characters

Anne
Name: Hoyland, Anne Age: 16 Gender: Female Nationality: American Occupation: Student	Anne is the adopted daughter of Simon James Hoyland, and cousin to Mel and Demi. Originally from Indiana, Anne lost her sight and her parents as a baby in an accident involving fireworks. She and her adoptive father live with Mark.

Asami
Name: Tamada, Asami Age: 21 Gender: Female Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Hotel Manager	Asami is the middle sister of Kaz and Ren. She doesn't get along very well with either of them, or her father. Asami is engaged to the owner of a hotel and shares the management job, though she tends to sleep around. A lot.

Beatrix
Name: Adel, Beatrix Age: 22 Gender: Female Nationality: Australian Occupation: Receptionist	Beatrix is the youngest staff member at Suiryo. She's a very efficient receptionist and PA to Kazeyuki, but does assist Leigh in terrifying the students in the library. She is good friends also with Jade and Midorikawa.

Bryony
Name: May, Bryony Age: 23 Gender: Female Nationality: English Occupation: Teacher	Bryony teaches Music and Photography at Suiryo. She lives with her best friend, Jane. Bryony is very much in love with both her subjects...and Kaz. She's too shy to talk to Kaz, and thinks he's involved with Jade. Jane despairs at this.

Demi
Name: Hoyland, Demi Age: 16 Gender: Female Nationality: American/Japanese Occupation: Student	Demi is Mel's younger sister. She's a little bit emo and contrasts staggeringly against her girly and pink best friend, Ichigo. She's very mature for her age and is very protective of Mel. Demi might not be entirely straight either...

Erika
Name: Tamada, Erika Age: 47 Gender: Female Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Temple keeper	Erika is matriarch of the Tamada family and runs the family home as a traditional Japanese temple in the outskirts of Nagasaki. Erika is a xenophobe and homophobe. While she appears to despair of Kaz entirely, he's the child she's most proud of.

Fern
Name: Bailey, Fern Age: 25 Gender: Female Nationality: English Occupation: Unknown	Fern is the mother of Saki, and older sister of Jane. Fern is trying to find the Japanese father of her daughter, with the help of Erika and Asami...who apparently know something about him. Fern is very pretty and fashionable thanks to her sister.

Helen
Name: Tsuruki, Helena Age: 34 Gender: Female Nationality: English Occupation: Teacher	Helen started out life as an otaku, got absorbed into her Japanese language teacher's family, and ended up in Japan teaching English and acting as a psychologist. She is in a relationship with Mokushou and mother to their twins.

Ichigo
Name: Mizusawa, Ichigo Age: 16 Gender: Female Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Student	Ichigo's idol is probably Otsuka Ai. She loves bubbly J-Pop and the colour pink. She's had a crush on Mel since forever and has to settle for being his friend. Ichigo's parents are rich and famous and have little time for her.

Jade
Name: Cook, Jade Age: 23 Gender: Female Nationality: English Occupation: Teacher	Jade teaches Religious Studies. She got her job through her best friend, Midorikawa. Jade is also good friends with Kaz, Leigh and Beatrix. She loves IKEA and shouldn't be put in charge of a bank account. She has a yellow VW Beetle and a cat called Simon.

Jane
Name: Bailey, Jane Age: 23 Gender: Female Nationality: English Occupation: Teacher	Jane is the Art and Textiles teacher at Suiryo. She has a sister called Fern and a niece called Saki. She dislikes Kaz with great intensity, though hasn't told Bryony why. Jane is very headstrong and is - excluding the Kaz situation - critical but fair.

Kaneko
Name: Tatchell, Kaneko Age: 18 Gender: Female Nationality: English/Japanese Occupation: Student	Kaneko is an exceedingly tall friend and classmate of Mel's. They're both in Jade's tutor group. Kaneko tells everyone she's part Amazonian due to her height. She's very pretty and likes hair accessories. Her father is an English investment banker.

Kaz
Name: Tamada, Kazeyuki Age: 26 Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Teacher	Kaz is the main protagonist. Kaz teaches Geography at his father's boarding school. He doesn't believe in sexual orientation, but does start pondering it one summer holiday. Kaz's best friends are his sister Ren-chan, and his colleague, Jade.

Kazeyuki
Name: Tamada, Kazeyuki Age: 52 Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Teacher	Kazeyuki (known to Jade and Midorikawa as "Kazeyuki+") is the patriarch of the Tamada family, and founder-headmaster of Suiryo. He's supportive of Kaz and probably keeps too many secrets about his school for his staff's security.

