childhood memories

When I was little, I had two very close friends. We grew up in the same community, and our families knew each other well. Even after we moved to different parts of the town, every summer, the three families would go on a camping trip together. One summer, I became into insects and brought a […]

In this memory I’m about eleven. I’ve just finished my weekly group lesson at a local music school, and now stand with my two best friends in the hallway. Our mothers are nearby, busy talking. The building that houses our music school is old and dilapidated. As I chat with my friends, I notice that

The spring when I entered primary school, my aunt gave me a bunch of pre-stamped postcards. “So that you can write to your friends.” That’s what she told me as she handed me the gift. The postcards came in three packages. Each with five cards, all different designs. Suddenly, I had many postcards in my

In this memory, I’m about four. At my grandmother’s house, I stand in front of my elder cousin’s room. The sun is already high up in the sky and I want to play with her, but she is still deep asleep. Her room is as dark as night, and she doesn’t respond even when I

One autumn weekend, when I was about eight, my father took me to a park in the neighbourhood next to ours. I don’t remember how we got there – we might have biked or walked, or my mother might have dropped us on her way to shopping – but it was already late afternoon, and

In this memory, I’m four years old. I’m staying at my grandmother’s house for a month away from my family. Some mornings, after breakfast, I go out in the front garden to explore. On one corner of the garden, close to a bush of flowers and hedges, is a small triangle-shaped rock sticking out from

When I was about five, all my friends and I started watching Ghibli movies at home. The first one everybody watched was “My Neighbor Totoro,” and one of my best friends’ little sister got plush dolls of all three Totoros that appeared in the story: a small one, a bigger one, and a huge one.

When I was about nine, I visited a small town at the foot of Mt. Fuji to attend a ceremony that honoured the spirit of my grandfather who’d passed away many years ago. The family and relatives gathered at one of the many Buddhist temples in town and waited in the sitting area for the

In this memory, I’m five years old, visiting the local art gallery with my mother and brother for a regular weekend picnic. After the main picnic in the garden, there is one more place my mother takes us to that I look forward to. It’s a children’s playroom. But not like the ones you find

In this memory, I’m five years old. I’m visiting the local art gallery near my home for a weekend picnic with my mother and little brother. Right inside the entrance, in the middle of the hallway, is a large bronze statue that looks like an egg. The egg is tilted ever so slightly as if