ピアノ

Very atmospheric narration. Here are high quality free audio versions from the Aozora Roudoku project:

Natural reading speed: https://aozoraroudoku.jp/voice/rdp/rd021.html

Slower reading speed: https://aozoraroudoku.jp/voice/rdp/rd231.html

See the resources and discussion on the Aozora Advent 2024 (on Natively) or Aozora Advent 2025 (on Wanikani) for help learning the old kana usage. It's not as hard as it initially looks :)

Language Learning

This story uses old kana spellings and uncommon vocab/kanji, but it's very short. I listened to the readalong version on youtube which made it very approachable, I recommend this strategy!

Entertainment

I really enjoyed this story! Very atmospheric and evocative.

Somewhat mournful, somewhat ghostly and eerie. About a piano in the ruins following an the major Kanto earthquake in the 1920s. I really enjoyed this, short but impactful for bringing you right into the scene and the headspace of the narrator.

The vocabulary and the grammar in this piece is fairly straightforward, but there is both old kanji usage and old kana so I think if you're not used to those listening to this with a youtube 朗読 will help a lot.