Chapter 2 Part 3 | Contents | Chapter 3 Part 2 “—Yes, yes, please. Thank you so much!” I’m Kajiwara Akihito, 25 years old. My occupation? Being an actor. I excitedly hung up from the phone call with my manager. That phone call was regarding a new gig. “Since your family lives in Kyoto, this job should fit you perfectly, Akihito-san.” It’s a travel program, and is like the Kyoto version of...
Full Text [Note about title: Spanish for “The Ladies-in-waiting”, Las Meninas is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, and is one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting for its complex and enigmatic composition that raises questions about reality and illusion.] Chapter 1 Part 9 | Contents | Chapter 2 Part 2 Autumn embraced the city of Kyoto. The temperature was pleasant, and red...
Full Text Prologue | Contents | Chapter 1 Part 2 As the seething heat died down, signalling the end of the summer holidays, the new school semester started. Even so, the students were still unable to shake off the lackadaisical feeling of vacation. For the second year students in high school, many of them seemed to have gone all out in their vacation, for I noticed a significant number of...
Full Text Chapter 4 Part 6 | Contents | Chapter 5 Part 2 As I walked through the city, a light rhythm, “♪ konchikichin, konchikichin ♪” flowed by. It seemed that the ohayashi of the Gion Festival were raising the excitement for the upcoming festival. By the way, “konchikichin” is the sound produced by the ohayashi that is a representative onomatopoeia of the Gion Festival, my ears did not...
Full Text Chapter 3 Part 4 | Contents | Chapter 4 Part 2 This was the season in which the leaves were developing a deeper shade of green. “If it’s alright with you, could we go together?” Holmes-san had asked when I mentioned that I would be going to Mt.Kurama. Whenever I remember the gentle smile he wore back then, I would get a tingling sensation. It was a Friday evening in the first few days...
Full Text Chapter 2 Part 9 | Contents | Chapter 3 Part 2 {Note about chapter name: Hyakumanben is another name for Chionji Temple in Sakyō ward, a temple associated with the priests Ennin (794-864) and Honen (1133-1212) and is a Jodo-shu sect (A branch of Pure Land Buddhism) temple of Japanese Buddhism. The name Hyakumanben (“One Million Times”) comes from a period of pestilence and...
Full Text Chapter 1 Part 4 | Contents | Chapter 2 Part 2 —It was in the middle of April. The Saiō representative had just been announced, and the streets of Kyoto were in a sudden fit of energy. “Hey, hey, did y’all see the news about this year’s Saiō representative? I hear the lady’s studying in a women’s university and is from a family who owns a long-established dry-goods store! It’s...
(Note about chapter name: This is a variation of a poem by Saigyō Hōshi, a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. The poem reads: Let me die in spring under the blossoming trees, let it be around that full moon of Kisaragi month.) Full Text Prologue | Contents | Chapter 1 Part 2 “Aoi-san, would you like to work here?” That question came from a strange youth in an...
Preface Contents Next Chapter There is no single viewpoint of the world. I, Itsuki Koizumi, certainly know that having a subjective viewpoint is a vague, unreliable notion. Let’s say, for instance, that I want to look up at the night sky. We can only hope that the celestial bodies that seem to be floating amiably next to each other, on the false spherical surface of the sky, remain coldly...
Seven wonders overtime – Part 1 Contents Next Chapter Today, a tense atmosphere was floating in the Literary Club Room, which was a rare occurrence. The only sounds seeping through the closed window from the outside world were the shouts of the baseball team, whose bark was worse than their bite; the noise of the wind ensemble’s trombone practice, which betrayed the players’ sore lack of...
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