Tokyo Express (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Transportation between Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka is fully covered in the Hikari train in the Tokaido line. A fictionalised memoir, this novel is the diary of a former maid, Taki, who moves to Tokyo in 1930 to work for a rich family. In the French Riviera, fresh-off-the-plane Lulu seems the perfect mark, and Ali reluctantly complies with Sean’s plans – but when things go badly awry, she escapes with €260,000 of his money and Lulu’s luggage and identity, replacing her as cook for a bunch of rich holidaymakers at a villa. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right.

Self-educated, Matsumoto published his first book when he was forty years old and he quickly established himself as a master of crime fiction.The Tokyo Express ended up being a lose-lose gambit for the Japanese, because many destroyers were lost during the fifteen months of the Tokyo Express, for no gain. The Narita Express – also known as N’EX – is the most convenient Tokyo city transfer from and to Narita International Airport, which hosts most of the overseas flights to Japan. Often cited as Matsumoto’s masterpiece — quite a feat considering the 1958 book was his first published novel (and at the age of 40, too) — it’s a twisting tale of obsessively planned details and the logic, not to mention perseverance, it takes to unravel the truth. As described in this article, please refer to the JR East schedules page to check the latest schedules from and to Narita Airport.

Holders can reserve a seat at any JR ticket office in Narita Airport, before boarding the train and without any additional payment. The woman is a waitress at a restaurant where business man and supplier of the Ministry, Mr Yasuda, is a regular.From Kyoto to Shinjuku station you can use your Japan Rail Pass, but you will have one transfer in Tokyo. Torigai is of course weighed down by past mistakes and long experience while Mihara is unsurprisingly more spirited.