Lomography

I rarely share my childhood memories with others especially online, but this is a special case because I am addicted to Lomography and I thought it would be fun to share some of old photos of me being child. I was photographed by my family so often, and my grandpa left some treasures for me.

When I was born in 1983.

I guess people can talk about his/her childhood memories from many different perspectives. This time, I would be talking about my childhood memories through my family’s view, because I was way too young to hold a camera to shoot photos of myself. Here, I will be showing some photos of me being really young, like in nursery school or elementary school, and tell some background stories. (I prefer my photos during that time, I looked very nerdy when I was in middle school!)

Posing for the camera…

I was the first-born child, so obviously my parents and grandparents were so excited. They took a lot of photos of me, my mom said. I would probably do the same when I have my first child, I will be so excited and keep taking photos of him/her every single day.

Often my grandma and mom will tell me how cute I used to be, (LOL) when I was YOUNGER, and this time when I went back home to Japan, I scanned a bunch of photos of myself and saw how I really looked like.

Wow! I did look cute! LOL

I guess everyone does look cute when they were young… _ It is quite a different feeling when you look at yourself being young when you are older, because I still remember that I used to hate looking at photos of myself being young.

I guess I wanted to be older, become an adult, mature. As we all grow up, we sense how valuable those times of our youth are. That is what I feel right now, all the time you can spare, fooling around with friends, family, etc. Everything else is just a memory.

My neighborhood buddy and I were so into GameBoy.

All the memories just flash back when you see one photo.

I was really hyper and a troublemaker when I was young.

Eating…I still eat a lot.

Baby me with my grandma

Guess I was trained for this.

I occasionally tell my friends how my siblings and I were trained singing Karaoke since we were young. I want to give special thanks to my parents who did that.:)

My dad’s side grandpa, he’s a cool guy.

My mom’s side grandpa, he’s a lovely guy.

So, a bit about my grandpa.

He lived through World War II – when he was in his late teens and early twenties. He survived, came back home, and started his own business. He supported our family for a long time.

Since I took his last name (long story, maybe another time), I feel like I got all his abilities and characteristics. He used to be like me, who loves cameras and photography. My mom tells me that whenever she sees me staring at the camera shop showcase. I have a lot of good friends, just like he was so popular at work and many people admired him as he was also an instructor of Japanese Calligraphy. As he was an instructor of Japanese Calligraphy, I became a teacher in Canada. As I travel around the world (well, not too much), my grandpa used to travel around the world, Asia, Europe, the US, etc. I think, I got all my gifts from my grandpa.

I look back at these old photos and I think I did not like the time when my grandpa tried to teach me something, or do something for me, because I did not really realize what they all meant back then. But I now realize that he always did the best job for me.

Our neighborhood has quite a number of guests from overseas and my grandpa made me say ‘hi’ to them.:)

Well, back to the story of my childhood…

Maybe a couple more photos to show you..

My younger sister, younger brother, and me.

I guess we got along really well when we were young.:p

Well, we are still good.;) My sis and I lived together for about 7 years, she moved to Vancouver, and now I can say that was quite an experience, a positive one. My younger brother lives in Los Angeles now, I visited him this year, as I haven’t seen him for three years.

We appreciate each other since we live far away, so I guess that is a good sign, we are still tight.

Me posing for a portrait.

So, I like to wrap up my childhood memories with beautiful portraits of me being young! (LOL) Go home and dig into your albums, you’ll either love or hate it…kidding! Memories are like medicines, to think about your life again, you may find something else in your life. Enjoy life, enjoy the memories.