“Luck is like a train schedule. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don’t.” Prologue The story begins aboard a speeding bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka, where multiple […]
Japanese literature
The Lake
“The lake was always there, silent and unchanging, reflecting everything yet revealing nothing.” Chapter 1: A Chance Encounter The novel opens with Chihiro, a young mural painter in […]
Japanese literature
Moshi Moshi
“The dead don’t go anywhere. They’re all here. Each moment is always overlapping with another.” Chapter 1: The Beginning of Grief Yoshie, a young woman in Tokyo, struggles […]
Japanese literature
Hardboiled & Hard Luck
“The night was deep, the stars were out, and I felt like the only person left in the world.” Hardboiled The first novella follows an unnamed woman who […]
Japanese literature
Lizard
“People are born with their own special destiny, and it’s not something you can change just because you want to.” Chapter 1: Newlywed The story opens with a […]
Japanese literature
NP
“People die all the time. Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and […]
Japanese literature
Asleep
“I was always asleep. Even when I was awake, I was asleep.” Night and Night’s Travelers The first story follows Shibami, a young woman grieving the death of […]
Japanese literature
Kitchen
“The place I like best in this world is the kitchen.” Chapter 1: Kitchen The novel opens with Mikage Sakurai, a young woman who has recently lost her […]
Japanese literature
Goodbye Tsugumi
“The sea in summer is always the same, but the people who come to see it change.” Chapter 1: Arrival in the Seaside Town The narrator, Maria, returns […]
Japanese literature
The Last Children of Tokyo
“Grandpa, what was it like when you were young?” “Back then, children grew up fast—too fast.” The Last Children of Tokyo is a dystopian novel set in a […]