Diane Joplin’s JAL flig Narita at exactly ted time. 10.28AM. S tire flig, getting acquainted able Lonely Planet augmented reality information system on tokyo s Logan International Airport.

    t didn’t , relying as it did on visual markers on to function properly, but Diane  if so t entertainment system ster’s display to vieents of tabase. And s. Inside tic glasses iny piece of flasaining tire database on tokyo as ing system t overlaid ta over ec it worked.

    Diane found out t by sc to manual mode and pointing t a po of tokyo to magazines so pull up ta. ta and t  fine for ting next to ive interest.

    Satisfied a, sed t and performed a cyberspace searco on tem. Apparently, out of tless Kenzo Yamamoto’s t existed across tirety of te a feo tball player, tai-crazed teenager, tician. tter sparked erest but sed  t  a lo official in Okina over government policies.

    All translated on telligent agent broo grammar-perfect Englisos gleaned from online family trees, sports meeting results, university professor lists, convention speakers and some do a Kenzo Yamamoto ed 100-meter dasonis anding on end, goose bumps breaking out all over. Kenzo Yamamoto, suspected wakagasion slain in Shinjuku.

    Breatime cross-referencing to  t  terest. Diane ignored inued reading. Kenzo Yamamoto ion alted tatement of fact. It  conjecture but Diane kne meant. te, evasive in t uniquely Japanese o  been formally convicted of anyt tless references to  in information t, electronic fraud and corporate blackmail tricate neto paying fees or face embarrassing disruptions at sings.

    Kenzo Yamamoto’s front, tring of corporations stretcokyo Bay to to Plain. Yamamoto’s empire covered real estate, ual entertainment, including turing and promotion of idoru or virtual stars, KtVs, ney game so’s forte, it appeared, e and industrial blackmail on a global scale and tive information. timate businesses also acted as fronts for t of ry and t. Kenzo Yamamoto, speculated one particularly  conspicuously anonymous journalist, o Nobu takaer of Internal Affairs and Communication.

    Diane Joplin could not believe o oo. tely someto find out  o bring closure, to find out t  died in vain. Sed temptation to t ears tened to burst from  tears in   Yamamoto’s boss  official, ter takahashi.

    An alleged Yakuza oyabun ering pensions for Japan’s civil servants, national communications, tal service, information tec, statistics, local tax and local finance. It s rue, try pure and simple. And if to cer ion globally to sensitive information in all of Japan. truly in the chicken coop.

    As sinued to read, s everyted tookyo business area of So ts of yet anot ry of Internal Affairs and Communication, ters of to’s “er business” in Kabukic  eacinations seemed more foreboding t. So make a choice.

    Sels in t magazine and . incing, soercontinental el. Altels, it  a block aokyo Metropolitan Government Office building, and a s rict and t system did a good job of making a visit to tter by a foreign girl on ively ion. Diane Joplin s to tel, fresions.

    tokyo  of sno Narita. From t expanses of  tretc made ty come alive at nigures. It  feeling of arriving in a nery for t time ill taxiing to te, yet ened belt and belly. Diane leaned over and fis out for  communication for tire lengt. S about e up tment and  contained, t  o third.

    S of tely a text overlay informed  t terminal 8 of tokyo International Airport (Narita) and temperature igrade, exactly temperature indicated on t display system. Narita ed in tureless concrete spray-six kilometers from doookyo. to Sation ake just fifteen minutes by NEX Maglev, ta express train service.

    Sric stle ling across tarmac toook in everytrangely of fragranced disinfectant, to tates of travel fatigue exed by ted t next to tle but o be ignoring , ttle armac and melting on contact, ting feel of e bet son for, tory confirmation t sransitioned from to some totally neer in to t black tarmac.

    Sell s, not all of t. Siced t precision  maintenance staff  about tside, side by side s,  and performed tasks of removing baggage from terior of t.

    ttle  probably to reduce culture sors used to seeing fles, t so t, from t least, it looked like a ions of turning teering  ually controlling tic sing of gears absurd, as everyone kne nobody really used manual gearboxes anymore.

    Outside bands of snoo a standstill outside te. Diane stepped off ttle and folloo passport control.  oms officer looked  bordered on an invasion of her privacy.

    “aying at?” ing English.

    “Keio Plaza el, S particular piece of information.

    o enter some data on to  curned beat slotle. Moving nooion mac a request to open case. t of tor stared at te and Diane’s  stopped er arted cting to a female colleague.  pounding, Diane grabbed case from t and orains into tokyo. Sried  to look back.

    Fifteen minutes later sting across snooer of tokyo. Everyt neo ions in Japanese around ising t portended an altoget culture from , t y of tropolis t okyo. So lose s myriad neon-soaked sounds, in its sigs smells. So find s distinct culture,  of some kind of ultra modernity, one t  tangent from t of tside ting NEX Maglev, sted a gang of kids on motorcycles trying to matcrain for speed. t informed  teenage bike gangs and t many of to become fully-fledged Yakuza. t Diane t Kenzo Yamamoto and Minister takahashi.

    train ting te, flyovers, suspended expresss of neon. t a black slus ado te forest got a  kind of greic tV screens  eac toned but very persuasive Japanese. And just as a o vie notified  s Sation.