adolescent memories

When I was a college student in Tokyo, I had a friend whom I’d meet up with in Ikebukuro, a neighbourhood in the northwest of Metropolitan Tokyo not too far from Shinjuku. We always met there because not only the place was accessible from both our places by just one train, several department stores were […]

Around the time I entered high school, the first Starbucks opened in my hometown. Housed in a narrow concrete building near the railway station, the first floor was for the food and drink purchase and the second floor was the seating area. Being the first Starbucks in town, the interior was luxurious with fashionable tables

The year I entered high school, one early summer day, my two childhood best friends and I planned a horror movie afternoon. None of us was really into the genre, and I was usually careful to stay away from scary stories, but something about the idea of watching a horror movie together felt exciting to

At my parents’ house, in a corner of my old bedroom, there is a special brown card box I treasure. The content of the box is a handmade sea glass lamp, a gift from my high school best friend given to me more than a decade ago. She and I were both members of the

When I was in high school, I used not to get along with my classmates. Not that anybody disliked me, but I was simply in a phase of my life when I was totally frozen both inside and out, and I just seemed to have forgotten how to speak normally with others. Every breaktime, I

When I was in high school, I took part in the Earth Science Club. Earth science was not at all my interest, but I joined the club because my two childhood best friends were also there and I was intrigued when I heard that the club would organize a regular star-gazing event on and off

The spring when I turned thirteen, I made my first solo trip to visit my aunt in another city. It was about a four-hour journey by an intercity express train to get to her place. Growing up under parents who were overly concerned about my safety, I had never travelled alone on a train prior

She and I were first-year college classmates in Tokyo planning to major in mathematics. Being amongst the very few girls in the classroom, we knew each other from early on. But it wasn’t until months later in the summer when we really became friends. That evening, I was sitting in the hallway waiting for the

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

The Spring I entered junior high school, a teacher approached me and said that I should become a member of the students’ committee which was responsible for the hosting of major school events and representing students’ voice in the school community. In Japan, public junior high schools tend to have the least democratic and most