4. Pachinko Palace (4)

Ryu looked up from his conversation. “Miura,” he muttered under his breath. Miura fought his way toward our table. It was clear he was terribly drunk. He swayed over the table and glared down at the proprietor, then shook his head and gave a dismissive snort. The club owner rose quickly,...

4. Pachinko Palace (3)

It was a dance, a tango over ice in a midnight-blue sea. In this, as in many things, Ryu was an artist, his satisfaction apparent in the performance of the act. Ryu used various methods to take his partners to the very brink of annihilation and drown them in sweltering salvation. “Ryu,...

4. Pachinko Palace (2)

My new teacher, my sensei, watched me dance—ballet, butoh, modern jazz. It was exhilarating. I did my best. He said, “You have a talent I have not seen for a very long time.” Then he bowed. “I have a part in my new ballet. You will dance for me?” he asked gently. “I would be so honored,”...

4. The Pachinko Palace

Ryu’s Tokyo was exciting. It was Shibuya[1] with its game rooms, pachinko parlors, love hotels and its boys and girls with torn clothes and bleached hair. His Tokyo was Shinjuku with its high-end western restaurants, Roppongi’s smoking jazz clubs and Ikebukuro with its sleazy hostess...

3. Ashes to Ashes (2)

He held the front door for me and we stepped from the sidewalk into the cool, marble lobby. We took the elevator to the third floor. The chauffeur brought up my bags. The walls on the third floor were covered in ash-colored silk. At #3 Homat Higashi, Ryu pulled out a platinum key ring...

3. Ashes to Ashes

Narita Airport is located around 66 clicks east of Tokyo. To get to the city you have to race through a quasi-industrial wasteland blighted with giant apartment blocks composed of thousands of cramped little dwellings occupied by Tokyo workers and their families. Laundry draped like...