If I could give this book 2 1/2 stars I would, but I can't justify bumping it up to 3 stars. Jake Adelstein is a jewish kid from Jersey living in the Japanese world. He becomes a journalist there on various police beats, including Tokyo and lays out his ascent to this position and the various (what I assume) are his most engaging and interesting stories. Since he's on the police beat, there's plenty of sex and mobsters about.

The things I didn't like include his dry and concise writing style that felt completely devoid of any feeling. At times it feels like he attempts humor, somewhat unsuccessfully I might add. He also has this way of setting himself up as this bumpkin who can't do anything but than gets the scoop or finds the key source to save the day, like every time. This is endearing for the first 100 pps and than turns into a false modesty that made me want to say, Jesus Christ, You're a super smart great reporter- I get it, thanks.

The things I did thoroughly enjoy were the detailed explanations of many facets of Japanese culture. Jake is nothing if not precise in laying out the intricate social procedures. It is informative and interesting. A lot of things sound dated as he is reporting from the 1990s and eartly 2000s for the most part. One thing I hope is dated are the descriptions he gives for the general treatment of Japanese women by the Japanese men. For how similar and modern I think our society's might be, at times this was hard to read and made me feisty.