As the author, I can imagine my characters in my head. The more I write about them, the clearer the images become. I used AI to try and create my vision of each character. I am still fiddling around with the images. AI has a bad habit of wanting to create hokey backgrounds for my characters. AI thinks that Mount Fuji should be in any image that is related to Japan. AI and I do not agree on how successful our collaboration is. We will keep trying.
Keiko Hattori is the main character of the series. She is the owner of the restaurant called Den on Teramachi Street in Kyoto.
She’s a widow and inherited Den from her husband. She lives right above the restaurant and she’s there everyday. She’s sixty-something (she doesn’t want to say exactly) but she is in good health though she worries about her slightly failing memory.
She lived in New Jersey for a few years so she speaks English. She will be a little up in your business!
Minoru is the cook at Den. He is engaged to Maria, a half Japanese woman from New Jersey. He used to be really shy and it was Maria who approached him one day in a bookstore in downtown Kyoto. She needed advice and when she saw Minoru, she thought he looked like someone she wanted to get to know.
Maria’s a New Jersey girl who is close to Keiko’s heart for two reasons. First of all, New Jersey! That’s where Keiko lived as a child. And secondly, she’s engaged to Minoru. Maria is Japanese and American. She came to Japan on a study grant to learn about Japanese gardens. Her grant is going to run out so she’ll have to figure out what she’s going to do next. She’s pretty sure that whatever she does will keep her connected to Den.
Mr. Yagi is a relative newcomer to Teramachi Street. He opened an antique shop down the street from Den. He’s a quiet man and a single father. He has some unique ideas and the others on the street are quickly becoming fond of him. He has taken the Canadian-Japanese character, Andy, under his wing. His son Masaki is just a few years older than Andy. They met at the dojo.
Meet Mr. Yagi’s son, Masaki. He was introduced in the first volume of the series when he rather unfortunately was known as a bully at the dojo that Andy and Gary attended. Thankfully, he’s over that now and has moved to Tokyo to pursue music as a career. He supports himself by tutoring students of all ages for their entrance exams. Strangely, he turns out to be very good at this.
Andy is third generation Japanese and the rest of his family lives in Canada. So you’d call him Canadian-Japanese. He was having some troubles at home. His parents were rarely there due to work and he was raised by his grandparents. When he reached his teen years, they had their hands full. They always spoke Japanese to him, so his Japanese is pretty functional. When he came to train in a karate dojo in Kyoto he was bullied by Masaki. In a fit of anger, he stole some items from Masaki’s father’s shop. But that’s all in the past. Mr. Yagi kindly suggested that he try working in the shop and to everyone’s surprise he’s doing great. He plays a big role when Mr. Yagi takes a fall in the second book.
Gary is a karate guy from Omaha, Nebraska. He practiced karate in both high school and college and he always wanted to try training in Japan. I have no idea how he ended up in Kyoto, but Gary is still young and open to just figuring things out as he goes. When you’re young, you can live like that. At least Keiko thinks so!
Meet the Hoffman family. They are from a small town in Germany. Peter works at Ippodo on Teramachi Street. Katrina is his wife, and little Sakura, who was born in Kyoto is just a few months old. Some of the foreigners in Kyoto have taken to calling her Cherry.
