childhood memories

The spring I was in Grade 3, we had a sport festival at school. Among the many games we were enrolled in was a tug of war. The four classes in Grade 3 were going to fight against each other to win the trophy cup. For the weeks leading up to the sport festival, we […]

When I was about four, my father had a habit of leaving his clothes wherever he removed them inside the house instead of neatly folding them. Each evening, he would come home and change into his pajamas, leaving his work clothes scattered all across our tiny half-dilapidated apartment. And each time, my mother would scold

In my early years at primary school, I was one of those few kids in the classroom who spent the breaktime mostly on her own. It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends, but I preferred being on my own daydreaming and writing stories in my notebook than participating in the games others were playing. At

I was five year old when my father gifted me with my very first dictionary. One evening after supper, he said that we were now all going to go to the bookstore to buy a Japanese dictionary. It was rare for us to go out for shopping that late, so I got very excited. “What

When I was little, my little brother and I got along well, but there were moments when a fight erupted between us over some small things. One morning when I was four and my brother was one, my mother took us to her workplace to take photocopies of a teaching material. There was nobody else

When I was in primary school, every summer, there was a series of mandatory swimming lessons. Like many typical public schools in Japan, there was an outdoor swimming pool on the school premises, and whenever the water temperature was above the certain degree, we were called to the poolside for the lesson. While most people

Since I was very small, I was a huge lover of stories. I loved sitting with my mother when she read me some picture books, and I loved lying next to my father while he read me a bedside story. I would eagerly listen, completely absorbed in the story. But despite my love of stories,

It was when I was about four and my family lived in a tiny half-dilapidated apartment in the north region of Japan. Having recently become a big sister, I was extra motivated to take care of other people around me. It especially brought me a sense of pride and joy to “help” my mother, who

The summer when I was four, I was living with my grandmother for several weeks while my parents were busy attending my little brother’s major heart operation back home. Though my grandmother lived with my uncle’s family, most of the family members were school teachers and usually it was just me and my grandmother at

When I was a young child, I always had a fascination with the idea of an attic. In many western tales that I read, a person often lived in a small attic, and I thought that it would be so cozy to stay in the tiny spot under the roof. So, when I was six