Welcome to "Tokyo Tales," a new section of Trends in Japan featuring works of fiction by leading young Japanese novelists. The first tale, Three-Piece Story, will be serialized weekly from October to December 2007.
This is a story about mystery solving and cultural cross-pollination, as played out on a chessboard—or a shogi board or a xiangqi board. Three people, one from China, one from the United States, and one from Japan, come together in the borderless realm of the Internet and discover a common affinity as each, despite occasional clashes, takes an interest in the others’ worlds. Eventually they agree to meet face to face in a fourth country, where what was hidden is revealed, and the power of imagination blows away the feeling of being trapped in reality.
- Episode 1
- After asking for water only to have a gun pointed at him, why does the customer say thank you and leave?
- Episode 2
- What path should I follow in a world like this?
- Episode 3
- Why does the foreign visitor to Japan throw a 100-yen coin into the pond?
- Episode 4
- Has that foreign visitor ever seen a fish before?
- Episode 5
- When someone from the land of shogi and someone from the land of xiangqi meet on the chessboard, who wins?
- Episode 6
- What’s life like after college?
- Episode 7
- What’s the best country for three people of different nationalities to meet in?
- Episode 8
- How do you get to an imaginary island?
- Episode 9
- Why do visitors to Australia get their directions wrong?
- Episode 10
- Where did that story about the counterfeiter’s picture ending up on the bills come from?
- Episode 11
- Why was she staring at me?
- Episode 12
- Why do three people in three different cities get together to play chess?
Edited by Japan Echo Inc.