--- title: "Does Enjoyable Work Exist?" url: "https://blog.101ta28.com/en/posts/does-enjoyable-work-exist/" language: "en" description: "The joy of creating projects with students and local people, and the organizations that make it possible. Thinking about a future of working in Ishikawa and Hokuriku through investment in people." --- # Does Enjoyable Work Exist? > The joy of creating projects with students and local people, and the organizations that make it possible. Thinking about a future of working in Ishikawa and Hokuriku through investment in people. I previously wrote an article called ["Choices and Hope"]({{< ref "posts/choices-and-hope" >}}). It was about looking at friends who work in metropolitan areas and feeling as though I had fewer paths to choose from. I still feel that the opportunities within reach differ depending on where we live and work. At the same time, there are moments when I enjoy my current job, creating projects with students and people in the community. I learn things I did not know, share my own experience, and help turn an idea into something real. I want more people to have time like that in their working lives. Enjoyable work exists where I am now, too. I have been thinking about what companies, universities, and communities can do to create more of those opportunities. ## When I Enjoy My Work I enjoy meeting and talking with people who bring new experiences, knowledge, and information. It does not have to be about technology. Talking with people whose specialties, jobs, and backgrounds differ from mine introduces me to things I do not know. I also think we should deliberately create opportunities for people of different generations to interact. Students may introduce adults to games and social connections they have never encountered. Meanwhile, the procedures and ways of coordinating with others that adults have learned through work may be new to students. By bringing their experiences together, they can develop projects that none of them would have thought of alone. I think those encounters are also part of why people at conferences and events look as though they are enjoying themselves. But the circumstances that allow them to get there differ. Some attend as part of their work, with their employers covering the time and costs. Others use their own time and money. For some, the burden may be so great that they give up on attending altogether. There is a substantial barrier between being able to pay your own way and being unable to attend. Traveling from a rural area to another prefecture means paying for transportation and accommodation, even when admission is free. We cannot say that everyone can take the same steps simply because they are interested. ## Turning Local Scenery into a Game I serve as an advisor to KIT eSports Project, an extracurricular activity at Kanazawa Institute of Technology. On November 8, 2026, I accompanied students to the eighth e-cation in Kamiichi 2026, held in Kamiichi, Toyama Prefecture. The students helped plan and run a GeoGuessr tournament. {{< linkcard url="" >}} GeoGuessr is a game in which players guess a location from the scenery shown on screen. It supports competitive play, and players can create maps limited to a particular area. At the [Tsubata Town eSports Festa]({{< ref "posts/can-esports-create-community-learning" >}}), which I attended previously, we used a map featuring only locations within Tsubata. This time, too, we had not decided on GeoGuessr from the start. Our initial suggestions were games commonly seen at esports events. During later discussions, GeoGuessr and the possibility of using maps limited to the local area came up. The organizers pointed out that their previous activities had lacked the "location" element of "e-cation." They decided to try it first, and after a trial session, moved toward holding a full event. What mattered to me was that there were people willing to listen to a suggestion and try a game they did not know. Choosing a familiar activity would have made it easier to picture how things would proceed. Even so, they made room to try an idea that had emerged from discussions involving students. On the day, I felt that the adult organizers, students, and participants were all enthusiastic. Adults learned about the ideas and connections students brought, while sharing with students the details of the procedures needed to move the event forward. Taking part in those exchanges, I found myself thinking how interesting this work was. ## People Who Can Try, and Organizations That Support Them The event could not have happened simply because some people thought it sounded interesting. It needed time for people to act and others to support the work of organizing it. In my case, I did not feel that those around me were actively encouraging me. Even so, I was allowed to attend event meetings during working hours and received approval for business travel. Although I did not feel fully understood, having room to take part as part of my job mattered a great deal. Companies, organizations, and local government were also involved in running the event. The students could focus on planning and activities on the day without having to take on securing a venue or recruiting sponsors as well. There was work to do, but they were not left to handle everything needed to make the event happen. The organizers also had encouragement and support from their employers. I think cooperation from the organizations they worked for made it possible to contribute the time and people