Ryu Murakami's "In the Miso Soup"

Ryu Murakami's first novel, Almost Transparent Blue, won the coveted Akutagawa Prize in 1976, for his semi-autobiographical story of teenage experimentation with sex and drugs near a US Military Base in Japan. He continues his exploration of the decadent, dark side of Japanese society in Coin Locker Babies (2002) and in his most recently translated book In the Miso Soup (2004).

In the Miso Soup translated by Ralph McCarthy seems an odd mixture of murder mystery and travelogue as we are led through the seedy Kabuki-cho, the heart of the Japanese sex trade. While Murakami is graphic in his detailing of the clubs and some of the activity in this area, Literotica readers should note that while the details and oddities of the sex scene here is titillating, there are no extended sex acts or much of anything that could be characterized as "stroke."

The story opens as Kenji, a 20 year old Japanese man who works as a "nightlife guide," an unlicensed, unofficial guide, who specializes in guiding gaijin, or foreigners into the Kabuki-cho, meets Frank, an overweight, awkward, mid-thirty something American who traveled to Japan for the sex. Frank contacted Kenji after reading an advertisement in the "Tokyo Pink Guide" a magazine basically devoted to misleading gaijin into believing the rumors about the Japanese sex trade. While the sex-clubs, love hotels and prostitutes thrive in the area, the vast majority are either completely closed to outsiders or very suspicious of the gaijin.

Just before receiving his first phone call from Frank, Kenji had been reading about a vicious murder of a young girl who was known as a "compensated dater," a recent phenomenon in Japan when school age girls will "date" older men for pay. While the dates only rarely lead to contact or sexual activity, the implication of prostitution remains.

Immediately upon meeting Frank, Kenji is uneasy. Something in Frank's appearance, the way he looks away from Kenji when he talks and his general attitude simply affects Kenji as he guides Frank. Kenji's concerns are allayed somewhat since Frank is paying him so much for being his guide and Kenji leads Frank to the few places where gaijin are, if not welcomed, at least accommodated.

Murakami introduces us to a wide array of attractions in the Kabuki-cho, as his characters spend two days visiting bars, peep shows and lingerie modeling studios. This peek into the dark underworld of Tokyo gives us a very different look of Japan than we are used to, instead of manicured Japanese gardens, temples and arching bridges, we see a seething mass of drugs, alcohol, and sex with high school and college age kids intermingling with businessmen and middle aged perverts.

Kenji's unease with Frank grows as when he produces some filthy, blood stained currency to pay for a peep show. Kenji, now convinced Frank was the man who raped and killed the girl he had read about asks the hand masseuse to measure and report upon Frank semen output. This particular peep show features a woman behind glass doing what the client requests, while another person, the hand masseuse can provide a hand job if the client pushed his cock through a special opening in his booth. While the masseuse tells Kenji of an oddity with Franks cock, she doesn't have time to discuss exactly what was different or how much semen she collected.

Kenki leaves Frank for the day, with arrangements to meet the next day, New Years' Eve, in front of a nearby hotel. Kenji goes home for the evening realizing that he doesn't know where Frank is staying, he doesn't even know Frank's last name. Oddly, the next morning, Kenji finds something stuck to his door, something that looks like burned skin.

Kenji later finds out another gruesome murder had been committed during the night, yet as Frank meets him, he acts pretty much as he had the day before. Frank and Kenji hit a few bars and seedy establishments ending up in a bar where the women perform karaoke so men can then bid on their company for the evening and whatever else the women are selling. It is here, when the manager of the establishment tries to cheat Frank and Kenji, the Frank snaps, confirming all of Kenji's suspicions.

Murakami is graphic, nearly vicious in his description of the killing as Frank becomes "another person" who deftly kills five remaining occupants of the bar. Kenji is spared as the two leave the bar, locking all doors so no one wanders in. Frank then finds one of the South American prostitutes that are common in the Kabuki-cho and leaves Kenji as they find a nearby "love hotel."

Kenji is left pondering whether to go to the police, about what he witnessed, or simply walk away from it all. He ponders the question at a bar and comes to a decision, except, as he leaves the bar, Frank has returned, impressed that his "friend" didn't turn him in he asks Kenji to take him to the ceremonial joya no kane the traditional New Year's Eve bells that toll 108 times to drive away the banno or worldly desires that Frank now believes drives him to kill. When Kenji talks with Frank about what he learned of the bells, Frank explained he learned it and some other interesting Japanese Cultural facts from the prostitute he hired.

Murakami here shows the depths of decadence that parts of Japanese Society has devolved to, where the shear filth and depravity of the Kabuki-cho is inhabited by young Japanese willing to "sell it" while they drunkenly stumble from bar to bar, client to client oblivious to the culture and community they are surrounded by. Murakami took a streetwise Latina hooker, one of the many that are "imported" into the Japanese sex trade, to teach Frank of a possible salvation in ancient Japanese ritual.

It is a sad picture Murakami paints as the serial killer searches for salvation in ritual that the Japanese youth have all but abandoned. Kenji accompanies Frank into the crowd, "into the miso soup" wondering if Frank will spare him.

With this odd murder story Ryu Murakami gives us an inside view of the Japanese sex trade, as well as the decadence that continues to overtake society there. Their continued distrust of the gaijin is juxtaposed against the continued adaptation and sometimes imitation of the most decadent of Western ways. Through this and his other stories we see a Japan not adorned in the beautiful cherry blossoms, but one featuring young girls on compensated dates and the seething red lights of the Kabuki-cho.