Viewed Sideways: New Book of Essays by Donald Richie

Whether you think you know Japan well or are an absolute beginner, you’re sure to both learn something new and be entertained by esteemed Japan scholar Donald Richie’s latest book of essays, Viewed Sideways: Writings on Culture and Style in Contemporary Japan, out now from Berkeley’s Stone Bridge Press. These 37 essays (including 26 anthologized for the first time) span 50 years, but all seem relevant and fresh in regards to 2011’s Japan.

Richie, who is a premier film critic, reviewer, novelist and essayist was born in Ohio in 1924 and has spent decades observing Japan, producing over 40 volumes of fiction and nonfiction, scores of essays and speeches, and hundreds of film, book and arts reviews. The writer Tom Wolfe has described him as “the Lafcadio Hearn of our time.”

The eclectic collection of writings in Viewed Sideways covers such diverse subject matter as Shinjuku sex shows, Kyogen drama, Japanese car culture, wasei eigo (Japanese/English), Buddhism, the fine art of pleasing and much more. Whether you read them in order or skip around, selecting those that strike your fancy, you’re sure to gain insight as well as probably recognize a thing or two that will give you many “yappari” (just as I thought) or “naru hodo” (now I see) moments

Richie is considered one of the world’s authorities on Japanese cinema and is an expert on the work of Yasujiro Ozu, one of my favorite filmmakers. I found particularly fascinating the seven essays in this collection about film, including the fine art of subtitling Japanese films (Richie is responsible for the English subtitles for the Akira Kurosawa films Kagemusha, Red Beard and Dreams). “All translation is a compromise,” he writes, “but I doubt that any translation is so thoroughly compromised as that of film dialogue subtitles. The translator is given only so much space and within it is supposed to render into writing spoken dialogue in the amount of time it takes to say it. This is impossible.”

Another fascinating point is when Richie recalls asking Japanese film director Shiro Toyoda why Japanese men were usually such poor actors and why Japanese women tended to be so much better. “He said it was only natural,” Richie writes. “The Japanese woman, from childhood, is forced to play a role. There are only three roles—those of daughter, wife and mother and she graduates from one to the other. From the earliest age she learns to mask her true feelings and to counterfeit what she does not feel. One of the results is that the Japanese woman is a consummate actress. Toyoda went on to say that he could take almost any female, put her up on the screen and she would do very well.”

Richie goes on to point out that women today in Japan are changing and growing and both their repertoire of social roles are expanding, which continues to help make some contemporary movies in Japan reflect these societal changes, and thus expanding Japanese cinema as well.

You’re sure to have your view of Japan enhanced by these elegantly written essays.

Get more info here on where you can purchase Viewed Sideways.

And visit the StoneBridge Press site for info on many wonderful books about Japan and Japanese culture.

Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband

It took a while, but it's finally here -- yay! My e-book, Marriage in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband is now available on Kindle! This book showcases interviews with 14 Western women who speak candidly about the challenges in making cross-cultural marriages work, both inside and outside Japan, and the joys and frustrations of adapting to a different culture. For the month of April, 50 percent of the proceeds will go to Japan Relief.

I want to give a special shoutout to my Japanese husband, Manabu Tokunaga, for all his technical help with this book (and the cover design!) as well as the great job he does of being my muse. :-) Arigato-sama!

Book Signings: An Endangered Species

There are different kinds of book signings. There are the ones where you go into the bookstore and sign copies of your books that they have in stock. Then there is the author event where you sign books at a table and sometimes give a reading beforehand. 

My very first stock signing was in the fall of 2007 at Stacey’s Books, a major independent store in downtown San Francisco where they featured my debut novel, Midori by Moonlight, in a lovely display. I was thrilled and signed each book with the Cross pen my husband had given me to celebrate my first published novel. 

A couple of hours later I was at my first author event at the huge Borders store in Union Square where I read from my novel, answered questions and signed copies—another major thrill I’ll never forget. 

