Escape from Amsterdam

Aozora - idle university student, future crooked bureaucrat, fresh broken heart - has been playing too much mah-jong and now he's deep in debt. When Auntie Okane dies and leaves him and his sister Mai a priceless inheritance, he thinks his problems are solved. But they're only just beginning. Mai's disappeared and he can't get the cash without her. So begins a fast-paced adventure that takes Aozora to the deep south of Japan and the surreal environs of a Dutch theme park called Amsterdam. It sounds like a holiday, but Aozora is about to enter the real world...Featuring yakuza gangsters, motorcycle gangs, a phoney princess, a genuine rice farmer, tetrapods, topiary dinosaurs, pre-digested coffee, high-tech love dolls, Aozora's own photographs and a selection of Japanese manga, "Escape from Amsterdam" is playful, offbeat, and funny. It paints an unsettling portrait of contemporary Japan and introduces a strikingly original and inventive writer.