It’s not clear who took this picture - it was possibly Keisuke, but it could well be anyone. Emi is standing in the middle of a field in sunlight, stretching so that her hands are far above her head, which is tilted back. Her top has ridden up her midriff, but a lot of the detail of the shot is obscured by the sun behind her. It looks like a shot ( Read more... )

A family portrait, albeit not a professional one. Probably taken by Mrs Akita next door, Emi and Yuu sit on the sofa in their New Year best, Michiko between them, all three of them smiling.
The writing on the back is in amateur calligraphy. An effort has clearly been made to make it pretty and neat. “Sekiyama family - New Year’s Day!”
The sun was ( Read more... )

Emi and her pet pug, Pigpen, during what was clearly the falling of the cherry blossoms at a park. The little dog is licking her face happily, Emi cringing and laughing - the camera is slightly off-kilter.
On the back: ‘Me and Pigpen go on a cherry blossom viewing. Happy April!’.

Two-on-two street ball for girls’ PE, and in Ms Asari’s frantic ( Read more... )

This is an official picture, unlike the Poloroids and digicam printouts of before. It's of her receiving an award from the school principal in front of the year. It's from junior high school; her hair is significantly shorter, and her school skirt is far longer than it's kept these days ( Read more... )

Her, Keisuke, Kenji and Taro, arm in arm, bags at their feet, smiling wide and semi-fake at the camera. There's a large coach right behind them, and a crowd of students milling around in the background.
The writing on the back is scrawled by someone in a hurry. "Off on the class trip. Nagano!"
She didn't know how long she had been lying there. At ( Read more... )

Keisuke, holding a guitar and sitting cross legged on her bed strumming at it and clearly completely focussed on what he’s doing, hair in his face so that it can’t be seen by the camera and hunched over the instrument.
The back: ‘Concentrating so hard I can smell his hair burning.’

Three years old, the earliest she can remember. Mummy is out and ( Read more... )

Emi and Kenji standing in front of the blackboard, arm in arm and grinning at the camera, just a touch of smugness in both faces. On the blackboard above their heads is written in chalk, ‘Congratulations Kenji and Emi - new class representatives!’
The caption on the back reads, ‘Me and Kenji for the win~
The rain had begun light soon after the last ( Read more... )

This one is of Keisuke sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen with an acoustic guitar, obviously having just been tuning it, but now glaring down at the floor, where Emi’s dog is clearly howling.
The caption on the back: ‘Pigpen has great taste in music’

They pooled together all their money for this, neither one knowing how much it would cost and ( Read more... )

She’s kneeling in the entrance hall, the day’s mail in her lap; her grades and rank for the year are clearly visible. The grades are all in the eighties and nineties; her rank in the single digits. The smile on her face is as smug as it is happy.
On the back: ‘Third year of junior high - grades arrive early~’
The sun had chased the overhanging ( Read more... )

This one doesn’t have her in it. It’s a garden, small but beautifully kept and alive with colour - her school building can be seen in the background. Two girls stand in the middle, dirty hands holding trowels, smiling toothily. One is as rotund as the other is slim, but both have a friendly, open quality to their faces ( Read more... )