For some unknown reason I set this down after starting it and didn't pick it up again for several months. When at last I began again I was completely captivated and read it in an afternoon. Lovely description of Japan from an expat who married a Japanese man. I want to share it with friends in Japan and see how it compares to their own experiences. Very enjoyable. ( )

Clearly the author has absorbed what it is to be Japanese. Her prose is filled with nature, the cycles of life, the importance of being in harmony and not getting people upset by being too honest about one's own feelings. Each chapter is in the style of a haiku, in a way, in that it is brief, picturesque, and asks you to get a sense of life in Japan without too many details. And that is fine. But I have to admit to a craving for more details, more nitty gritty, more drama, more information about people, places and activities. I wanted more of a story and less of a general essay on superficial aspects of life in Japan. ( )

I wanted to rate this book higher, I really did. Really, it doesn't have any faults or flaws that I can point out as such, at least not that can leigitmately extend beyond the matter of personal taste. I found the prose a bit dry at home, but stylistically, that isn't enough to condemn a book entirely.

It took me longer than it ought to have to get through this book, and I think ultimately the reason lies in the fact that it wasn't what I was expecting. From the description online, I had expected something written in the style of a person's memoirs, details of their life in a different culture. What I got instead was a collection of short articles.

Now, this is where opinions can easily differ. Reading short articles or stories can make a book easy to get through for some, because each section requires only a small amount of committment. For others, such as myself, constantly stopping and started makes me feel disjointed, thrown out of the groove, and I find myself quick to put the book down quite often. It drags out the reading time, and makes the book seem longer and more tedious than perhaps it really was.

It did, I will admit, have some interesting information on Japanese culture, history, and language, and for that, I'm glad I bought it. It's rare now that I come across a book written about Japan that contains information that I haven't read a hundred times elsewhere. This book accomplished what few others have in that it presented new information to me, which I greatly enjoyed absorbing.

I can't say I'd recommend this book to many people. If you enjoy your information coming at you in the form of articles, then by all means, pick up a copy. If you simply must have any and all books on Japanese life and culture, then order it from Amazon. But otherwise, I'd say that most people can give this book a miss without losing out on too much. ( )