November 2022

On Christmas morning when I was five, I woke up and found everything outside was covered in white snow. It wasn’t the first snow, but it was the first time the snow had stayed on the ground that winter. From the balcony of our tiny half-dilapidated apartment, I saw the white snow shining bright everywhere […]

My eldest cousin got married in the early summer when I turned eleven. In December prior to that, I visited my grandmother’s house with my family and happened to meet my cousin’s then fiancé for the first time. One of the things I always looked forward to whenever staying at my grandmother’s place was to

When I was little, I had a brother three years younger than me. Since our age difference was small, as soon as he started walking and talking, we became great playmates. We watched TV programs together, played with Sailor Moon toys together, and went on many imaginary adventures together in our tiny half-dilapidated apartment. Although

In the winter when I was nine years old, my family drove to my maternal grandmother’s place for the first time. Her house was a little far away from my hometown, so, my mother and I usually travelled there by trains. But that year, my parents decided that we would try driving there for the

From age six to age twelve, I took piano lessons at a local music school in my hometown. Though the school was designed for children, its program was rigorous, and some of the pupils were there with the intention of pursuing music as career in the future. Twice every year, each student was required to

When I was in kindergarten, there were two kinds of schoolbags that children carried. They were both yellow in colour, but one was a backpack and the other was a shoulder bag. My mother had a firm belief that a backpack was better for my shoulders since it was evenly balanced. So, when I entered

The spring when I turned thirteen, I started having allergic reactions to tree pollen. In many parts of Japan, March through May is the biggest pollen season of the year. People who are allergic to pollen from Japanese cypress and cedar trees have a hard time during this season. In March that year, I remember

During the summer when I was about five or six, I was visiting my maternal grandmother’s house with my mother. It was one of the regular visits we made a few times every year. Since my family lived far away from my mother’s home region, we used to visit them on holidays. The night of

Oden is a Japanese one-pot soup dish that is very popular throughout autumn and winter seasons in Japan. The dish consists of boiled root vegetables, eggs, and processed fishcakes, all stewed in a large claypot. When the air gets cooler and the leaves start falling in autumn, oden starts to make a frequent appearance at

When I was about five years old, I used to love sitting by one of the three windows of my home. Our apartment block was located at the edge of the community of tiny half-dilapidated apartments, and this window was facing the outside of our community. Located at the second floor, from the window, I