needed to develop an event with students. I am also interested in BuriKaigi in Toyama as a place where people in Hokuriku come together. Students I often talk with attend it, and some engineers I know are participants or organizers. An article by one of the organizers explains both that the event is run by volunteers and that sponsors' support is essential to holding it. I find it exciting that so many people and companies work together to create such a substantial place for exchange in Hokuriku. {{< linkcard url="" >}} Companies may hope these activities help people learn about them or introduce them to people they might work with in the future. When participants' enjoyment overlaps with something meaningful to the organizations supporting them, it can give both sides a reason to keep going. ## Recognizing Interaction as Part of Work To create more opportunities like these, I want companies and other organizations to recognize interaction with people outside the organization as work and to invest in people. Both attending and organizing take time and money. There are already many examples of support for conference participation. For instance, a [2019 post on Yahoo! JAPAN's tech blog](https://techblog.yahoo.co.jp/bb/kuroobi-week-android/) describes support for travel and ticket costs, along with efforts to encourage employees to speak at overseas conferences. Alongside publicity and engineers' professional growth, it also discusses the enjoyment of meeting people in different environments. Still, it is difficult to explain the immediate value of every interaction. Attending an event does not always provide knowledge that can be used the next day, and meeting someone does not necessarily lead straight to working together. ["What Organizations Gain When Engineers Attend Conferences"](https://blog.takehata-engineer.com/entry/organization-gains-engineers-attend-conferences) discusses growth and relationship building, while also arguing for viewing participation as an investment over the medium to long term rather than demanding results from every visit. I, too, think we need to support interactions and experiments as part of work even when their outcomes are not yet clear. Of course, putting effort into the work we already have is important. But that work may not continue in its current form forever. Time to learn what is happening outside the organization and encounter new people and ideas is also necessary when thinking about the work ahead. Trying something may not produce the results we hoped for. An experience with no immediate visible outcome may lead to another project later. I do not want short-term results alone to determine that something is no longer worth pursuing. ## Investment in People Comes Around Investing in someone does not mean they will stay at the same company or in the same region. Students may find jobs elsewhere, and people already working may move to other organizations. Even so, I do not think the relationships formed there simply disappear. Some of my classmates who graduated from Kanazawa Institute of Technology actively take part in events and projects at the university. They remain attached to it and continue to be involved after graduation. Seeing them reminds me that some relationships last beyond a person's years as a student. If there is something I can do for a company or organization that has helped me, I want to be involved. Perhaps investment in people comes around through those feelings and relationships. We do not know when or in what form it might return. Nor can we say that investing guarantees a return. Even so, I hope that investment in people does come around. There must be ways to sustain relationships beyond having people stay in the same place. ## A Place People Want to Stay in or Join As someone working at a university in Ishikawa Prefecture, I strongly hope that students will stay in Ishikawa or elsewhere in Hokuriku's three prefectures. But that wish alone will not reach them if they cannot imagine a future living here. Pay, job options, relationships, and how often events are held. There is a lot to consider when choosing where to live, and enjoyable events alone cannot resolve all of it. People need both the conditions that allow them to work and sustain their lives, and opportunities to find their work interesting. The Tokyo metropolitan area seems to have everything. I sometimes envy the opportunities available there. At the same time, here in Hokuriku, we are already doing work that lets us try students' ideas and develop projects with companies and local government. There is enjoyment in learning from the people we meet and thinking about what we might do next. Organizations can spend time and money helping the people already there connect with others, learn, and try things. Someone who sees that way of working may feel that they, too, could do something at that company or in that region. I think creating a place people want to stay in or join starts with expanding the possibilities for those who are already there. In "Choices and Hope," I wrote that I wanted more paths to choose from. My current work with students and local people as a university staff member also gives me opportunities to expand what others can try. Enjoyable work does exist. I felt that enjoyment in the process of students and adults bringing together things the other did not know and turning an idea into an event. Together with the people and organizations that make that time possible, I want to keep expanding what we can do here.