Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean is a contemporary coming-of-age book about an American Japanese girl Izumi Tanaka who although is nearly in her senior year is still looking for answers about who her father might be she is a product of her mother’s one-night stand one wrong.
Growing up in Mount Shasta, California, Izumi has always tried to fit (blend) into American society but it hadn’t been easy for her considering her color and sharp Asian features weren’t all that subtle.
It was because of this reason that she bonded with her best friend Noora in second grade, and then Hansani and Glory. They were all a shade darker than the other kids in school. Together, they called themselves the Asian Girl Gang, or AGG for short.
Unlike her other friends who had a complete families and even large extended ones (Noora specifically) Izumi only had her mom and this made her jealous of her friends sometimes. Her mom didn’t always talk about her dad, but from the little shed managed to tell her, Izumi was basically a product of a one-night stand gone wrong although her mom never refused to accept she was a mistake. Other than that, Izumi knew nothing about her dad, his race, or even what he looked like.
Things didn’t stay like that dad for long as when Izumi and her best friend were snooping around her mom’s stuff they stumbled on a poem someone had written to her mom, Hanako Tanaka. It was a very beautiful piece but what caught her attention was the date it was written.
Playing detective, Izumi and her best friend Noora could already decipher that it was written probably around the time her mom had the one-night stand, and hence Makoto Mak, the man who wrote her mom the poem could be her dad.
Promising to investigate the matter further, Izumi and Noora had gone to do some research.
They already knew Izumi’s mom got pregnant with a fellow student in college at Harvard, so it wasn’t a no-brainer to know that Makoto, Izumi’s prospective dad went to Harvard too. And that made it all the simpler to find him.
Finding him was even the easy part as there was a clear resemblance between him and Izumi, ranging from their straight nose to full lips, even in the spaces between their teeth.
The hard part to reconcile with was that her dad, Makotonomiya Toshihito, was a prince. Not even any ordinary prince, but the Imperial crowned prince of Japan one of the oldest monarchies in existence. And at thirty-nine he was still unmarried.
So basically this made Izumi royalty she was a princess of Japan.
Read This Also: Once Upon a One-night-stand
- Part 1: Main Characters of Tokyo Ever After
- Part 2: Hot Chapters of Tokyo Ever After
- Part 3: Conclusion of Tokyo Ever After
Part 1: Main Characters of Tokyo Ever After
Izumi Tanaka
Izumi Tanaka is an eighteen-year-old American Japanese girl who lives and goes to school in Mount Shasta, a small town in Northern California, mostly occupied by white Americans whom she believes she’s a shade darker than.
She has black hair, a straight nose, full lips, and spaces between her teeth. She’s almost in her senior year.
Izumi Tanaka is part of an Asian girl squad Asian Girls Group (or AGG for short) which began with just her and her best friend Noora in second grade before they adopted Hansani and Glory. Together they all try their best to blend in with their town, but sometimes it isn’t always easy.
Because she is Japanese people always assume Izumi must be a math guru (which she is not) or question why Noora doesnt wear a hijab or wonder if Glory the half-Filipino girl is adopted whenever she spends time with her
American dad (yea her parents are divorced), and some can’t seem to place where Hansani the svelte Sri Lankan girl is from exactly. But together they try to overcome these unnecessary and stupid assumptions.
However, there’s something her friends have that Izumi doesnt have. Unlike her friends who have both parents and some even have large extended families, Izumi only has her mom. Although has always refused to think of her to be a mistake, Izumi is a product of her one-night stand gone wrong. Izumi doesnt always talks to her mom about this but she wishes she just knew who her dad is.
Kobayashi Akio
Kobayashi Akio is a twenty-year-old imperial guard.
He has spent two years with the imperial guard and is the highest dan in a variety of martial arts, an expert marksman, and has a whole lot of other useful impressive skills in his credentials that make it look like he could possibly end a man with just the snap of his fingers.
Akio has hooded dark eyes and pouty lower lips. He’s incredibly handsome and tall (hot as Izumi would prefer to say) but is extremely professional (grumpy is a more accurate word).
He is Izumi’s personal security. He was handpicked for the job because of the reputation of his parents who had worked for the imperial house for decades.
Part 2: Hot Chapters of Tokyo Ever After
Chapter Four
After emailing her dad and David Meier (a chemistry professor at the University of Stockholm who happened to be close to her dad) without getting any feedback for thirteen days, Izumi began to feel dejected for keeping her hopes high.
Her friends managed to console her though and shipped her off home with a Noora hatchback. Izumi had barely stepped out of the car, when she arrived, before reporters and paparazzi swarmed her, threatening to sweep her off her feet. Izumi could barely comprehend what was going on.
It was after she’d been escorted inside by her mom and saw three Japanese men seating at their kitchen table that she realize what was going on her dad actually got her mail, and had made His Excellency Ambassador Saito from the Japan Embassy, fly all the way from Washington DC to officially invite her to Japan to come to see him in his imperial palace.
Izumi considered this offer for a while, knowing quite well that if it were left for her mother to decide, she wouldn’t be honoring this invitation. But she wasn’t her mother, and so she accepted.
Part 3: Conclusion of Tokyo Ever After
Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean is a contemporary coming-of-age book about an eighteen-year-old high school girl whom after so many years of looking for her dad, discovers that he’s actually the imperially crowned prince of Japan.
Tokyo Ever After is an interesting book. It even gets better with how the writer Emiko Jean uses the book to address the stereotyping half and non-American people face in America and other foreign countries.
