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Written by: Tomohiro Koizumi, Representative Director, tentus inc.
This one's long, be warned.
Elementary school days
For sports I did baseball and swimming, but I was a perpetual benchwarmer in baseball, and in swimming I once tried to hide that I'd skipped practice by wetting my swimsuit in a park—only to be instantly found out by the smell and get smacked.
I have no memory of ever studying.
Middle school days
I entered the cram school my two-years-older, brilliant sister attended, and made a dazzling debut as "That (brilliant) Akari-san's little brother?!"—but it took no time at all for my idiocy to be exposed.
My younger sister apparently entered the same cram school too, but hers was "Ah... that (hopeless) Tomohiro-kun's little sister?"—a very low bar, so I'm told.
Incidentally, my sister is a hopeless type just like me.
On the day of the graduation ceremony, I made my mahjong-parlor debut. Two dots.
I did study a little for entrance exams.
High school days
I feel like I did all kinds of part-time jobs.
The longest was the year from tenth to twelfth grade when I worked at a mahjong parlor in Shimokitazawa.
I truly have absolutely no memory of studying.
I'd gone out of my way to take entrance exams to get into a school with an integrated escalator system from kindergarten to university, and of course I dropped out—or rather, spectacularly flunked out.
Dad, sorry for wasting the tuition you paid.
At the end of the summer of twelfth grade, I asked my teacher, "Sir, can I graduate even if I stop coming to school starting today?" and the answer was yes, so I moved into a live-in job at a hostess club in Omiya, saved a million yen, and after graduating I set off for the Philippines.
For some reason, on graduation day I did an incredibly time-consuming component blood donation, missed the start of the ceremony, and celebrated my own graduation from the parents' seats.
Philippines, round one
I wanted to study English, but with my brain it would take about a year to get to a level where I could speak somewhat... America... hmm... Australia... hmm... isn't there somewhere cheaper... and so I chose the Philippines—charging in without knowing anything about its currency or culture.
At first I got to stay in a condo owned by an acquaintance, but I ended up living in a run-down boarding house run by a Spanish grandmother, 30,000 yen a month with three meals included.
How run-down? The window screen in my room had far more open hole than actual screen.
It was around this time that I got my rescue diving license while sleeping over at a dive shop in Boracay.
Back then I was astonishingly unpopular with women—maybe because my hairstyle was this ↓
Back to Japan, trying my hand at dairy farming
After returning, I went to Shinjuku to renew my passport, happened to spot an office with a lovely sign reading "Hokkaido Agricultural Successor Center," charged in—and three weeks later I was on a ranch in Nakashibetsu, Hokkaido.
Nakashibetsu is here ↓
I was supposed to work for a year, but in my first month on the job a cow in heat attacked me and broke my ribs, and in my second month, on Christmas Eve, I dive-hugged a dog that was sleeping blissfully on the straw and got my face bitten, needing 14 stitches—so, deciding "yeah, I'm not cut out for this," I went back to Tokyo.
Also, coming back from the Philippines, Hokkaido winter was truly cold. And I only had T-shirts.
After returning to Tokyo, I worked at a house agency handling store design and advertising for Marui. I made things like Marui's mail-order catalog magazine "voi."
There aren't any particularly interesting stories, but I sometimes wonder how everyone from back then is doing. Ikeda-san was such a great person.
Working at a TV station in the Philippines
Someone I'd met during my first stint in the Philippines invited me: "Won't you come to this super-local Japanese-language broadcasting station in the Philippines?"—and off to the Philippines I went again.
Together with the Filipino members, I made a late-night news program called "Midnight Fil Japan."
Occasionally I read the news and did reports too.
I found a super-nostalgic photo on my PC from when I went to report at a cave ↓
It was a very poor station, so we went out to film with gear even more beat-up than a Filipino local station's.
At least buy a tripod that doesn't keep sliding down, boss.
After a year of work, it came to light that the company hadn't applied for my visa, and I went home.
Hey, come on!
And so, finally, working life & going independent
I feel like this is where I truly became a working adult.
When I joined Nihon Enterprise Co., Ltd., a mobile content provider now listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, I didn't even own a cell phone. How on earth did I pass that interview?
tentus doesn't look at résumés during interviews.
I believe a no-résumé interview lets you focus on the person themselves.
After about five years I became an executive at a subsidiary, but I tried too hard and wrecked my body, mind, and stomach, so I quit, gave up my apartment, and went to recuperate in the Bahamas in the Caribbean. Then my former boss invited me and I joined IMJ Mobile, which planned and developed mobile sites.
My former boss said to come hang out at the company sometime, so I went to visit thinking "hey there~"—but the president of IMJ Mobile happened to be there too, and an interview started. How on earth did a guy in a jet-black T-shirt, freshly back from the Bahamas and without a résumé, who thought he'd just come to hang out, pass that interview?
tentus (see above).
I worked here for about five years too before going independent and founding the current tentus.
Of tentus's five executives, four are former IMJ members. The remaining one, incidentally, is an old friend I met during my first stint in the Philippines—we've known each other about 25 years now.
tentus is now in its 10th fiscal year, so this is all a story from 10 years ago.
Time flies!
One last thing I want to tell you
If I start writing about the details of the work, there's just too much, so I'll skip it—but the one thing I want to tell anyone who read this entry is:
You surprisingly don't die that easily.
It's fine! It's fine!
You'll make it! You'll make it!