Chapter 1 (1/2)

I’ve discovered an interesting short novel called “The Rainlands” (雨の国) by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥), and gotten the author’s per You can find the entire original japanese text for the story(on ), and the first chapter

It’s a fictional, fantasy/adventure tale (the genre is officially listed as “alternate universe fantasy”), and as it is a longer work I’ll be presenting it in a series of unnaish chapters, but I’ll be breaking these down into more bitesized pieces

If you enjoy this story and want to reada comment That will help me decide whether I should translate more of this, or move onto another story You can also vote for it on

For those who are interested, you can see a brief synopsis below The first chapter follows that

Synopsis

There were rumors of a place where the rains never ceased Half of the , torrential downpour, and the other half a drizzle, at best slightly overcast The sky was clear at most once or twice a month

How could people actually live in a place where it rained constantly? Was it some sort of divine protection, or si curiosity, I departed on a journey to the ion known as The Rainlands

What I would discover was nothing like what I expected-a culture at tin

“The Rainlands”by Haruka Asahi:Chapter 1

There, the rains never ceased Half of the , torrential downpour, and the other half a drizzle, at best slightly overcast A clear sky was seen, at most, once or twice a month

I heard there were people so curiosity, I decided to travel there

How could anyone actually survive in a place like that? The er it seee nestled in the mountains Compared to other areas, I'd say it rained pretty frequently, but even that was only once every two or three days If, by some freak act of nature the rain continued for several days, the mountainsides would surely crumble, and the crops wash away Rivers would flood, houses rot and collapse

In fact, once in a blueakin to that would happen in my hometohen the rains continued for nearly ten days and everyone had to escape to the high ground, leaving their possessions behind

Was it some sort of divine protection, or simply the raer of the human mind that enabled people to actually live in a place where it rained almost constantly? That is what I endeavored to know If due to hu back even a s wish paled in co curiosity

On the way there, traversing a road I'd heard of in a nearby city, sure enough, the sky began to darken by degrees A long range of , obscuring the sky with irregular shapes Occasionally, clouds spilled over fro the peaks

I was told that surrounded by thoseroad, lie The Rainlands

The existence of a road meant that people still used it Otherwise, it would have disappeared long ago

However, even for a seasoned traveller like myself, the as far from easy

Thanks toon the road that looked up to the towering ed mountain path

To begin with, a light drizzle clouded e, but at so the edge of a steep cliff formed from a stretch of bare, bleak rock

In a place with unending rain, wouldn't so earth of a landslide? This thought was in the back of un this journey, but now that I was actually here, the ansas obvious This land was y mountains without a trace of soil Any dirt had probably been washed away froo

The rocky path had turned slippery from many years of wind and rain, and aAt worst, you could find yourself suddenly plu into a ravine