During my early childhood, when my family used to live in a tiny half-dilapidated apartment, we depended on a small kerosine heater to provide warmth in the house during the winter season. In my hometown, the temperature hovered around 0 degree Celsius in the winter, and with the poor insulation of our apartment, it was […]
“Who is your favourite musician?” Whenever people ask me this question, after thinking for a moment, I answer “J. S. Bach.” My answer is always the same, but I hesitate because I sense that it’s probably outside of the range of answers they expect to hear. J. S. Bach is the world famous music composer
When I fell in love with J. S. Bach Read More »
When I was five, since I started going to the kindergarten, I caught a cold more frequently than before. Whenever I became sick, my mother would prepare a bedding for me and tell my little brother to stay in another room so that he didn’t contract the virus. Our house was a tiny apartment, and
When I was five, one day, my great aunt visited us in our tiny half-dilapidated apartment. Since she lived in Tokyo – 2 hours away from my hometown by the bullet train -, we couldn’t see her often, but she was one of my favourite relatives and I always looked forward to meeting her. She
Where are the gifts? Read More »
Throughout my childhood, my father used to read me bedside stories. When I was six, he started reading The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. In the Japanese translated version, the whole series consisted of six books, and it took us three years to complete the whole thing. Every night, I would
Playing Frodo and Sam Read More »
It was when I was a college student in Tokyo. One day, I had an appointment to meet my friend at a train station. My friend did not live in Tokyo, and she needed to change trains a few times to come to our meeting place. When I got to the station, I received a
When I was nineteen, I was living in Tokyo preparing for the university entrance exam. University entrance exams are a big thing in Japan, and especially in Tokyo, there are countless schools dedicated to help students with their exam studies. Students take lessons from morning until evening, and the school encourages them to study more
The person at a fast food restaurant Read More »
The year when I was four, I spent a long period (could have been a few weeks, or a month) at my maternal grandmother’s place when both my parents were busy taking care of my little brother while he went through his heart operation. In my grandmother’s house, there was a room with a Buddhist
A magical sal tree Read More »
In Japan, there is a major chain called 100-yen shop. You can think of it as the Japanese counterpart of a dollar store. It started becoming popular about the time when I entered primary school. The very first branch of 100-yen shop opened in my hometown when I was six. At the time, my family
I have a small scar on my chin that was made when I was four years old while I was playing in the playground with my friends. In Japan, there is a thing called a basket swing, which is a swing with two facing seats hung from a metal frame and is a very popular
