THE PROFESSIONAL TOURIST

A novel offers a fish-out-of-water story about an American 20-something moving to Tokyo.

Az arrives in Tokyo in 2002 with no roots or direction. He has left Washington state behind with no attachments and sets off on an adventure to teach English in Japan. Not everything is unfamiliar—Starbucks cafes, 7-Elevens, and McDonald’s outlets dot the local malls. But most of the rest is strange—the tiny apartment, a lot of the cuisine and drinks, and the people who will become his students at his tutoring service. His fellow teachers are a mixed bag of people trying to pay rent. John, who teaches children, is overly cheerful and enthusiastic. Alan, an Australian, shuts himself in an empty room during breaks to read or draw. Back at his apartment, Az meets Hanna, a new neighbor and potential love interest, and gets to know her over an incident involving an underwear thief. He’s immediately drawn to her sarcastic, aggressive ways. At school, he meets a student called Takashi who is obsessed with American culture and a homeless man named Toshio Asano, who gives him a pamphlet called “In the Mind of the Professional Tourist.” Chinn’s plot takes some intriguing turns. Takashi gets Az and Hanna involved with a biker gang that eventually threatens their lives. Asano turns out to be a celebrated author and mentors Az. The different episodes are entertaining. But while readers watch Az go through these intriguing adventures, they don’t learn much about him other than that he was once a bully and that an adverse incident changed his mind. Readers don’t know what he really wants, so when he ends up doing something he likes—travel writing—there’s no real payoff. The author has a real talent for creating vivid scenes and descriptions, as when readers first see Asano’s hut in a homeless encampment. But Chinn can also fall in love with his own cleverness, as when he portrays the overly chatty John: “Awkward silences were mercilessly slain and their carcasses piled before him.”

A charming but scattered tale about an American teacher in Japan.