停車場の少女
by Kidō Okamoto
A woman insists on a true and eerie encounter at a train station.
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Sample: three-line reading
Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.
About the book
A married woman recounts a strange event she says she witnessed at a train station, insisting at the outset that it is no fabrication. The text opens as her firsthand narration of her younger days, and reads like a story told aloud by an older narrator.
Cultural notes (selection)
Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.
The Russo-Japanese War ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth in September 1905. The story takes place shortly afterwards. Since, as mentioned below, the elder brother was wounded at the Battle of Mukden and had already gone to Yugawara to recuperate in February, this must be around 1906, in the final years of the Meiji period.
The Battle of Mukden was the last major land battle of the Russo-Japanese War (March 1905), in which the Japanese army captured Shengjing (today's Shenyang, called 奉天 by the Japanese). Casualties were extremely heavy at the time, and it was a common experience for wounded soldiers to be sent from field hospitals back to the home islands.
Yugawara, in Kanagawa Prefecture, is a famous hot-spring resort; in the Meiji period it was a favoured place for recuperation and rest, along with nearby Atami. “転地” means leaving the city to recover in a different place, a popular health practice of the time.
About the author
Kidō Okamoto (October 15, 1872 – March 1, 1939) was a Japanese author and playwright whose real name was Keiji Okamoto; he was born in the Shiba Takanawa district of Minato Ward, Tokyo. His best known work is the shin kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki.
How the glosses are made
Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.
FAQ
Is this the original text?
Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 青空文库.
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What level is it?
This one is marked “Intermediate”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.
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English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.