A unique take on modern life in Japan’s capital city. A Japan of trains, every day to and fro, carriage scenes and theatre, vistas from the window, advertising posters. Each to be savoured through a specific Tokyo line – the Odakyu. Pitched as creative text and line-graphics, Tokyo Commute: Japanese Customs and Way of Life Viewed from the Odakyu Line offers on-track and off-track observations. A gallery of mirrors, musings, memories. This is less documentary than iconography, a poetics of Japanese routine and etiquette. It offers a wry diary of month-and-weekday observations, a ‘map’ of Shinjuku as key station and gathering-place, a run of notable Tokyo locations – from the National bunraku theatre to a Kawasaki sludge recycling centre. Other Odakyu travel involves the Hakone open air art gallery, Narita as both airport and temple complex, Yokohama as history and Chinatown. Essential reading for first-time, and second-time visitors, and even regular commuters.

A. Robert Lee was a Professor in the English department at Nihon University, Tokyo from 1997 to 2011. He previously taught at the University of Kent, UK. His recent books include Multicultural American Literature: Comparative Black, Native, Latino/a and Asian American Fictions (2003), which won the American Book Award in 2004, and, with Mark Gresham, Japan Textures: Sight and Word (2007).

1. Odaky?-sen 2. Shinjuku Station 3. Shinjuku 4. Muk?gaoka-y?en North 5. Muk?gaoka-y?en South 6. Muk?gaoka-y?en Platform 7. January Monday 8. Odaky? Notables 9. Odaky? Line Sounds Familiar 10. Train Notices 11. Odaky? Commercials 12. February Tuesday 13. Odaky? Keitaispracht 14. By-line, Setagaya Line 15. March Wednesday 16. Odaky? Day-out Sendagi 17. Shimo-Kitazawa 18. Bicycle! 19. Odaky? Bike Interview – Toda-san 20. International Interlude via Narita Airport 21. Keitai Train Culture 22. April Thursday 23. Odaky? Tamagawa 24. Station Sights 25. Odaky?-sen, Yoyogi-Hachiman Eki 26. May Friday 27. Muk?gaoka-y?en, Day for Night 28. Odaky? Day-out, Hakone 29. June Saturday 30. Odaky? Commercials 31. Odaky? Smokes 32. By-line, Nambu Line 33. Odaky? Bag Watch 34. Seijo Times 35. Odaky? Day-out, Yokohama 36. July Sunday 37. Odaky? Trains of Thought 38. Train Signs, Train Sounds 39. By-line, Tama Express 40. August Monday 41. Odaky? Day-out, Chiba 42. September Tuesday 43. Odaky? Lady-grooming 44. Odaky? and Near-Odaky? Women’s Hairday 45. Odaky? Evenings-out 46. October Wednesday 47. Odaky? Day-out, Ibaraki 48. Chikan! Odaky? Misbehaviour 49. November Thursday 50. Odaky? Blues 51. Odaky? Men’s Haircut 52. Odaky? Day-out, ?-Sumo 53. December Friday 54. Odaky? Store 55. Odaky? Bookshelf 56. Last Train Glossary