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A summer festival, ten goldfish stalls, and one legendary challenger

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Illustration supplied by the author for 風のチカラ (Kaze no Chikara). Ten goldfish-scooping stalls. One summer festival. One legendary challenger. In 風のチカラ (Kaze no Chikara), a story in Eikyo Matsunaga’s Japanese short-story collection 一応、文学です。 , a federation of goldfish-stall owners finally wins a place at a major summer festival. Their dream is a whole “goldfish-scooping road”: ten stalls lined up along ten metres. Then a telephone call changes the mood. A man wearing a goldfish-patterned happi coat has returned—a legendary scooper who can empty a stall’s tank. The federation’s chairman, Uozumi Danjuro, fears that their long-awaited celebration is about to become a confrontation. The appeal is the scale of their seriousness. A small festival pastime becomes a matter of pride and preparation. What will the stall owners do when their greatest challenger arrives? The final technique and the outcome remain for readers to discover. The story and its festival are fictional. About the book 風のチカ...

A laundromat inspires a restaurant where the customers cook

A broken washing machine sends a restaurant owner to a laundromat. While the laundry turns, he notices something that his own business cannot manage: the place keeps running without anyone working there. His restaurant has just lost its cook. What if he borrowed the laundromat’s idea? Dinner becomes something you make yourself In セル・ス?サービス , Morimoto rebuilds his restaurant into a space filled with kitchens and seating, closer to a cooking classroom than a conventional dining room. There are no staff waiting to take an order. The customers prepare their own meals. That is the premise. The story takes it seriously enough to follow the owner’s preparations and the customers who arrive. Among them is a married couple whose arguments are already familiar to their neighbors. I will leave what happens during their visit for the story itself. A story inside a Japanese collection I’m Eikyo Matsunaga (松長英京). This story is included in my short-story collection 『一応、文学です。』 . Across the colle...

What if your doctor prescribed rice instead of medicine?

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A doctor prescribes rice instead of medicine. Somewhere inside it is a single golden grain. That is the opening idea of one story in 『一応、文学です。』 , my Japanese short-story collection. In another, a restaurant loses its cook, and the customers have to prepare their own meals. I’m Eikyo Matsunaga(松長英京) . I write short fiction about absurd ideas and the people who take them seriously. Watch the English trailer Watch the 26-second trailer on YouTube . It has English narration and on-screen text. Explore the book Read the Japanese introduction and opening excerpt . The original Japanese edition and the linked opening excerpt are in Japanese. The collection is now also available in English as Literature, More or Less . The English trailer introduces the rice-clinic story. Find the English edition on Amazon Official author website