Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

Stuck. That's how 33-year-old aspiring singer Celeste Duncan feels. Stuck with her deadbeat boyfriend and static career. But then Celeste receives a puzzling phone call and a box full of mysterious family heirlooms, which just might be the first real clue to the identity of the father she never knew. Impulsively, Celeste flies to Japan to search for a long-lost relative who could be able to explain. She stumbles head first into a weird, wonderful world where nothing is quite as it seems - a land with an inexplicable fascination with foreigners, karaoke boxes, and unbearably perky TV stars. With little knowledge of Japanese, Celeste finds a friend in her English-speaking homestay brother, Takuya. And then, as they cross the country following a trail after Celeste's family, she discovers she's developing 'more-than-sisterly' feelings for him. Can Celeste find her true self in this strange land, and discover that love can transcend culture?

Midori Saito's dream seems about to come true. Too independent for Japanese society, Midori is a young woman who has always felt like a stranger in her native land. So when she falls in love with Kevin, an American English teacher, she readily agrees to leave home and start a new life with him in San Francisco--as his fianc e. Kevin seems to be the perfect man. That is, until he dumps her for his blonde ex-fianc e, whom Midori never even knew existed. Midori is left on her own, with just a smattering of fractured English, not much cash, and a fianc e visa set to expire in sixty days. Unable to face the humiliation of telling her parents she's been jilted, and not wanting to give up on her "American Dream," Midori realizes she's in for quite a challenge. Her only hope is her new acquaintance (and potential landlord) Shinji, a successful San Francisco graphic artist and amateur moon gazer who fled Japan after a family tragedy. And eventually, Midori surprises even herself as she proves she will do almost anything to hang on to her dream of a new life.