AMBASSADOR STRIKES, by Robert J. Collins. California: McKenna Publishing Group, 2003 260 pp., $19.95 (paper). With so much rich material to draw upon, the relatively small number of English novels set in the Kansai area have tended to be quite entertaining. Along with the "Superintendent Otani" series by former British diplomat James Melville (set mainly in Kobe), can be found "Ransom," Jay MacInerney's 1985 novel about alienated members of America's post-Vietnam Lost Generation hanging out in Kyoto.
"The Bang Devils," set in Osaka, features foreign scavengers who come to feast on the carrion of postbubble Japan and who are also very much products of their times.
"Imagine going to a cocktail party every night . . . and that's your job," was the way Chicago native Jessica Romano, hostess at the Pony Tail nightclub, puts it.