Audrey Hepburn's neck

It all began when his mother took him to see Roman Holiday on his ninth birthday... As they sat in the cold movie theater Toshi gave himself over to the magical being on screen. "Oh her neck... Isn't it lovely?" His mother's exclamations barely penetrated Toshi's mind: he was already floating away on a never-ending love affair with Audrey and the culture she so exquisitely personified.

Growing up in a tiny fishing village, Toshi spent troubled nights sleeping between his parents, rolling back and forth from his father, smelling of soy sauce and beer, to his mother, sweating green tea and miso. But he never understood the root of his mother's dark sadness, nor why, since the day she left them to live on her own, his father wouldn't talk about it.

For Toshi, now twenty-three and fresh from living above his father's noodle shop, Tokyo is a strange and exciting place. The busy metropolis overwhelms him and American influence is everywhere; establishments such as Let's California Beer Garden and Fly Sexy Snack Bar abound. An illustrator for the popular comic strip Chocolate Girl, Toshi enrolls in classes at the Very Romantic English Academy. His glamorous teacher, Jane, lures him into an obsessive sexual relationship that disturbs yet intrigues him.

But it takes a frightening incident played out under a blossoming cherry tree in Aoyama Cemetery to convince him that something's not entirely right with Jane...

Then there's Paul, the big, red-haired copywriter who becomes Toshi's best friend. With his palatial apartment and insatiable appetites, Paul seems to symbolize America itself - a land so expansive it spills over into the rest of the world. When he goes bar hopping in Tokyo's gay district, Toshi gladly accompanies him, lending a sympathetic ear to Paul's laments about being dumped by yet another Japanese boyfriend.

And Toshi, tentatively, begins to talk about Lucy, the enchanting composer with the beautiful neck. She seems to like Toshi, but maybe he's just misreading American signals - again.