June 2022

Peaches

When I was in the second year of high school, I went on a three-day summer trip with the Earth Science Club. The place we stayed was located in the countryside of a city two hours train ride away from my hometown. The owner of the hut came to pick us up at the train […]

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I was perfect!

The summer when I was seven, I took an official assessment exam at my local music school for the first time. It consisted of several different tasks, and one of them was to read a given short music score and sing it out loud. When I went to the exam room, I was welcomed by

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A Family Photograph

When I was about five, my family made a road trip to a mountain area near my hometown. At one point we came to a place where the view was fantastic even though it was not an official lookout. My mother suggested that we should take a picture there. It was many years before we

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Dream, reality, and laughter

In my second year of kindergarten, our annual sport festival fell on a most gorgeous autumn day. There was not a single cloud to be seen in the clear blue sky, and the sun was bright but a lot gentler than in the summer. That morning, we were told to meet in the large public

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Moment of madly naughtiness

It was when I was about five years old. One evening, my family finished eating dinner in the tiny kitchen of our half-dilapidated apartment as usual. My mother started washing the dishes, my little brother and I started playing, and my father went to the bathroom. After some time, I went back to the kitchen

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Tears at a birthday party and a word that stayed in my heart

The year I was thirteen, my maternal grandmother celebrated her 77th birthday. In Japanese tradition, a person’s 77th birthday carries a special weight and it’s typically celebrated in a bigger way than usual. When my grandmother turned seventy-seven, her family organized a large birthday party on a long weekend at a local restaurant inviting all

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