Kitako
Name: Hoyland, Kitako Age: 39 Gender: Female Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Secretary	Kitako is mother to Mel and Demi. She has moved to Tokyo away from her xenophobic parents, and so that Mel and Demi could attend Suiryo. She's very close to her children and loves her long-distance American husband very much. Kitako is an excellent cook.

Leigh
Name: O'Malley, Leigh Age: 25 Gender: Female Nationality: Irish (Republic) Occupation: Librarian	Leigh is the slightly manic but very beautiful school librarian. She's very stylish and probably drinks too much coffee. Out of school, she lives with Jade, Midorikawa and Beatrix. Famous for scaring students out of the library.

Mark
Name: Hoyland, Brendon Mark Age: 43 Gender: Male Nationality: American Occupation: IT Systems Support	Mark is Mel and Demi's father, husband to Kitako. He's the computer system administrator at University of Louisville. He met Kitako in a seedy bar in Hokkaido on a gap year trip. He still only knows enough Japanese to get a girl pregnant.

Mel
Name: Hoyland, Melbourne Age: 18 Gender: Male Nationality: American/Japanese Occupation: Student	Mel is one of our protagonists. He's openly gay (to everyone except his mother), a little bit eccentric and a little bit of a bitchy brat. His best friends are his sister Demi, and their friend Ichigo. Sometimes he identifies as a woman.

Midorikawa
Name: ?, ? Age: 23 Gender: Female Nationality: English Occupation: IT Systems Support	Midorikawa is the systems administrator at Suiryo. Nobody except Jade, Leigh and Beatrix know what her real name is - she's clearly not Japanese. She knows a bit more of the language than Jade, but that's not really saying much. She loves formal wear.

Mitsuo
Name: Sobong, Mitsuo Age: 20 Gender: Male Nationality: Korean/Japanese Occupation: K/J-Rock Artist	Mitsuo is famous on the level of Miyavi and Glay. He loves piercings and doing crazy things with his hair. He meets Kaz one day on a plane to the US, and is enamoured by his photos of Ren-chan. Could love be in the air? Maybe.

Mokushou
Name: Mokushou, Kaname Age: 38 Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Teacher	Mokushou is Kaz's idol. He was Kaz's tutor and Geography teacher at his high school in Nagasaki. Mokushou has a Hakata dialect, which makes him hard to understand sometimes. He's a chain smoker and father to twins Oruha and Seta.

Narri
Name: Evans, Sarah Age: 18 Gender: Female Nationality: American Occupation: Student	Narri (and Sarah) are friends Mel has made in Kentucky when staying with his father. Narri is the older of the two and comes across as being fairly crazy. Mark often finds her hiding in the bushes outside his house.

Ren-chan
Name: Tamada, Ren Age: 16 Gender: Female Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Student	Ren-chan is the youngest sister of Kaz and Asami. She is very attached to Kaz and acts more like his older sister most of the time. As daddy's little girl, she manages to wangle her way into Suiryo as a student. Ren is very stubborn and opinionated.

Saki
Name: Tamada-Bailey, Saki Age: 5 Gender: Female Nationality: Japanese/English Occupation: Preschooler	Saki is a very cute little girl who's entirely confused as to why she doesn't have a father. She lives with her mother, her Aunty Jane and Jane's friend Bryony. Saki is very attached to the family dog, Snow. She desperately wants to meet her daddy.

Sarah
Name: Batchelor, Sarah Age: 16 Gender: Female Nationality: American Occupation: Student	Sarah (and Narri) are friends Mel has made in Kentucky when staying with his father. Sarah was introduced to Mel through Narri. She goes to the same school as Anne, and they share some classes. Both Sarah and Narri are very supportive of Mel's sexuality.

Shou
Name: Mizusawa, Shou Age: 17 Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Student	Shou is the cousin of Ichigo. He doesn't know who his father is. He and Ichigo get along well, and he has some romantic interest vested in Demi. He lives with his mother, Hikaru, next door to Ichigo and her parents.

Simon
Name: Hoyland, Simon James Age: 45 Gender: Male Nationality: American Occupation: Bartender	Simon is the older brother of Mark, and adoptive father to Anne. While having no luck in romance, Simon still wanted a family like Mark, so he decided adoption was a good idea. He works in a bisexual bar in downtown Louisville.

Yamada
Name: Yamada, Isamu Age: 26 Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Teacher	Yamada teaches Mathematics at Suiryo. He has an apparently very complicated past with Kaz. While Yamada enjoys teasing him with it, Kaz doesn't like to talk about it. Yamada happens to be one of Asami's affairs. Kaz isn't impressed by this.