About Maiko (BlogPet)

My name is Maiko. I'm a virtual female rabbit who comes from a Japanese web site "BlogPet."

If you click me, I speak Japanese word or phrases. I'm not selectively mute. Very occasionally I compose haiku, Japanese seventeen-syllable poem.

My name is derived from maiko, apprentice geisha in the kansai area, western Japan.

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I've heard that geisha is well known in the world. But according to Tomishi, most Japanese seldom see geisha.

One company placed an funny advertisement on BusinessWeek. On the ad a geisha on camelback in Fukuoka, western Japan, is illustrated . But Tomishi says no camels live in Japan, except for in zoo.

1st-3rd grade (4)

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Chapter 1 Before I Became Selectively Mute (6)

1st-3rd grade (4)

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[My Father]

My father was generous. Unlike my mother, he didn't scold me very much.

My father was busy working, so I didn't have enough time to spend with him. But he sometimes took my family for a ride in his car on Sunday. Although we visited many historical sights, I don't remember well where we went. It's a shame.


(The image above is a souvenir we bought at the industrial heritage of Ikuno Silver Mine, western Japan.)

My father worked with enthusiasm. But he gradually became ill and was hospitalized when I was the third grade.

[My Relatives]

In the Bon holidays, the Buddhist All Souls' Day, we visited my relatives' residences. My parents was born in the residences which are remote from Kansai region, where I was born. My relatives always showed me great kindness. And I became friendly with a girl and a boy who lived in the residence's neighborhood. I felt that all people who live in there was good person.

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[School Life]

In this way, three years had passed since I entered elementary school.

At the last day of the school term, two classmates left the school and transferred to another school. The one is the boss of the kids, and the other is my first love.

I had seen many classmates who left from the school. But I believed that it was not my problem even if my first love transferred.

(To be continued on the next chapter)

1st-3rd grade (3)

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Chapter 1 Before I Became Selectively Mute (6)

1st-3rd grade (3)

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This entry is about me and my parents (especially mother) when I was the 1st-3rd grade.

[My Parents]

My father and mother were an ordinary parents. Father went to work. Mother did household chores.

[My Mother]

My mother was an ordinary mother who often scolded her son and didn't buy what he wanted to. :-( According to her, she disciplined me a little severely because I was the eldest son.

My mother was nervous. On the other hand, I was extremely careless about so many things. So, I was often scolded by her with anger. I was rarely praised in my childhood.

To me, her scoldings were very painful. I realized how anger hurt a person's feelings. I became a mild boy who doesn't express anger.

I was deeply afraid of her scoldings, "You shouldn't do that !" I grew up to be an anxious boy who often worried about my behavior, though it was not clear whether her discipline affected my anxious or not.

And I grow up to be a man of low self-esteem. My mother now sometimes regrets her past scoldings and says, "I may have scolded Tomishi too much." But it is not also certain whether my low self-esteem is due to her scoldings or not.

(To be continued)

1st-3rd grade (2)

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Chapter 1 Before I Became Selectively Mute (6)

1st-3rd grade (2)

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[After-School Hours]

I can't clearly remember what I did after school.

I went to learn calligraphy and swimming. But I don't know what I did on the day when the lessons are not offered.

Children except for me seemed to play with their friends every day. But I had few such friends. Maybe I played outside on my own.

I may have studied or done nothing in particular at home. I didn't play TV games and read comics very much, because my mother didn't buy for me. I have some memories of watching TV.

[Don't Call Children's Names without Honorifics!]

We were not supposed to call children's names without honorifics because of the school rule. All children, even disobedient children, obeyed this rule meekly. So, some children bullied me and said, "Drop dead!, Mr. Tomishi!" How courteous name-calling it was!

Growing up in such circumstances, I believed that calling classmates' names without honorifics is an appalling act. But I realized that it's not a common practice when I moved to another region afterward.

[Photo of Making a V Sign]

This photo is from my album. It was taken when I went on an excursion. I was the third grade.

This photo indicates that I could make a V sign then. After a half year, I coudln't make a V sign because I suffered from selective mutism.

(To be continued)