Spring Garden (Japanese Novellas Book 2)

by Tomoka Shibasaki

Taro imagined himself standing on a cloud. This was something he did often.

The Dragon Woman’s oddly animated voice went sinking into the concrete underfoot, damp with moisture from the sticky air.

Avoiding bother was Taro’s governing principle.

Bother still seemed to find its way into his life, however.

Taro had heard the story that GPS was originally invented to help people find their way around Setagaya, though he doubted it.

The footage of him filmed from behind, as he quietly went about his work while everyone was asleep, had something immensely dignified about it.

Sometimes Taro wished that he had that kind of job. He wanted to do the sort of work that drew upon a rare skill developed through experience, and that required the passion of a real artisan—a profession that wasn’t much known about, but that was indispensable in sustaining people’s daily lives.