Tokyo Drift

Helping some coworkers move an usual piece of gym equipment for some much-needed scrilla the other day. We make final adjustments, squaring the circle as we route the infuriatingly heavy device through the geometry of their Connecticut basement. Triumphant is a good word for the minutes that followed. Standing there, completely out of breath, every muscle screaming, I notice a small book on a shelf of primarily medical texts. Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein.

I had heard of this book. I played through Yakuza 3 on the PS3 almost entirely with my girlfriend. It's highly unusual for her to become absorbed in my game hours, but when the recognizable fanfare of the title screen would come on she would absentmindedly find herself in the room, appreciating the story, really jazzed about each plot point. She loved Mazima in particular, oddly. Whenever he would pop out she would cheer, and some later plot developments involving his assistance to Kaz incited joyful applause. Again, this is weird for her.

Anyway, the point is, I was browsing some info on the game online after completing it and stumbled onto this:

http://boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html

Some odd gaijin dude playing Yakuza 3 with actual Yakuza.

I'll admit, the first thing that jumped to mind reading this was it sounded like some bullshit (but entertaining) gonzo journalism stuff. Something to slide in next to Vice's Dos & Don'ts. The idea of it seemed insulting, but I thought the Yakuza actually provided some excellent, insightful yet meager commentary. Then I started to read about this book he wrote.

So this was like 6 months ago. Here the book is staring me in the face. I ask the couple to borrow it.

*nodding on nonfiction*
I don't read a lot of nonfiction. I don't have an excellent reason for that aside from this: I think fiction brings more truth to bear than non-fiction. I think One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pedro Paramo, and Osamu Dazai's best known work tell more truth about the world, its people and their authors than a biography or a thoroughly researched travel guide. Memoirs can be fascinating, history is of special interest to me, and academic essay-type shit can actually be engrossing if confidently/competently written.

Of late I've been absorbed into nonfiction for no good reason. I didn't feel like I've been hunting these books out, but almost everything I've recently ingested has been non-fiction(y). Aside from comics and whatnot, my shoulders have been bearing the weight of Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus, Herodotus' Histories, The Autobiography of a Cro-Magnon by John Joseph and now Tokyo Vice. The first was mindmelting and certainly entertaining in its way (my third attempt at reading it but I finished it this time), the second is, well, the foundation of writing I think, and the third is an assortment of some hellish & humorous war stories that is really dragging as Joseph encounters his developing Krishna faith.

Tokyo Vice was enthralling and exhausting.

The book is really all over the map, but in the very best way. There's something frantic to the whole tale, Adelstein's years as an outsider skillfully & clumsily (& luckily) mapping his path through the Japanese criminal underground, eventually emerging as an insider, as a real reporter, and beyond. The book is crafted around many, many years of this unusual man's life and the length of time bleeds on each page. I feel like he must have lost YEARS of time pursuing various scoops and leads to stories he doesn't even mention a whisper of. Maybe they weren't worth telling, or just aren't worth telling now?

He attempts to plant structure on this tale but the proposition seems absurd...I'm saying again this is over a DECADE of professional life condensed into 330 pages. David Simon & Ed Burns wrote their massive text The Corner on 2 years of life in a drug market, and it was a richly rewarding read. Adelstein, instead, fraught with what must be bloodily scarred elbows grated against some of Japan's most predatory scumfuck population (not really talking about the johns and marks so much...Adelstein even comments that their scramble for purchased sexual contact may be symptomatic of their sadly commonplace emotional isolation), takes an extremely broad brush to the canvas, at least until he spirals into human trafficking issues to what appear to be stupidly heroic yet somewhat substantial ends.

I hate a hero for the narrator of a memoir. Back to my original thoughts on fictions being true, I believe memoirs to be primarily fictional. Recreate the past to the best of your ability and take your falls when they look smooth. Or fall very fucking hard and appear profound and brave. Maybe even kiss the girl you dodged and beat the shit out of the guy who really pussied you out that night. Hide the largest and most emotional moments in snappy prose, while grandly expanding on the trivial. Make the story work, when most lives really don't function this way.

But Tokyo Vice isn't a memoir. And Adelstein IS a hero. This isn't a year in the life of a ballsy gaijin. This is THE life of an American-Japanese and HAS HE got some drinking stories for you (it's going to be a long night). Except it isn't even that. It's a secret modern history of Japanese vice, with a peculiarly fearless narrator.

I will say that parts of this story almost brought me to tears, flushed my face red, made me furious and angry and want to punch walls, had me biting a hole in my lip. Adelstein succeeds on almost all aspects of a compelling read. The writing works well, although I think many of the conversations are complete bullshit (a trick he often employs is to encounter a professional, who then eloquently dishes a mesmerizing cultural vignette), while other conversations seem scarily fucking real. I believe Adelstein FEELS when he feels, and becomes distant and disaffected when he doesn't, and constantly updates you on it. His often crushing honesty is hugely affecting to the reader. I don't know if this is common among those who've experienced the book, but I think he pushes the reader for trust in the same manner that he combats the uneasiness, hesitancy and distrust of the Japanese population surrounding him...and thoroughly succeeds on both counts.

I can't think of a single book this year that has educated and moved me in the way this one has, and I don't believe I will find it. After reading it I found Adelstein's internet home and will be checking up on it from now on. This is required reading for the 21st Century, so hop to it kids.

EDIT: my bad! for the occasional internet nomad who stumbles upon this post, here's Adelstein-san's website:

http://www.japansubculture.com/