This study depicts my encounters as a fieldworker in a career survey of children on Iwojima and examines ‘Shimadachi’ as an aesthetic moment for these children. While a researcher can illuminate another person’s specific aesthetic moment in life through their own personal history, understanding becomes more deliberative by spending time in the field together with those who collaborate in the research. In this study, I came to realise that Shimadachi was a unique experience for the children of Iwojima because my own life history was able to intersect with their experiences. Therefore, it is essential to depict the research process and researcher’s negotiations in a dynamically changing reality. Shimadachi is the future within the durée of the present. It functions as a sign of a future-oriented reorganisation of identity. Recognising such a border zone between the present and future is important for both teachers and career counsellors.