A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (MacLehose Press)

Nanae Aoyama was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1983 and began writing career while working full-time as a travel agent. Her first novel, 窓の灯 (Mado no Akari) was published in 2005 and won the 42nd Bungei Prize. 

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is her first novel to be translated into English. It was originally published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha as ひとり日和 (Hitori Biyori) in 2007. The book won Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, the 136th Akutagawa Prize in 2007. It is the story of a young woman who is a freeter, a Japanese term used to describe someone between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four who is “unemployed, underemployed, or otherwise lacks full-time paid employment”. 

Chizu is a twenty-year old woman living with her mother in Saitama Prefecture who decides to move to Tokyo to make her way in life. Her parents got divorced when she was five. Her father had moved to Fukuoka two years ago and she hasn’t spoken to him since he left. Her mother was a teacher who taught at a private secondary school and was going to China as part of a teacher-exchange program. 

Although her mother invited Chizu to come with her to China, Chizu refused and said she was going to make a go of it in Tokyo. After exchanging a few words, her mother told her, “Well, if you aren’t coming with me, then I’m sorry, but you’ll have to earn your own keep. That, or go to university. There’s only so long I can keep supporting you”. 

Chizu told her mother, “Guess I’ll earn my own keep then” because she really didn’t want to return to being a student. Her mother relented but said she does know someone with a house in Tokyo that she might be able to live with. 

So, Chizu finds herself moving into the house of a distant relative. The only thing she knows is that the relative has let others stay with her before until they found places of their own. It was a rainy spring day when Chizu arrived at the house which is located near Sasazuka station on the Keio Line. 

The first thing Chizu noticed about the house were the walls of her room. They were lined with cat photos. That’s when she meets the owner of the house. A woman in her seventies. Chizu remembers when she first came to the house and saw her, she was thinking, “she looks like she’s barely got a week to live”. 

It wasn’t until the woman got Chizu settled in her room and showed her around the house that the two properly introduced themselves. The old lady’s name was Ginko Ogino. Chizu couldn’t help but ask about the pictures of the cats in her room - there were twenty-three of them. 

Ginko tells Chihiro that she calls the room with the cat photos, the “Cherokee” room. When Chizu asks why, Ginko tells her she calls all the cats Cherokee because she can never remember all their names. Chizu thinks perhaps Ginko is a little senile and has some reservations of her own, living with this woman she barely knows. 

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is a coming-of-age novel. It follows a year in the life of twenty-year-old Chizu Mita as she finds herself living with a seventy-year-old woman she barely knows. At first, Chizu comes off as cold-hearted, selfish, and entitled. She was very difficult to like. However, as the story progresses, we see her mature into a responsible adult. I’m sure many young people will relate to Chizu. She reminded me of when I was in my twenties and I thought I owned the world and knew everything, but as many people have said, “Live and learn!”. ~Ernie Hoyt