Tokyo

A novel of friendship and misreading that deciphers Tokyo's hidden social codes—part of Travel with a Writer, The Walking Tree's series pairing leading authors with the places they know best. Tokyo is a city shaped by rules you don't quite see—and by the subtle ways they are bent, broken, and reinterpreted. When Anna reconnects with her childhood friend Tsubasa after years apart, their conversations become a way into the city itself. Moving between memory and present-day encounters, their exchanges illuminate Tokyo's quiet contradictions: how sleeping in a meeting can signal commitment, how politeness can obscure deeper meaning, and how vastness can give way, without warning, to intimacy. By turns funny, tender, and disorienting, this is a journey through a city that resists being fully understood—and a reminder that the closer you get, the more it reveals and withholds in equal measure.

Emily Itami was born to a Japanese mother and British father and spent her formative years in Tokyo. Her debut novel, Fault Lines, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award in the UK. Her work explores cross-cultural identity, relationships, and contemporary urban life. She has lived in both Tokyo and London. She is currently based in London.