Ms Ice Sandwich, Meiko Kawakami

By Meiko Kawakami

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

To see the world from the eyes of a fourth grader. A young boy with an ice sandwich sales girl with blue eye shadow and eyes so big straight from a fairy tale. 

His friends names after smells of farts and like being called Tooti fruity or Doo Wop... it’s fun being a kid. The crazy adults loosing it or observing the slow talking way of the father of your friend, these were all the experiences as a growing up when you stayed in the scene like a wall flower. Imagining things from your own eyes of wonderment, only a child has. The wacky booth of your fortune telling mother, or your old mute grandmother, the video game crazy friend, or the friend with a collection of old Hollywood action films starring Al Pacino. Their response to school subjects, and class schedules, or the joy of art class. How he wants to paint a scenery, and she a gun fight. How as friends you have special greeting styles or words- Al Pacino as goodbye, or a game called ‘never more’ to hit someone on seeing a crow first. These are just part of your childhood experiences. 

Like when you are holding a cat and you touch its soft belly. Or dipping your finger in a jar of Jam and stirring, then slowly sinking in ask the rest of your fingers. Or licking the sweet condensed milk at the bottom of your bowl of strawberries. Or when a blanket brushes the top off your feet. Or when butter turns transparent when it melts over your pancakes. As I stand gazing at Ms Ice Sandwich, all of these things are happening to me, one on top if the other, right there in my rabbits 🐰 ear. 

Every time there’s some movement on the screen, a tiny buy of light flickers in the wet part of Tutty’s eyes. 

I’ve seen tons of movies with gun fights, and they’re all amazing, but I haven’t seen any with such awarding sound. And I like that they really give it all they got. 

You should just go and see someone when you can, right? 

Japanese words I learnt were the names of the furniture

Zabuton - Japanese cushion for seating 

Kotatsu - Japanese table 

Onigiri- Japanese rice bowl

Nori - Japanese wrap for rolls

And a book recommendation for tinder box with the story of princess and the dogs