The 24 stories here include a couple -LRB- '' A ` Poor Aunt ' Story '' and '' New York Mining Disaster '' -RRB- that were , the author says , among his very first attempts at the short form , and five he wrote only a year ago , which were published in Japan as an independent volume , '' Strange Tales From Tokyo , '' and which remain together at the end of '' Blind Willow , Sleeping Woman . ''