Pearl City: Stories from Japan and Elsewhere is short fiction for busy people who love to travel. Six of the stories are set in Japan, and the others in Hong Kong, East Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Austria, the Philippines, and Cambodia. The stories, which carry themes of freedom, family, redemption, justice, courage, corruption, girl power, are tied together by a single message: triumph over adversity.

When a Mexican resort town is besieged by seaweed, a canny restaurant waitress uses her wit to rid the scourge and have her husband released from prison.

On a hot June night in western Honshu, down-and-out call-girl driver, Papa Matsumoto, picks up a mysterious passenger in kimono. What he doesn't know is that his fate rests in her hands...

A fugitive disguises himself as a Buddhist pilgrim on a small island in Japan, only to realise that his fate rests in the hands of a novice monk.

After his wallet and phone are stolen in the Paris Metro, a Japanese university student meets a hapless fashion reporter from Kobe, and together they turn the tables on their bad luck by embarking on a tour of Normandy in a pink Citroen.

Good Night Papa: Short Stories from Japan and Elsewhere is a collection of fifteen tales of fiction for the time-poor. Four of the stories are set in Japan, while others transport the reader to countries around the world. Triumphing over adversity is a central theme: a fugitive disguised as a pilgrim discovers his fate rests in the hands of a novice Buddhist monk in Japan (The Pilgrim); a recovering alcoholic mail pilot crashes his plane in the Australian desert with a bottle of gin on boa...

On the dusty plains of central China's Henan province stands a small kung fu school with a big problem. It will take all the patience and persistence of its master to turn the conflict into a creative success.

Bali, Indonesia—When an enormous python terrorises a seaside resort, only one man has the ability and business acumen to turn the problem into a tasty success.

Spice Islands, Indonesia—amidst a tropical storm, an Australian coconut planter takes shelter in a jungle cavern and discovers the answer to a mystery which has plagued his Japanese wife's dreams since the end of World War II.

Escarpment country, Western Australia—three cattle station hands and a city reporter embark on a journey across a desolate, timeless land in search of a notorious bull named "Big Barney". Their boss has given them a rifle with only three bullets.

Bali, Indonesia—a waylaid business traveller becomes an unwitting audience for a Vietnam War veteran when he is forced to spend three days at a beach resort.

After discovering his deceased father's journal, a young tattoo artist ventures into a red light district in Osaka, Japan, seeking answers to his own existence.