"The Vanished"- Introduction

In which Lena Mauger, avid traveler and magazine journalist, and Stephane Remael, photographer, propose to tell of "The Evaporated People Of Japan In Stories And Photographs". A tall order for Mauger and Remael, as neither speaks Japanese, and Translate wasn't a thing. So they enlist the services of one Guy (no surname), a "chubby filmmaker on the cusp of retirement". (Is any of that relevant? Meaning not particularly busy, thus free to tag along as Lena chases this non-story?) At least he's got a Japanese wife and some degree of Japanese fluency, apparently- so this Guy is on board as interpreter. As night falls over the Place de Clichy, Guy regales Mauger with "all the little things that, for him, make Japanese living so serene". You know: "the feminine gentleness, the elegance of movement, the efficiency of public transportation". Was chubby guy having her on? Place de Cliche. Anyhow, it's Guy who mentions "*a strange phenomenon: every year, thousands of Japanese people leave their homes and never return." According to our filmmaker, **Japan has more missing persons than any other country. Now, I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but there's something(s) slightly off about this tete a tete: if Mauger first hears about this phenomenon from Guy, then what was the subject of her original investigation? Anyhow, "there we were, two months later, foreign to this enigmatic culture, our only compass being our guide's perseverance in the face of shadows..." Nauseating, I agree. As for the "compass"- we shall see in later installments whether a sextant wouldn't have been the smarter choice.

* One of the few accurate claims in the entire book. In fact, tens of thousands are reported missing every year, with all but a few thousand found within 72 hours. Lena vastly inflates this figure. But of course. Because, Mon Dieu, the story. Among the 2-4K not found annually: those who have come to grief, whose bodies are never located; those suffering dementia who wander off with no ID; and, the truly vanished, those who do not want to be found, for any number of reasons. ** Sure about that, Guy? Take a peek at figures for the US.