Story Photographs

When I was eight years old, one of my father’s good old friend gave me a copy of the book The Robber Hotzenplotz for my birthday gift. It was a story of two little boys in rural Germany going on an adventure and fighting off the robber Hotzenplotz and his friend and bad wizard in […]

I was eleven years old when that unforgettable encounter took place. Early summer that year, we had a large annual family gathering in a coastal city of Japan called Oarai. On the second day, we all made a visit to the newly opened aquarium in the city. I was not a keen fan of aquariums,

When I was about ten years old, a good old friend of my father came to visit us with his two children. They were a brother and a sister close to my age. Since I was usually lacking playmates at home, I became super excited to have two more kids staying in the house for

When I was in the second year of high school (that is, grade 11), I was having a severe case of young adult crisis. I hear that many people go through an existential crisis around this age. My symptom was that I stopped speaking at school. I was never comfortable with crowds (still remains true

Despite growing up in a country surrounded by oceans, my relationship with water has never been intimate except for baths and hot springs. Neither of my parents was a big fan of outdoor activities nor a good swimmer, so when I was a child, I did not have many chances to explore rivers, lakes, or

When I was 19 years old, during my first year of living in Tokyo on my own, I developed a habit of studying at coffee shops. Being a lonely young student in a big urban city, I found comfort in the cozy ambience of local coffee shops. The school I attended was located near the

It was my first day at kindergarten. That day, my younger brother was in the hospital and my mother had to leave soon after attending the welcome ceremony. I did not panic when she left. I was quite used to being away from my parents by that age. Since my sweet little brother was born

It was when I was in grade 4. One winter morning, on my way to school, I encountered a group of boys in front of me. From the yellow covers on their school bags, I knew that they were first graders. They were throwing snowballs at each other. To my eyes, the way they played

When I was 19 years old, I lived in Tokyo attending a special school designed for university entrance exam preparation. It was my first year living on my own away from my hometown. For most of that year, I made myself busy every day studying the material from morning until night. But in the summer,

Several years ago, I was on my way back to Tokyo from a trip to London, England. I had a window seat. As I settled down and read through the safety booklet (my golden ritual), a young boy and his mother came and sat next to me. The boy was about three years old. He