Tokyo a la Mode. Web Magazine for Japanese Fashion and Urban Culture

Tokyo Fragments

By Bobby /Aug 18, 2006
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Tokyo Fragments is a compilation of five short stories translated into English and published in 2004.

“What does Tokyo mean to you?  Businessmen in gray suits?  Teenagers in wacky street-fashion?  Schoolgirls in sailor costumes?  Or could life in this city of 35 million souls have a little more variety and depth than the stereotypes would have us believe?

Find the answers here in Tokyo Fragments, where five of Japan’s most popular contemporary writers of fiction present their vision of life in different quarters of Japan’s capital.

Experience Tokyo as you never have before: from the inside.”

Fruits of Shinjuku
Glue-sniffing and voyeuristic photography draw a couple of dropout students into a world of violence and exploitation in Tokyo’s most infamous red-light district.

By Ryuji Morita - he specializes in the dislocated and precarious lives of Tokyo outcasts, past and present.

Yumeko
The regulars at a bar in one of Tokyo’s dingy old neighborhoods find their world brightened by a stranger.  But is it a secret from her past that makes her so attractive?

By Tomomi Muramatsu - he is famous for his empathetic portrayal of old-fashioned Tokyo characters.  His greatest success was The Antique Dealer’s Wife, a 1982 novel.

One Year Later
A provincial girl single-mindedly pursues her A-list Tokyo Mr. Right.  Or is he just too good to be true?

By Mariko Hayashi - she is one of Japan’s most popular women writers.  She doubles up as a lifestyle guru and magazine columnist.

The Yellow Tent on the Roof
An accident drives a young salary-man into unusual makeshift accommodation where he rediscovers life’s simple pleasures.

By Makoto Shiina - he has done everything from writing award-winning science fiction novels to scripting and directing feature films.

The Housewife and the Police Box
The ubiquitous Tokyo police box is the backdrop for this whimsical tale of a neurotic mother, a headstrong child, a gender-bending neighbor and a stuffed toy.

By Chiya Fujino - a transsexual.  She won the Akutagawa prize, Japan’s most prestigious literary award, in 1999 and is noted for her ability to turn the mundane into the extraordinary.