childhood memories

When I was between the age of four and six and when my family lived in the community of tiny half-dilapidated apartments, I used to play a lot with my two best friends in the square park in front of my apartment building. Among one of the things we played most often was the game […]

When my little brother was about the age of two, he used to take a nap once every afternoon. When it was time for his nap, my mother would play Pachelbel’s Canon on our CD player, a daily cue which told everyone at home what was about to happen next. Both my brother and I

When my little brother was about two, he became very interested in helping his mother. There was a small shop right across from our tiny half-dilapidated apartment where she used to purchase a few grocery items, and she often bought our weekly milk package from there. My brother often accompanied her to the shopping when

In the summer when I was five, the annual large family gathering took place in my hometown. Many relatives travelled from the Kanto region, and we all stayed at one of the famous hot spring resorts called Akiu onsen. The term resort suggests something very fancy, but a typical onsen resort in Japan is simply

The spring when I was about to turn nine, one of my two childhood best friends and her family moved to a brand new house in the suburb. One evening shortly after their move, we met at the local music school in the city centre as usual, and after the music classes, my mother offered

When I was little, my mother kept a very strict rule for us children around snacking. Unlike at my friends’ house where snacks of all kinds including potato chips and chocolates were readily available all through the day, at my home, our snack was provided only once a day in the afternoon. The content of

When I was in primary school, there was a shopping complex in our suburban neighbourhood that my mother used to visit regularly for the weekly grocery shopping. I often accompanied her whenever I was at home and wasn’t doing anything else. But since grocery shopping didn’t interest me much back then, I always brought a

When I was about three, I attended a nursery a few times a week. It was shortly after my baby brother was born with a heart disease and my parents were busy caring for him and managing their work at the same time. Usually, my father would take me to the nursery in the morning

During the summer when I was eight, I participated in a drawing competition with other Grade 2 children at my school. It was a competition hosted by my hometown and the assignment was to draw one’s dream road. For several weeks before the summer break, we spent each arts and crafts class drawing our dream

In the autumn when I was six, my family moved from the community of half-dilapidated apartments to a brand new house in the suburb, and I was transferred to a new kindergarten for the remaining 5 months of the school year. Unlike my old kindergarten, the new one was not within the walking distance from