I took childcare leave and tried applying for daycare.

While there are various types of nurseries, they are broadly divided into licensed nurseries (hereafter "licensed") and unlicensed nurseries (hereafter "unlicensed").

Placement in licensed nurseries is prioritized based on a score called the "index." The higher the index, the greater the family's perceived urgency for childcare due to various circumstances.
For families like ours, where it's simply "both parents work, so we have no choice but to leave the child somewhere," the index is low (107 points). In this ward, families with the same score apparently line up side by side. There's even a theory that the slots for 0-year-olds in licensed nurseries are almost entirely filled by families scoring 109 points or higher (*5).

I recently attended a childcare seminar in my neighborhood and asked a blunt question:
"To put it bluntly, if someone with a high index number lists a particular nursery as their 30th choice, and someone with a low index number lists the same nursery as their first choice, would the former still get priority?"
Yes, they said. No chance! At year-end, the initial tally of applicants per nursery is announced, and you can change your preferences based on that. But thinking about it, wouldn't that make those with lower scores even more disadvantaged?

We're starting from a position where getting into a licensed kindergarten is hopeless.

Nominations were from 58 kindergartens

Still, since we had the chance, we decided to visit both licensed and unlicensed facilities first. We were also curious about what licensed facilities were like.

The first thing I did was make a list of candidate nurseries (hereafter "nurseries").
Assuming Koke-ko gets in, I'd drop them off and my wife would pick them up. For a manageable distance from home, I set the absolute limit at a 25-minute walk. Centering on my town, I included the "neighboring towns to the east, west, north, and south" (six stations beyond my nearest station). I wanted to know about every nursery within this range.

Distance from home, distance from the station, phone number, and for unlicensed facilities, fees and selection methods. I compiled everything into a single table.
I especially wanted to cover all unlicensed facilities, so I combined four methods:

① My own local knowledge. Searching online based on memories like, "I remember a nursery around there."
② Requesting help from my company's welfare service, the "Childcare Concierge" (*6). They can select several nurseries for me.
③ Get the latest information from the ward's "Childcare Support Coordinator" (※7).
④ The ward's childcare information app.

② was convenient but not perfect. I often knew my town better than the service. I used tools I wasn't used to, like Excel (*8), working while my wife and Kokeko slept. The list was finished in two nights.

First, 58 nurseries were nominated. Next, I scrutinized the map again and eliminated those with impractical access. For example, if it took 15 minutes to get there from home but another 15 minutes to reach the station from there, it would be difficult to drop off on the way to work.

As a result, the candidates were narrowed down to 20 kindergartens.
Then, starting with the nurseries closest to home, I made countless phone calls, scheduling information sessions and tours one by one. This calling was also my responsibility. Some nurseries only held monthly information sessions, while others accommodated individual requests. I booked appointments while avoiding conflicts. Since starting parental leave, this was the first time I'd focused so intensely on desk work outside of writing this column. And so, the calendar filled up with 20 nurseries.

Five Weeks of Field Trips

We visited only one nursery per day. We did this four or five days a week. That meant we were visiting somewhere almost every weekday, and we kept this up for five weeks.
At first, I thought, "This is tough." But you know what? That's just in my head. It's actually no big deal. Because at work, this kind of thing is commonplace. You visit clients or go to job sites every day, right? There is the burden of carrying around my roughly 5kg toddler every time (*10), but she's in a good mood when we're out, so she's easy to handle.

Are there really that many differences between nurseries?
Well, they were incredibly diverse. Nurseries that pride themselves on events. Nurseries that tout their playgrounds or architecture. Nurseries that emphasize music. Nurseries that offer acupuncture services. Nurseries where you can bake bread. Nurseries hyper-focused on private elementary school entrance exams. Nurseries run by moving companies. Nurseries run by dentists. Nurseries where Schwarzenegger works as a childcare worker. Nurseries where hobbits live. Nurseries made entirely of CG... I got a bit carried away with the nonsense in the latter part (※11), but yeah, it's all over the place. The personalities of the head nursery teachers and directors giving the facility tours were also wonderfully varied and entertaining.
If you think of it in advertising terms, it's like visiting a different client's office or factory every day.

I used to assume unlicensed nurseries charged higher fees than licensed ones, but I've come to realize that's not always the case.

Maybe because nurseries are places connected to the future, they generally have such a happy atmosphere. There were even nurseries where I thought, "Forget Kokeko, I want to get in here and start over myself." This opportunity means I get to bathe in that shower of euphoria for five weeks straight.
That said, some days are definitely a drag. Especially when it's raining and the place is over a 20-minute walk away.
These kinds of real-life feelings are actually useful. Once enrolled, you'll be going there every day. Commuting somewhere daily for these five weeks became a real simulation of that "distance, reluctance, and fatigue."

Still, fathers were a rare sight.
I remember seeing so many husbands at the OB/GYN during my wife's pregnancy. None of them wore suits, and I'd wonder (putting myself aside), "What kind of work do these guys do?" Those men were nowhere to be seen here.
Kindergarten tours are usually about 40 minutes on weekday mornings. They're definitely less time-consuming than OB/GYN appointments. More importantly, this is the place where your child (might) spend their early years. If you're a father facing the childcare search, I highly recommend making time for a tour.

