Graveyard of Memories

http://www.massadayoobgroup.com

http://www.tonyblauer.com

http://www.chirontraining.com

Rain’s notion of “Don’t insult him, don’t challenge him, don’t threaten him, don’t deny it’s happening, give him a face-saving exit” is courtesy of Peyton Quinn of the Rocky Mountain Combat Applications Training institute. Another great course:

http://www.rmcat.com

The flying triangle strangle in chapter 3 is courtesy of Dave Camarillo’s excellent book Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a must for any serious grappler:

http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Jiu-Jitsu-Revolutionizing-Brazilian/dp/0977731588/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374452406&sr=1-2

I don’t know much about electricity, but learned a lot from this website on fatal electric shocks:

http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/safety/electrical/TheFatalCurrent.html

MythBusters was hugely helpful in helping me understand that yes, a dropped appliance really can electrocute you in the bathtub. Note, though, that the MythBusters didn’t get everything quite right. In fact, electricity in fresh water can be more dangerous than electricity in salt:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/appliances-in-the-bath-minimyth.htm

http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/magazine/2013/july/electric-shock-drowning-explained.asp

Tom Hayses and Dan Levin were generous in sharing their expertise on all matters electrical and helping me tune up the electrocution sequence. I’m not particularly technical and might have gotten something wrong anyway, but not for lack of trying on their part.

For Rain’s thoughts on the effects of proximity in killing, I’m again indebted to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman for his disturbing, original book, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society:

http://www.amazon.com/On-Killing-Psychological-Learning-ebook/dp/B003XREUV2/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1375672344&sr=1-1

Dr. Yoshikatsu Eto and Dr. Hiroyuki Ida, both of Tokyo’s Jikei University School of Medicine, were generous in providing a tour of the institution’s facilities and in answering my unusual questions about the disposition of the dead at and through the hospital. Obviously, the shenanigans that occur in the hospital’s morgue in the story are the product only of my (twisted, yes, I know) imagination, and in any event reflect a security posture from an era much more innocent than the current one.

Once again, Jeroen ten Berge and Rob Siders provided terrific cover design and formatting services:

http://jeroentenberge.com

https://52novels.com

Thanks as always to the extraordinarily eclectic group of “foodies with a violence problem” who hang out at Marc “Animal” MacYoung’s and Dianna Gordon’s No Nonsense Self-Defense, for good humor, good fellowship, and a ton of insights, particularly regarding the real costs of violence:

http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com

Thanks to Naomi Andrews, Jeroen ten Berge, Alan Eisler, Koichiro Fukasawa, Dan Gillmor, Montie Guthrie, Tom Hayse, Charlotte Herscher, Mike Killman, Lori Kupfer, Dan Levin, Lara Perkins, Ken Rosenberg, Johanna Rosenbohm, Ted Schlein, and Alan Turkus for helpful comments on the manuscript.

Most of all, thanks to my wife, Laura, for damn near a quarter century of unwavering support, belief, and confidence, in every kind of weather. And awesome editorial, too. Thanks, babe, for everything.

Author’s Note

Part of my writing method has always involved extensive on-site research for all the locales I use, but obviously Graveyard of Memories, set in 1972, presented a challenge in this regard. The challenge was multiplied by my desire to use real places — bars and jazz clubs and coffeehouses — that readers could visit if they wished.

I decided on a threefold solution: use existing places that have been around since at least 1972; concentrate the action in the older parts of Tokyo, chiefly in the east of the city, which have changed less over the decades than those in the more cosmopolitan west; and peruse photo books of 1960s and 1970s Tokyo to get a better feel for what’s different and what is largely unchanged. For lovers of the city, I recommend these books (the translations, doubtless inelegant or worse, are mine):

(A Little in the Past of Tokyo: Images of the Downtown 30 Years Ago, Kouhei Wakameda)

(Tokyo Photo Book: The Story of a Changing City, 1948–2000, Minoru Ishii)

(1960s Tokyo: Memories of a City of Trams That Ran Like Water, Akira Ikeda)

The result, as always, is a series of locations that are described as I found them — but also as best as I could imagine they looked and felt when Rain was only twenty.

That said, here and there I had to cheat a little, and this is the place to come clean. So: although Taro, the jazz club to which Rain takes Sayaka in Shinjuku’s Kabukichō, is long gone, its successor, Body & Soul, also opened by Kyoko Seki, is alive and well in Minami Aoyama. It’s one of Tokyo’s best and worth the trip:

http://www.bodyandsoul.co.jp

Also, as far as I know, the exterior of Kabaya Coffee in Yanaka is unchanged from at least 1938, when the shop opened in the tiny building it still occupies. The interior, however, has been updated. Accordingly, Rain’s description of the inside of the shop is a product only of my imagination. But I recommend the shop, the kind of kissaten—old-style coffeehouse — found only in Japan, and also recommend the entire Yanesen (Yanaka, Nezu, Sendagi) area where you’ll find it:

http://www.toothpicnations.co.uk/my-blog/?p=6778

And here’s some more information on the places that appear in the book…

Kamiya in Asakusa, where Rain meets with his case officer Sean McGraw after getting jumped in Ueno, is Tokyo’s oldest western-style bar. Big, boisterous, and unpretentious, with communal tables. If you’re a foreigner, you might be a bit of a novelty. Try the denki buran—electric brandy — or stick with the draft beer:

http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/drink/kamiya-bar-849180

http://www.kamiya-bar.com

A nice photo tour of contemporary Uguisudani, where Rain first meets Sayaka at one of the area’s numerous love hotels:

http://pingmag.jp/2013/03/25/welcome-to-uguisudani/

Taihō Chuuka Ryōri (Chinese Cuisine), the second place Rain meets McGraw:

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1316/A131602/13001670/

Lion Coffee in Shibuya, where Rain retrieves a critical file:

http://blog.uchujin.co.uk/2010/09/lion-cafe--tokyo’s-worst-“best-kept”-secret/

http://www.tokyofoodlife.com/?p=1829

A wonderful photo tour of the Arakawa line, Tokyo’s last surviving public tram:

http://ldersot.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=25699252&AlbumKey=mLnMtm

And another:

http://lifetoreset.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/aboard-toden-arakawa-one-of-tokyos-remaining-street-car/

An article on some of Tokyo’s best sentō. This is where I learned of Daikoku-yu, site of the electrocution hit (and a great place to visit for an afternoon soak):