October, 1987. American filmmaker Steven Okazaki is making a documentary about laureated japanese author Kenzaburo Oe, but all goes wrong when he finds out that due to "mistranslated facts" the subject of his film has only one day to spare before leaving the country. During their brief interview, Mr. Kenzaburo affirms that the new generation of japanese artists are "spoiled, un-original and too influenced by Western culture." so, having a japanese film crew rented for four more days, Steven decides to roam the streets of Tokyo filming the lives of the japanese emergent underdog artists, trying to make some sense of Mr. Oe's statement.