This is a captivating, heart-warming, funny, and informative look at contemporary Japan, through the eyes of an American expat.
I arrived for my first visit to Japan 13 years ago, am now married to a brilliant Japanese lady — she’s a music teacher, concert pianist, opera singer — and have lived here permanently for over eight years. My book is a collection of sixty anecdotes about the Land of the Rising Sun, its people, culture, traditions, and institutions.
Mind you, I live in a quiet, rustic, rural community 1 1/2 hours from Osaka. I’m surrounded by rice and bean fields. The loudest sound I hear is the ringing of temple bells three times a day at a local hilltop Shinto shrine. This is not the Japan of ultra-high technology and glitzy Westernization. This is the Japan of calm, dreamy landscapes; simple, unhurried farmers; long memories, deep history and time-honored traditions. It’s the Japan of family, community, respect for others, and resolute honesty. Even after all these years, I’m regularly shocked by the stark contrast between my current life and the my-way-or-the-highway, not-in-my-backyard, what’s-in-it-for-me, what’s-mine-is-mine-and-what’s-yours-is-mine-if-I-can-get-my-hands-on-it mentality I was conditioned to regard as normal and acceptable, growing up in post-modern, pre-dystopian America — specifically Detroit, Michigan.
If you come from the U.S. — or any country with European, Judeo-Christian roots — and are curious, as I have been all of my life, about this mysterious and fascinating place, I believe this book is a good place to begin discovering what makes Japan so unique and such a sharp contrast to countries of the West.
Containing over 450 beautiful, original photographs, it is available both as an ebook and a deluxe full-color paperback.
