Stupid Guy Goes to India

Literary Nonfiction. Autobiography. Asian & Asian American Studies. Graphic Novel. Translated from the Japanese by Kumar Sivasubramanian. In 2004, having never before left Japan, 56-year-old manga author Yukichi Yamamatsu travelled to India, armed with little money, less English, no sigmoid colon, and absolutely no idea of what to expect. He did, however, bring with him his formidable art skills, a missionary zeal for spreading Japanese comics culture, and a keen pair of eyes—through which we are treated to a hilarious, brutally honest look at India as it presents itself to the foreign visitor. This is the true story of Yukichi's adventures—playing marbles, searching for bathrooms, betting on horses, visiting a brothel—and his madcap mission to sell Hindi translations of samurai manga on the mean streets of the nation's capital.