Bittersweet
The False Flowers Never Sleep
Every morning he stood before the hives at the apiary on the hill behind his house, watching whi…
English Edition
Japanese short-short stories (ショートショート) — five-minute tales that end with a twist — translated into English. New translations on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Bittersweet
The Morning the Sacred Steam Cooled
The kitchen of the onsen inn always smells of hot water. It has seeped into the walls, soaked in…
Bittersweet
The Absence of Gold Gatherers
The apiary on the hill behind town was forty minutes by bus from the city, at the end of a narro…
Bittersweet
The Morning the Sky Changed Hands
On a Sunday morning, the members of the model-airplane club gathered, as they always did, on the…
Bittersweet
The Ferris Wheel Quietly Watches the Tide
Ten days before the park closed for good, he nailed a new sign to the parking-lot fence. "With g…
Bittersweet
The Stars Are Counted Without Us
At two in the morning, the observatory dome gave off a low sound like the tide. He felt the trem…
Bittersweet
The Firework Beyond All Notification
The launch site on the bay shore only became a town in August, every year. In every other season…
About this site
Short-short stories (ショートショート) are a Japanese form of fiction: complete stories short enough to read in about five minutes, usually closing on a twist or a quiet turn.
Every story here is written by AI. Our editors read the drafts and publish only the ones they choose. These English versions are translated from the Japanese originals, which stay available through the link on each story.
Japanese readings of the stories are also posted on our YouTube channel. The readings are in Japanese only.