Story Photographs

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

When I was eleven and twelve, I participated in a major classical music contest held for students. I was registered in the piano section, and after the long, intensive practice through the summer, in early September, my mother and I travelled to Tokyo to attend the first round of the contest. There were about a

When I was about nine, my maternal grandmother came to visit us during my spring school break. One evening, my mother, grandmother and I had finished dinner when the famous old Japanese TV drama series “Oshin” started to play on our family’s TV screen. “Oshin” is a fictional story depicting the life of a woman

My little brother, when he was small, was an ardent bus lover. It’s not uncommon for a young boy to show interest in vehicles, but one unique thing about my brother was that he was only interested in buses and no other kinds of vehicles. Right adjacent to the community of half-dilapidated apartments we lived

When I was little, in one corner of the shopping arcade at the heart of my hometown, there was a small satellite store of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. At the time, my family was living on a tight budget, and even though we physically lived close to the store, we rarely went there. In fact, I

The summer when I was seven, I took an official assessment exam at my local music school for the first time. It consisted of several different tasks, and one of them was to read a given short music score and sing it out loud. When I went to the exam room, I was welcomed by