Anne Allison, Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club, The University of Chicago Press, 1994.

This sociological study provides a wonderful understanding of Eriko's character.

Donald Keene, The Pleasures of Japanese Literature, Columbia University Press, 1988.

Keene is considered by some to be the leading interpreter of Japanese literature to the West, a frequent translator of criticism and literature. This recent, short book gives a good background on the culture that produced Kitchen.

Jonathan Rauch, The Outnation: A Search for the Soul of Japan, Harvard Business School Press, 1992.

The author of this book was young, still in his twenties, when he traveled to Japan in 1990. His insights into the culture provide wonderful, intelligent background.

Edward Seidensticker, Tokyo Rising: The City since the Great Earthquake, Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.

The earthquake of the title is the one that destroyed most of the city in 1923. His...