Tokyo Junkie

60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys... and Baseball

By: Robert Whiting

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.

Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.

A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, “the greatest city in the world”, Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.

©2021 Robert Whiting (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media

Great Narrator

This is a very entertaining book. I've visited Tokyo and roamed the streets. I'm no expert and don't speak the language. This Narrator is great. Whole he may not pronounce words correctly, he makes up for it with his tone and style. I believe he narrated another book called Dancing bears, which is equally entertaining. It's funny how those who are familiar with Japanese culture and the language would complain about a great Narrator who mispronounced a couple words. We would expect as much. I give the story and narrator 5 stars!

Nostalgia

Listening to the Tokyo Junkie by Robert Whiting made me feel nostalgic. My husband lived in Japan for over a decade and I lived in Japan for a couple of years. My husband finished level I JLPT early on and was quite fluent in Japanese and so when I went to Japan, life was beautiful and I probably had least language hiccups. I started learning Japanese language within a couple of months of going there and finished my level V JLPT and then we moved out due to work.

While in Japan, I made a few good Japanese friends and got opportunities to enjoy Japanese Tea Ceremony. Learning the Japanese culture felt so joyous and exciting and life was always colorful, interesting and busy. We truly enjoyed our life in Japan. We went out very often, almost everyday, for a coffee and/or a small dessert. We also went out often for luncheons/dinners as the food always tasted delicious in Japan (we are now health & wellness oriented, we choose healthier food and eating habits, off of caffeine & sugars & fried foods altogether in all forms, compared to past, eat less outside, and now travel less often specially since pandemic). We traveled every 2-3 months visiting places in Japan. Surprisingly, looking back, the food choices outside weren't anywhere near healthy, though we ate more fruits & vegetables at home (interestingly, most fresh produce in Japan felt expensive, at least while we lived there). I am glad that the portion sizes were small and also that we had a very active lifestyle keeping us healthy and in shape.

I second Robert Whiting with regards to Tokyo cleanliness, honesty and integrity of people, organizing skills, hardworking nature, etc. I have had the opportunity to witness quite a few those impressive characteristics while we lived in Japan.
We have never seen another city till date as clean and tidy as Tokyo. Tokyo was also so safe that we walked after the movie dates on Fridays and/or weekends from Kawasaki to Kosugi (roughly about 8 km/5 mi) in the late nights, which were so wonderful and enjoyable. I miss the fun life and ease of just taking trains and visiting places. I miss visiting Japanese gardens and Shrines. Japanese gardens are very beautiful, picturesque and serene. Shrines are peaceful. And, as Robert says, it is just interesting how places like Shibuya or Shinjuku are so crowded and yet so organized. Despite such huge crowds, I have never once experienced accidentally bumping into another person irrespective of the crowd. However, it was worth staying cautious taking trains and being aware of other train passengers on Friday nights as few people would end up drinking too much and would just throw up in trains or train stations. Definitely, not so glorious a thing.

Until I started listening to this audio book, thought I understood well about Japan and Japanese culture from living in Tokyo. However, I must admit that I gained insights from this book into some of the stuff I didn't even know before listening to this book, either about Japan or Japanese culture. It also feels good to know about recent changes and updates in this decade in Tokyo. We always wanted to visit Tokyo in future and I am inspired to do so sooner than later listening to this book. Overall, it is a good audio book for someone who is curious about Japan, is going to live there or has lived there. Glad to have come across this audio book and having listened to it. Hopefully I will read/listen more books by Robert Whiting in the future. Also, good narration by Stefan Rudnicki, some of his Japanese pronunciations were spot on. :)

Delightful book with great narration

Part historical account of Tokyo rebirth and growth, part autoradiography, part social commentary. even when the book discussed topics i am familiar with i was still engaged and interested what the author has to say

Great Content

It was a great recollection of a life lived in Japan. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the country.

Nice walk down memory lane!

Note: Almost every Japanese word was pronounced incorrectly and takes away from the overall story telling.

I arrived in Tokyo in March of 1990 and am still here today. I left for a few years and lived in Europe for a few years and could only think about going back to Tokyo. I am American and also did a brief stint in the US in 2000. I came back to Tokyo in 2001 and never looked back.
I never experienced the Happy Valley days but certainly heard about them from long timers but know the bubble time and can resonate with many of the places and types of places that Robert talks about. Kabukicho, Roppongi, Ueno, Ginza, Yurakucho and so on. I also went to Maggies Revenge (a name that brought back many memories when I read it), Julianas and many many local yakitori places that I went that are no longer there. There were also many nights that I was at Nicolas Pizza place after a night of drinking in Roppongi and I met the man several times myself but did not know any of his history. I have also had my share of interactions with the yakuza but nowhere near the scale that Robert talks about but do understand the emotions.

Things have changed so much and so many of the old places are gone but Tokyo still endures and endears to those who can even unearth a few of this magnificent cities secrets. There is always be secrets to unearth in Tokyo. I will be here for the rest of my life.

Lovely book with lots of great memories for me.
(Please redo with someone who knows how to pronounce Japanese words.)

Now I must visit Tokyo

Excellent book all around. Please release some more of Mr. Whitings book on your site!!

Insightful!

The story is candid and interesting. But should hire a narrator who are familiar with Japanese language.

It is a shame the narrator’s pronunciation is so bad

The odd Japanese pronunciations are the only weakness in this excellent book. A wonderful look into the last fifty years of Tokyo.

One of the best books I have ever read

Mr Whiting wrote an incredible book, I loved it. Definitely one of my favourites. The narrator was fantastic. I wish his other books were available as they seem to be excluded and only available in the USA.

Never a dull moment!

An excellent and engaging memoir that traces the people, places, and politics of Tokyo over the course of over half a century. Narration was excellent, handling the dialects of various persons with aplomb; my only complaint would be the frequent mispronunciation of Japanese words and place names (none, thankfully too egregious---it's likely only to bother native speakers and pedantic students of the Japanese language).