There was one couple I saw several times. They often asked questions about books and reading aloud, which stood out to me—though they might have been aware of us too. That feeling of being both comrades and rivals... it reminded me of job hunting. The crucial difference, though, was that you don't have to fight alone.

The Case for Making Daycare Hunting Fun

Let me be clear: visiting nurseries together was actually fun. It seemed tough before we started, but now that we don't have to go anymore, I even feel a bit lonely.

Exchanging impressions after each tour was surprisingly lively. It was just like... well, it was like discussing a movie after watching it. Freely dissing it or praising it to the skies – things you just can't do alone.

And it was partly thanks to the bread.
What am I talking about? Well, my wife has an absolute weakness for bread and pastries. So, we'd mark down bakeries or patisseries near the nursery we were visiting that day, and after the tour, we'd buy something there (which often became breakfast or lunch the next day). It was easy to imagine us becoming regulars at that shop if we enrolled our child there. Was this nursery hunting or bread hunting?

Anyway, it's become a guaranteed pleasure that comes with every nursery tour. Just bread? Yes, but I think Raymond Carver's short story (※13) also said that bread is "A Small, Good Thing."

Writing it like this makes it sound like I'm just playing around. But focusing on the nursery hunt and treating it as play aren't contradictory. When it comes down to whether we actually get in, harsh reality awaits anyway. But, no—precisely because of that, wouldn't it be a waste not to at least enjoy the process? Pizzicato Five once sang, "Someday we'll have children too / But if we could play together forever..." (※14). I want to make even this nursery hunt part of that play. Even if we lose the race, we want to win the play, right? Wait, I'm losing track of what I'm saying here.

Compared to comments like "Enjoy parenting," I surprisingly rarely see "Enjoy the daycare hunt." So at least here, I want to say this to those about to start their daycare hunt: Depending on how you approach it, the daycare hunt can be fun.
I think it's totally fine for a dad to take two weeks of childcare leave just for this hunt.

Now that we've almost finished the tours, what strategy should we use for the application process... I'm still thinking about it.

Knowing it's hopeless for a licensed spot, should I apply anyway?
Some unlicensed facilities let you secure a spot by paying the enrollment fee now, but that requires a bold decision.
On the other hand, I've heard stories about non-licensed facilities with document screening rejecting applicants just for mentioning they're "applying concurrently" with licensed ones. People often say you should at least pretend to be applying "exclusively" to those non-licensed places. What's the deal? And what should I do? I need to think this over for a while.

Our little Kokeko, now five months old, has developed neck control and rolls over constantly. Splashing about like a fish. Is this even rolling over anymore, or has it become full-on fish-style rolling? My wife claims he rolled while shouting "Big bro~!" (Kokeko has no older brother), but to me it sounded like "anyway." Of course, both are just my imagination.

Next time's topic... I'm still thinking about it.

※ 1
The general activities involved in getting a child into daycare or nursery school are called "ho-katsu" (daycare hunting), but there doesn't seem to be an official name like "ho-something" activities.

※ 2
The Marshmallow Man is a character from the 1984 movie "Ghostbusters" (directed by Ivan Reitman). He's white and fluffy. He's often confused with Bibendum.

※ 3
Bibendum is the mascot character for the French tire manufacturer Michelin. He has a rubber (tire) texture. He is often confused with the Marshmallow Man.

※ 4
See Part 3 of this series , "How I Took Paternity Leave. "

※ 5
This is strictly based on the ward where the author resides; naturally, the criteria and calculation methods for the index differ by municipality.

※ 6
The "Benefit Station," which handles employee benefits, has dedicated counters like this for staff. They can assist in finding childcare facilities that meet your criteria. You can request information gathering by phone or online.

※ 7
As part of administrative services, there are staff members knowledgeable about the ward's childcare information. In the author's case, they met one at the community space mentioned in Part 4 of this series and received their business card.

※ 8
While Microsoft's spreadsheet software "Excel" is used, none of its calculation functions are employed—it's used solely for creating tables. Copywriters vary, but most seem to primarily use "Word" (word processing software) in their daily work (myself included).

※ 9
While this municipality has a large number of children on waiting lists for childcare, it is by no means lacking in childcare facilities. In fact, over the past two years, new facilities have been opening one after another. However, the population growth is so rapid that even this expansion cannot keep pace.

※ 10
Facilities where you can park a stroller are extremely rare.

※ 11
A detective played by Arnold Schwarzenegger ends up posing as a kindergarten teacher during an undercover operation. This is the premise of the 1990 comedy film "Kindergarten Cop" (also directed by Ivan Reitman).

※ 12
"To diss" means disrespect. That is, to speak ill of someone or to criticize them harshly.

※ 13
American novelist Raymond Carver (1938–88) published "A Small, Good Thing" in 1982. It's a story about misfortune befalling a family and freshly baked bread. It can be read in Haruki Murakami's translation.

※ 14
"Magic Carpet Ride," a track from PIZZICATO FIVE's 1993 album "Bossa Nova 2001." This message of "let's keep playing forever" is also reinterpreted in "72," the theme song for "72 Hours Honne TV" (Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Shingo Katori), written 24 years later by Yasuharu Konishi, who composed and wrote the lyrics.

※ 15
"Uogeri" is the author's surname, with roots traced to Kyushu.