At first glance, ‘Sayonara Bar’ by Susan Barker appears to be a tale of Japan’s Sex industry. There is Mary, a hostess in the Sayonara Bar who massages salary men’s egos for her weekly wage. Mr Sato forced out of his rut by his boss to go to the Sayonara Bar and experience a little debauchery. Watanabe, the bar’s cook, who exists “in his own manga-fuelled fantasy of the fourth dimension, and believes he can see into other people’s souls, as well as into the gurgling viscera of their souls”.