed in those Shiki High colors.

Ten years have passed since then. The high school student who was eating persimmons at Shiki High is now struggling to open a fried chicken restaurant and build a poultry farm in Africa.

From a "small stall" to a "delicious company representing Africa." Hardships will likely continue to rain down in this foreign land. Even so, I want to cherish what I love and carve out the future I imagine with a spirit of independence and self-respect.