Dearly love all the 10 stories in here as it was so delicately written with combination of themes that I favoured; from historical backdrop to magical realism setting, of lifestyle and culture, stories on friendship, love and an engrossing family bond narrative that giving me both surreal and a comfort aftermath.

I love how each story was tied in the same nuances having those nostalgic reminiscing of the past through the character's recollection of memories and personal musings (I love When My Wife Was A Shiitake-- this has won a literary award previously, The Harajuku House and The Last Obon stories the most for this). Descriptive and whimsically narrated with an unexpected twist or uncanny incident that somehow leaving me with a delightful surprise-- that plot twist for Things Remembered and Things Forgotten was so unforeseen but I love it the most along with the end twist for Kirara's Paper Plane and Childhood Friends.

The characters were my most fav part of this collection as I think the author managed to fascinate me with their life-like and bizarre behaviours adding such wit and wonder-- Kenta the ghost protagonist from Kirara's Paper Plane, the three sisters from both Global Positioning System and The Last Obon, even that scandalous sewing machine in The Lifestory of A Sewing Machine gets me enthralled. Few stories having a gripping perspective from an older character highlighting on grief and their forgetfulness-- quite riveting and bit heartwrenching too. An ambiguous narrative for A Special Day, The Harajuku House and The Pet Civet yet I still enjoyed these stories a lot because the absurdities were too tempting.

Giving 5 startling stars to this collection!