Story Photographs

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

One weekend morning when I was five, I woke up as usual in our tiny half-dilapidated apartment. My father was still deep asleep, but both my mother and little brother were already awake. I heard them talking quietly in the next room, and I guessed that my brother was having his morning cuddling time with

It was when I was about six years old. One day, I was playing with one of my childhood best friends inside our community of tiny half-dilapidated apartments. We had been playing for a while exploring the edges of our community premise, and now wanted to go to the park to play on the swings.

When I was little, every summer I visited both of my grandmothers with my family. They both lived in Kanto region, quite far from my hometown in Tohoku region, so, we always travelled by a bullet train. I always loved travelling on the bullet train. Since the train was designed for a long distance trip,

When I was eleven years old, my father’s close friend from college went to the US to live there for two years on his sabbatical with his family. Several months into the stay, he contacted my father by email saying that one of his daughters wanted to try an online chat with me. It was

When I was in primary school, I wasn’t somebody who was into science subjects. Observing plants and insects didn’t interest me, mixing different chemicals didn’t excite me, and working with lab weights and taking notes bored me to death. I spent my science class mostly looking at different pictures in the textbook and focusing on

In the family bathroom of my parents’ house, there is a library. There is a handmade bookshelf installed in the small indentation of the wall right above the shelf where toilet rolls and cleaning tools are kept. Usually, this space is used for a decorative purpose – such as a display of flowers – but