New York, Tokyo & London: Kodansha International, (2003). First edition - A novel originally published in Japan in 1997. From the back cover: "Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife. It isn't long before Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain the horrible suspicion that his new client may in fact be the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. . . Kenji's intimate knowledge of Tokyo's sex industry, his thoughtful observations and wisecracks about the emptiness and hypocrisy of contemporary Japan, and his insights into the shockingly widespread phenomena of 'compensated dating' and 'selling it' among Japanese schoolgirls, give us plenty to think about.…
New York, Tokyo & London: Kodansha International, (2003). First edition - A novel originally published in Japan in 1997. From the back cover: "Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife. It isn't long before Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain the horrible suspicion that his new client may in fact be the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. . . Kenji's intimate knowledge of Tokyo's sex industry, his thoughtful observations and wisecracks about the emptiness and hypocrisy of contemporary Japan, and his insights into the shockingly widespread phenomena of 'compensated dating' and 'selling it' among Japanese schoolgirls, give us plenty to think about. Kenji is a likable, if far from innocent, guide to the inferno of violence and evil into which he unwillingly descends - and from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend can save him." Translated from the Japanese by Ralph McCarthy. 180 pp.