The Toyotomi Blades

3

While things that would directly affect my life were happening literally around the world, I was sitting in Los Angeles feeling fat, dumb, and happy.

Well, I guess fat isn’t totally accurate, although I do have that extra five to ten pounds that seem to attach themselves to your body around your fortieth birthday. Dumb isn’t totally accurate either, although I felt pretty dumb when I lost my computer programming job as part of what is euphemistically known as corporate downsizing. I felt dumb about devoting countless hours to a corporation that was willing to cut hundreds of employee jobs without cutting a single executive. But despite the weight and the lack of a job, happy was a totally accurate description.

I was sitting in the living room of my apartment in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles sharing good news with my girlfriend, Mariko Kosaka. I held up a letter that had been delivered by DHL, the next-day overseas courier service, and asked Mariko, “Do you want me to read it to you?”

“Of course, Ken. You dragged me down here just so you could read it, so don’t play coy with me now,” Mariko answered.

With a sheepish grin, I looked at the letter and started reading.

“Dear Mr. Tanaka. I am the foreign guest booking producer for the Japanese television program News Pop. News Pop is a blend of current news stories and live interviews, and it’s very popular in Japan. We noted with interest your participation in solving the murder of Mr. Matsuda, as reported in the Asahi Shim-bun newspaper. We feel this story would also be of interest to our viewers and we would like you to appear on our television show either next weekend or the weekend following. We realize this is short notice, but I’m sure you can appreciate that our program likes to present stories while they are still topical and in the public’s mind. If you can appear on either show, please contact me by fax or at the number listed on our letterhead. If you would like, please feel free to reverse the telephone charges. If you can appear on the program, we will pay your airfare to Japan and food and lodging expenses for a period of up to five days. You will stay at the luxurious Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and fly business class to Japan via ANA. I hope you will be able to accept our invitation, and I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest possible convenience. Yours truly, Buzz Sugimoto, Foreign Guest Booking Producer.”

I looked at Mariko. “Well, what do you think?”

“What kind of Japanese name is Buzz?”

I sighed. “I don’t care if his name is Alphonse. Weren’t you listening? They’re offering me a free trip to Japan and a chance to be on Japanese television.”

“I was listening quite carefully and I noticed the offer was only for you. It should have been for you and your incredibly glamorous actress girlfriend.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Damn right I’m jealous. It sounds like a fabulous invitation and I’m going to be envious of every glorious moment you’re going to have on this trip.”

“Why don’t you join me?”

Mariko held up her hand and rubbed her thumb and forefinger together. “I’m broke. You should know that’s a natural state for a struggling actress. Your trip is free, but mine would cost a fortune.”

“When I call them I could ask them if they’d pay for your trip, too.”

“Don’t be crazy. This is a great deal and you shouldn’t screw it up. Besides, I like the idea of you getting more recognition for solving Matsuda’s murder. It got just a small piece in the L.A. Times. I was glad the Rafu Shimpo and Tozai Times picked up the story, and even more gratified when the papers in Japan picked it up.”

After I solved the murder of a Japanese businessman in a Los Angeles hotel, Mariko was my biggest booster. Most of the press coverage I got was due to her efforts. She hunted down any press mention of the case and contacted the Los Angeles Japanese language newspapers, the Rafu Shimpo and Tozai Times, urging them to feature the story, which they did. From these stories, I was interviewed by Los Angeles-based reporters for several Japanese newspapers, including the Asahi Shimbun, which is Japan’s largest newspaper.

In the Asahi Shimbun, I got a full-page feature story that included a nice picture of me holding a Japanese samurai sword. The businessman was killed with a sword, and when the reporter and photographer showed up at my apartment for the interview, the photographer spotted a newly acquired samurai sword that I had hanging on my apartment wall. The photographer had me hold the sword as a prop. Neither Mariko nor I speak or read Japanese, but she hunted down a half-dozen copies of the newspaper with my picture in it at Los Angeles’ Kinokuniya Bookstore. I told her that if she put half the effort into promoting herself that she put into promoting my amateur crime solving, she’d be the best-known actress since Ingrid Bergman. Her response was “If it was only that easy.”

“What’s the harm if I ask them to pay for you to come along, too?” I asked.

“Ken, this is your fifteen minutes of fame, even if it does seem to be mostly in Japanese. Don’t blow it. Enjoy it. After I become an enormously successful actress, I can act snotty for the both of us. But for now, take the free trip and just know that I’m not only jealous as hell about this, I’m also enormously proud of you.”