Story Photographs

When I was five, my mother used to take me and my little brother to the local public library once a week. It was a tiny old library located at 5 minutes drive away from our apartment, and we would borrow several picture books for our evening reading time. One day, we borrowed a picture […]

When I was in primary school, I became fond of cleaning activities. In Japan, school children used to take turns in cleaning different parts of the school after classes every day, and I discovered that my favourite was to clean the bathrooms. Bathroom cleaning was the least favourite of everybody else, but I found it

A chocolate cornet is a Japanese pastry which comes with a twisted bread and a chocolate cream filling. It used to be a shared favourite of my father and my little brother. There was a travelling bakery visiting our neighbourhood every Thursday when my family still lived in the tiny half-dilapidated apartment. It was the

It was when I was five years old. One day, my family were going to make a visit to my paternal grandmother’s place. Her place was about three hours train ride from our home, and I was excited to travel by the bullet train all the way to Tokyo with all my family. Since we

Throughout my young childhood, my father read me bedside stories whenever he was at home before my bedtime. Starting from Winnie the Pooh, we covered many of the world famous children’s literature such as The Little Prince, The Hobbit, Swallows and Amazons, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver and more. Our bedside story started

During the summer when I was five, I was visiting my maternal grandmother’s house with my mother and little brother. Since it was hot, one day, my mother gave us a permission to play in the bathtub. There was lukewarm water in the bathtub from the night before (in Japan, we often keep the hot

It was when I was three or four. One day, I was sitting in the playground with my friends with a bunch of older kids. Some of our mothers were also there casually watching over us. I was sitting across from a boy a few years older than me. He had been assigned the role

It was when I was eight or nine years old. One summer, my mother and I were visiting my grandmother’s house, and one day, we needed to buy something for the house urgently. My eldest cousin was at home and she offered us a ride to a shopping mall near the train station. It was

I grew up my entire childhood taking piano lessons and learning to play many classical music pieces. Both of my parents loved classical music, and the entire CD collection at home consisted almost solely of classical music, some piano pieces, some orchestra pieces, and some were pieces for other instruments. Whatever BGM we played at

In Japan, there is a national holiday in September called “Respect for the Aged Day,” when people express their gratitude for the elderly members of the society. For children, this is the day when they usually write a letter or do some special activities with their grandparents. When I was five, one day in September,