American twenty-something Max Travers is an English teacher in Japan. He has a beautiful girlfriend, a mysterious and powerful boss, and lives in a city teeming with rich culture and history. But Max wants out. He came to Japan to find a new calling, but finds that this new life isn't everything he hoped it would be. His manipulative boss, Yoko, is trying to swindle the unsuspecting parents of his students and is using his golden-boy American face to do it. Desperate to seize his locked up passport, he sneaks into Yoko's office in the middle of the night only to surprise the Japanese mafia's burglary in progress. Escaping with his life, Max is on the run from tattooed Yakuza, the Japanese police, and a mysterious American named Lloyd Elgin who seems to have ties in high places. All are after the leather book Max grabbed instead of his passport-- a diary Max himself can't read, a diary that Yoko's father has been safeguarding for more than half a century. With his girlfriend's life at risk, Max must decipher the secrets of the diary and put an end to the chase before his newest, gravest troubles catch up to him and stop his running for good.
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