As the first volume in The Tokyo Trilogy, Ripples in the Waters by Lake Kawaguchi traces the sexual road trip of the lonely and neglected Japanese housewife, Tomoko, and the young, vibrant and spontaneous college girl, Ai, who is her counterpart on that riveting journey. It also introduces us to the depressed and suicidal CTO, Takeda, a salaryman who, having been made redundant, has lost his raison d’être and is struggling to shield his family from the financial fallout of his failure. Finally, readers can enjoy a suspenseful drama set in the underworld of Japanese organized crime where the fates of Shoko, an ambitious yakuza girl, and Yumiko, daughter of a liquidity-stricken CEO, become entangled in interesting ways.