Читать книгу Tokyo Pink Guide - Steven Herman - Страница 6

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It's amazing just how many friends you make when word gets around that you are doing a book about the raunchier aspects of night life in Tokyo. Most newfound pals desperately asked to accompany me during the field research, others seriously begged for fortnightly debriefings. No one offered to help pick up the tab.

Along the way to handing in this manuscript were a few friends indeed. Many would rather not see their names published here for reasons that will become obvious as you peruse the chapters, but let me assure the reader that those inscribed here for posterity mostly engaged in assisting with the more mundane but nonetheless extremely valuable tasks of helping with translations, proofreading, and passing along valuable contacts.

Nadja Kelman spent hours on the phone tracking down leads as her Japanese is much superior to mine. Her polite and fluent Osaka-accented voice helped open many doors. Kim Aylward journeyed into some venues where the doors were closed to me to get the woman's perspective on the host bars. Ms. Ishimura, Ms. Yamazaki, Mr. Fujii, Mr. Fujita, and many other Japanese friends were always there when I needed them for advice and assistance. A debt of gratitude is due to colleague E. Vincent Sherry for understanding why I was a bit bleary-eyed during the times we were working together on more highbrow journalistic endeavors.

Thanks to a couple of broadcasting legends, the two Bruces, Mac Donnel and Dunning, who in large part are responsible for making it possible for me to remain in Japan. Fellow authors or journalists Eric Sedinsky, Mike Millard, Jude Brand, Mark Schreiber, Boye Lafayette De Mente, Peter Hadfield, Bob Collins, and Philip Sandoz gave invaluable advice about the nuts and bolts of the publishing world if not the water trade.

My editor deserves a large share of the praise, but not the condemnation, for making sure this book made it to the galleys. Disc jockey and backgammon buddy Robert Susumu-Harris was kind enough to give the book some pre-publication publicity on J-Wave radio. Another veteran Asia hand, we'll call Buffalo Bill, went above and beyond the call of duty in making the S&M chapter possible. His scariest journalistic assignment will undoubtedly be the subject of Press Club gossip for years to come.

Although this is perhaps one of its more dubious accolades during its nearly 50 years, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan also proved for this author to be an invaluable hangout for meeting contacts and its staff made the goings so much easier as it has for many budding and veteran Tokyo foreign scribes.

Finally, a hearty toast to an antecedent by the name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens whose spirit hopefully permeates this undertaking.