Aki Takahashi

CATEGOLY: Friend
DATE OF EVENT: March 5, 1983

Her name is Aki and she is the only one I still know from the childhood. We went the same kindergarten. Her mom and my mom are still friend too. After kindergarten we went different elementary schools. I only heard of her through my mom. Then we went the same junior high school unfortunately we weren't classmate. Sometimes I saw her at school and talked to her little bit. The last time I met her was in 1999 when I went back to Japan for one year. My junior high school friend got married so I went the wedding and the party and she was there too. I wonder how she is doing now. I wish she had a computer. (This is what I don't like about Japan. Many people don't have computers and there aren't many public Internet access even schools often don't provide an e-mail account for students, so like me who live far away from my country, e-mail is a wonderful way to keep in touch.)

For those of you who are not familiar with Japanese traditions, I will explain little bit about what is going on in this picture. How nice of me! First of all, you may wonder why Aki and me poses the same way. We call it peace (I don't know why) and when we take pictures, we almost always do that. Kids, adults, everybody, except babies and dead people. Now you may also wonder what the big red shelf and the dolls behind us. The dolls are called Hinaningyou. Very hard word for English speakers, huh? This fancy decoration is for the Children's day. If your family has girls, then you cerebrate them with the dolls on the Children's day, which I think on March 5th. Her family actually has a beautiful hinaningyou and not many families have as good hinaningyou decoration as her family has.