The Story Archive

A Perfect Day to Be Alone

Nanae Aoyama · 2006 CE · Short Story · Japanese · Contemporary

Chizu, a twenty-year-old, goes to live for a year with a distant elderly relative in a house beside a Tokyo railway line. Through the seasons the two women's unspoken companionship teaches her more than she expects. It won the Akutagawa Prize and first reached English in 2024.

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