February 15
I visited a temple that I know through a friend to see bantam chickens there. The bantams are unusual chickens and are protected species. They have fluffy white feathers spotted with black dots. We fed them rice and let them sit in our laps. A mother bantam was sitting on eggs in the chicken coop to warm them. I'll be sure to come again when the chicks are born.

July 31
I went with my family to the Yadagawa river to catch catfish. I lifted a net up through the water where it was splashing, and a big catfish was in the net. I was surprised at how big it was. The long whiskers were cute.

We have a lot of festivals in the summer. The festivals take place here and there. In our city of Ushiku, we hold the Water Goblin Festival on the last Saturday of July. The water goblin is a mythological being that has a shell over its back and a water basin on its head [to allow for moving around on land]. Water goblins are good swimmers, and we have the water goblin festival in Ushiku because people believed that they live here. True to the name of the festival, people dress up like water goblins and dance. My friends and I participated in the dancing. We can have a lot more fun by dancing together and getting hot than by just watching. I sweated a lot and had a great time.

This was truly a black world. They call it the Crow Castle, because the outside is black. It has farm fields and rice paddies, and cranes live there. It also has a garden with a pond filled with sand to look like water. The dark path upsets this beautiful garden. We're getting close to Okayama Castle. We go inside Crow Castle, and things in there are different from in our house. It has a long staircase. I breathe hard as I climb to the top. The sun is shining up there, so things feel brighter than before. The castle is narrower at the top than down below, but it doesn't have many things up there, so it feels spacious. Looking down, we see Okayama Castle and the city. Near the castle are old houses that remind us of the Middle Ages. Further out are modern houses. It's a mix of old and new. I was amazed at how big Okayama is. I wonder if the castle lord looked out at the scenery every day?

August 7
We went to see the Masks of the World Exhibition at the Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum. I was amazed at all the different masks. My favorite was a naga raksha cobra mask from Sri Lanka. I liked it because it is smiling and cute, even though it has on it a lot of cobras that have deadly poison. They had a place where we could try on masks, and I put on an Okinawan angama mask. It was a smiling mask, and I thought it was cute. So I was surprised when everyone said that it looked devious and scary. It had a strong smell of wood.

Saturday, October 2
We did folk dancing for sports day at our school. We all drew design ideas for the fish banner, and everyone chose my drawing of a lobster. So I was the leader, and we all worked on the banner. When we finished, it was more impressive than all the other classes' banners. We danced while waving the banner and clacking clappers. All the third graders and fourth graders danced, and our mothers said that it was exciting to watch.

Passing by shops on
A New Year's stroll to the shrine
In Asakusa

On the winter solstice, my grandfather, my father, and I got in a bit hot bath scented with citron. The citron in the water is good for cracked and chapped skin. Ah, the citron smells good.

June 7
Today was the first day of our school trip, and we went to Kegon-no-Taki Waterfall in Nikko. The water comes falling down over a 100-meter cliff. Just watching it made me shiver.

Today, our family went walking in the forest on the Omurasaki Nature Trail. A big dragonfly flew by, and my father caught it for me in a net on a pole. The dragonfly's eyes were green and pretty.

Becoming an Olympic flame-bearer in Kobe, the city that suffered a severe earthquake
Wednesday, 14 January, 1998.
My heart ran much faster than my legs. I'm 10 years old. I ran toward Nagano, holding the sacred torch tightly in my hand. Now, everyone throughout the world is watching me! My mother was smiling brightly as she ran after me as an escort runner. This experience gave me great pride and courage. I am now halfway to my coming-of-age ceremony (held when people turn 20), so I think today is a good day for me to make a fresh start on life.

March 19 (Sunday) Kiyomori Festival
I entered a drawing contest at Miyajima. While I was painting a picture of the five-storied pagoda, there was suddenly excitement in the air. My mother said, "The procession of Kiyomori Festival has started." I saw costumes of 800 years ago and they were very beautiful. I shook hands with a woman wearing Jyuni-hitoe (twelve-layered ceremonial costume worn by women of the court during the Heian period). Hooray!