Michiko, 25, is invited to a class reunion and slightly nervous. However, her former class mate Hiroshi is immediatly taken with her and Michiko looks up into the night sky to make a wish… Written for the NPO Tagengo Tadoku by Ōtsuka Emi and Kawamoto Kazuko.
This is a romance story with slice-of-life and coming-of-age elements. As the first page featured Christmas decorations, I waited to read this story until the holidays last year, but it is not a Christmas story at all!
Over a period of more than one year, we accompany Michiko in her life and her love struggles. Although she is happy to date Hiroshi at the beginning, he is not always good to her and she has to find her own path to happiness eventually.
For a level 5 book intended for JLPT N2 reading abilities, I almost found this story too easy. The sentences are only a bit longer and the biggest change I believe is that they omitted furigana on the simpler kanji. As more complicated kanji still have them I actually found the story very comfortable to read. Some of the dialog at the beginning felt a bit too much like textbook dialog, but as the story progresses that definitely improves and the development of the story was intriguing to follow.
Read Michiko’s story here for free: https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/6238/#bd-look-inside
Length: 50 pages
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