Who the hell are all these people?
Kenken
Boyfriend, kuma, fellow traveller, bicycle-based accomplice and occasional destroyer of Joa’s elaborate emotional stability.
Diane
Best friend, artistic stage manager, collaborative assessor of boys, Baldwin reader, orange-haired travel accomplice and emergency connection to reality.
Genmasa
Former model, art-book editor, translator, emergency PA, credit-card benefactor, tiny MountainMouth co-conspirator and the woman who gave Joa his name.
Shige
Artist, dancer, astonishing dresser, dog-horse custodian, Yoko Ono apple accomplice and best friend in Hiroshima.
Kenji
Liquor-store tattoo boy, beautiful straight-boy question mark, beach-and-motorbike accomplice, unsuitable photographer, giver of cake, wine, lifts and precisely timed reassurance.
Hannah
Sister, hitchhiking partner, art-film assistant, grandparent buffer, late-night phone line and co-conspirator in the unresolved plan to take Tokyo by storm.
Oliver / TGICB
Beautiful Abuser, LiveJournal correspondent, postmodern-queer provocateur, Shikoku host, long-distance conscience and old trout.
Philip / ApeonApe
Australian reader, Tokyo refuge, art-and-homo-gaijin conversationalist, Beautiful Abuser, photographer, practical adviser and accidental supplier of Kenken.
Moody
Forum phenomenon, beautiful abuser, co-blogger, Tokyo host, self-styled porno king and inventor of the Moodypose™.
JT LeRoy
Writer, alleged boy, Hotmail correspondent, wigged dress-up template, dream nuisance and perfect patron saint of JoaFruit's self-invention.
Robin
American girl buddy and colleague, rollerblading island wife, beach explorer, fake honeymoon partner and principal supplier of motion to the Korean chapter.
Nilesh
Miniature best pal in Seoul, fellow art-loving Brit, emergency sofa department, gay-scene escape planner and photographic-video co-conspirator.
SY
Older Korean movie-poster designer, handsome Hongdae mystery man, notorious playboy, late-night phone distraction and impulsive taxi visitor to Joa’s airport island.
J
American boy in Korea, beautiful dancer, Burger King advocate, participant in one extremely civilised breakup and friend through later Tokyo chapters.
JL
My Texan cyber lover: 10 years older, warm, always calling and eventually brave enough to get on a plane.
Takashi
First boyfriend in Japan, landscape architect, patient skinny-jeans wearer, accidental scabies diagnostician and ex-boyfriend of the century.
DJ Stormer and JguyUSguy
Kiwi DJ, black-and-white photoblogger, Osaka webdads, prehistoric matchmaking machinery and cyber-gay-mafia bosses.
Tigerrr
Old-skool Beautiful Abuser, weblogger, recommender, political antagonist, Tokyo host and proof that people from the internet could be surprisingly normal.