CONTENTS

Prologue

Part I
Unusual Events and the Limiting Fault

ONE: Cowboys and yakuza

TWO: From paperwork to fieldwork

THREE: The North Pole of Japan

FOUR: Meet Michiel Brandt

FIVE: When you want rice cakes, go to the rice cake maker

SIX: Occupational hazards

SEVEN: Pachinko wonderland

EIGHT: Pachinko 101

NINE: The world according to Mr Lee

TEN: Scarecrows

ELEVEN: Hanekaeri

Part II
The Meltdown

TWELVE: The envelope

THIRTEEN: How to make a percutaneous ethanol injection cocktail

FOURTEEN: Yakuza to the rescue

FIFTEEN: The dark empire

SIXTEEN: Who goes there?

Part III
Reconstruction

SEVENTEEN: Murder is expensive

EIGHTEEN: The yakuza Olympics: publish or perish

NINETEEN: The yakuza Olympics redux: paying respects

TWENTY: A new life in a ghost town

TWENTY-ONE: Shukumei and the meaning of March 28

Epilogue

Acknowledgements