Audrey Hepburn's neck

It all began when his mother took him to see Roman Holiday on his ninth birthday... As they sat in the cold movie theater Toshi gave himself over to the magical being on screen. "Oh her neck... Isn't it lovely?" His mother's exclamations barely penetrated Toshi's mind: he was already floating away on a never-ending love affair with Audrey and the culture she so exquisitely personified. Growing up in a tiny fishing village, Toshi spent troubled nights sleeping between his parents, rolling back and forth from his father, smelling of soy sauce and beer, to his mother, sweating green tea and miso. But he never understood the root of his mother's dark sadness, nor why, since the day she left them to live on her own, his father wouldn't talk about it. For Toshi, now twenty-three and fresh from living above his father's noodle shop, Tokyo is a strange and exciting place. The busy metropolis overwhelms him and American influence is everywhere; establishments such as Let's California Beer Garden and Fly Sexy Snack Bar abound. An illustrator for the popular comic strip Chocolate Girl, Toshi enrolls in classes at the Very Romantic English Academy. His glamorous teacher, Jane, lures him into a