childhood memories

In Japan, from primary schools to high schools, the school buildings are cleaned by students after classes. Each class is divided into groups of five or six, and these groups take on different cleaning responsibilities each week. One week, a group is in charge of their own classroom, the next week, a corridor, then the […]

It was when I was about four year old. One sunny cold winter day, my mother was taking out the laundry to our balcony as usual. She left the balcony door open, and the cold morning air was coming inside. On the floor, there was a bag of laundry clips that she was going to

When I was small, I used to take bath with one of my parents. Some days with my mother and some days with my father (it’s a very common practice in Japan). My mother was very practical and didn’t allow me to play in the bathtub much, but my father did, and I always looked

It was when I was three. One cloudy day, my mother took me to an annual festival at a local shinto shrine. I don’t exactly remember what occasion it was, but it was shortly after my little brother came to our life with a heart disease. That year, our family’s life revolved around the new-born

It was when my family still lived in a tiny half-dilapidated apartment. One Summer morning, I was exploring our tiny apartment, and found my father still sleeping in one of the rooms. We didn’t have a designated bedroom, and the room we spent to sleep in the night turned into me and my brother’s playroom

When I was five, my family made a trip to an old mining site located near my hometown. There was an interactive museum created inside the old mining caves where we could learn the history of the mine itself and people’s life who used to work there. On our way to the museum, I got

When I was a child, every May, my aunt and her husband used to organize a large family gathering for a long weekend. We would make an overnight trip to a traditional Japanese-style hotel in a famous hot spring spot between Kanto and Tohoku regions. We would enjoy a long bath in the hot spring,

When my little brother was about two, he started drawing with crayons like any other child at that age. What was particular about his drawings, though, was that he always drew the same thing – a round face with many lines sticking out of it. It didn’t look like a human face. When we asked

When I was a child, there were many things I didn’t understand about adults’ interactions. One of the biggest mysteries was that they never seemed to feel comfortable receiving things from others. When somebody came to our house with a gift, my parents would always exclaim “Oh, no, you didn’t have to!” several times before

When I was at the age between four and six, Sailor Moon lay at the centre of my life. Not just my life but all other girls’ lives also revolved around Sailor Moon. Every Saturday at 7 pm, we would sit in front of the TV to watch a new episode of the Sailor Moon