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Sign up todayTokyo Junkie
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Learn moreTokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic sixty-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.
Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first bestselling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.
A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, “the greatest city in the world,” Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.
Robert Whiting is a journalist who has lived in Tokyo for more than half a century. His other works include You Gotta Have Wa and Tokyo Underworld.
Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards, as well as more than twenty-five Earphones Awards, and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices.
Reviews
“Robert Whiting is a marvel. His rich experience, his nose for great stories, his wit, and good sense make Tokyo, past and present, sparkle with life.”
“This is a delightful book, a wry, vivid, and illuminating account of a country, a culture, and a keenly observant character through five dramatic decades.”
“You will not find a more entertaining memoir and guidebook to the darker side of the rising sun, and to a life well-lived, than Tokyo Junkie. It’s as addictive as life in the city (citadel) itself.”
“A raucous, funny, and always fascinating love letter to one of the most dynamic cities in the world. A pleasure to read from start to finish.”
“Few writers could deliver firsthand insights into six decades of wild, wonderful, bizarre, and sinister aspects of Japanese culture—let alone with Robert Whiting’s level of style and knowledge. From professional baseball to politics and the underworld, Whiting takes the reader on his life journey through a remarkable world.”
“A wonderful tapestry of friendships, interviews, and chance encounters with corporate barons, barmaids, ball players, and the occasional mob boss. Through it all, Whiting’s unassuming demeanor, natural curiosity, and droll sense of humor leave the reader wondering who else he’s met.”
“A delightful memoir of the author’s five-decade love affair with a city that ‘hypnotized’ him and never let go.”
“With a patter that lands like readers have pulled up a barstool to hear a traveler’s yarns…Whiting’s love for his adopted city remains constant and contagious in this collage-style survey.”
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