Nanae Aoyama’s novella A Perfect Day to Be Alone chronicles a year in the life of a young woman named Chizu who moves in with an elderly relative named Ginko after her mother accepts a teaching position in China.
Aoyama deftly captures the reality of a relationship between a flighty 20-year-old girl and a mature 71-year-old woman. There are no heart-to-heart talks or life lessons, just a lot of sitting around and chatting about nothing in particular.
Chizu breaks up with one boyfriend and starts a casual relationship with another, but this relationship goes nowhere. The same could be said of Chizu’s job at a kiosk at a suburban train station. Aside from a vague desire to save money, Chizu has no goals or ambitions.
Rather, the story is completely interstitial, a chapter between chapters of Chizu’s life. A Perfect Day to Be Alone brought me back into my own 20-year-old headspace with an immediacy that would be difficult to achieve through a story with more of a plot.
Nothing happens in A Perfect Day to Be Alone, but I enjoyed getting to know Chizu and Ginko, whose characters are sketched out and then defined with subtle touches. I appreciate the opportunity to spend time in their company, which is supremely chill and relaxing.
Contemporary Japanese Literature 
Hmm, really wasn’t a fan of this one, a little slight, and it never really went anywhere much… https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/a-perfect-day-to-be-alone-by-nanae-aoyama-review/
Thank you so much for the link to your review! I agree with your assessment that the writing in this novella occasionally feels like YA fiction, and your description of the characters as “bland” is perfect. I personally appreciated Aoyama’s commitment to making the story boring and directionless, as this felt much more true to life than the sort of “early adult” fiction authored by writers like Banana Yoshimoto. Certainly, though, this writing style will come off differently to different readers. I’d say this novella is a great example of a book that’s completely unobjectionable yet not for everyone.