Stacey’s closed a few years ago, a victim of Amazon and the big box stores. Borders has just filed for bankruptcy and the Union Square store (one of the largest in California) is on the closure list. Things are changing in the publishing world and more and more people are purchasing their books through Kindles and iPads. Book signings are an endangered species and are set to become extinct—a quaint memory from the past, much like the album signings by your favorite rock star at Tower Records.

Japan, Funny Side Up by Amy Chavez

I’ve read a lot of guidebooks about Japan, but I’ve never encountered one like Japan, Funny Side Up by Amy Chavez. Chavez, the long-time “Japan Lite” columnist for The Japan Times (the country’s premiere English-language daily newspaper) has written a funny and insightful guide that not only gives readers excellent travel advice, but also offers valuable insights into Japanese culture and society.

Chavez keeps us laughing with essays like Etiquette Tips for Santa Claus and other Foreigners (“When you come inside the house—through the window, please—take off your boots and use the XXL slippers we’ve put out for your big gaijin feet.”) and Japan: A Nation Ruled by Cartoon Characters, which introduces such kawaii mascots perhaps not as well known to Westerners as Hello Kitty, such as Miffy, Afro Ken and Koge Pan, the animated burned bread roll. She also gives practical advice on traveling in Japan, including free off-beat places to explore, as well as tips on living in Japan and teaching English there.

Whether you’re planning a trip to Japan, thinking of relocating there or are just curious about this fascinating country, you’ll find Japan, Funny Side Up a highly entertaining read.

Chavez, who was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, has been living in Japan for 17 years. I recently had the chance to ask her some questions about Japan, Funny Side Up and her life in Japan, her passion for all things Japanese and how she has come to write for a living.

How did you end up living in Japan?

I've been in Japan since 1993 (gasp!) and came over after getting my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language. I came to teach English at college.

How did you come to write for The Japan Times?

I have a BA in Creative Writing and another MA in Technical Writing. I knew I wanted to write for a living, but didn't think I could make enough money at it. I also loved to travel, so I figured a degree in ESL would allow me to live almost anywhere and teach, and then I could pursue my dream of writing. I landed the job as a columnist for the The Japan Times in 1997, after four years in Japan. I had done a lot of writing before that, mind you, but I really found my niche with the newspaper. It has been good to me and I now write for a living.

What made you decide to write a guidebook on Japan?

I had already turned down book offers by two major publishers, mainly because I didn't care for their contracts. Book contracts aren't that hard to get, but good book contracts are. So I took the book and made it into what I felt was needed, according to what was already out there in the market, what wasn't, and what I thought should be. I didn't want to write just another book about Japan. I wanted to write something provocative, something useful and something that offered a closer, more personal look at the country.

What differentiates Japan, Funny Side Up from all the others out there?

My aim with the book is to present Japan in the most honest but entertaining way possible based on my 17 years of living here. Japan is an endlessly fascinating country. Even after all these years, I still find out something new every day! This is what I want to share with others—an absolute passion for things Japanese.

In addition, I hope to pique peoples’ interest in Japan and get them thinking outside the box. So rather than just presenting some strange Japanese custom, I want readers to think how that custom came about and what makes it Japanese. This is the only way we can truly understand and respect another culture.

With the current popularity of blogs, videos, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, etc, another aim of the book is to recommend places people can go to find more information on various subjects. There are so many good J-bloggers out there who work really hard, usually with no compensation for their work. So I want to highlight the people who are doing an outstanding job of presenting up-to-date information about what's happening here in Japan. That's something a regular book just cannot do. And while there are a lot of average sites on Japan out there, the really good ones deserve a mention.

Did you have any interest in Japan before moving there?

I had done quite a bit of traveling in third world countries so I thought that if I were going to settle down somewhere, I’d choose a developed country where I could make a good salary, enjoy a decent standard of living and save some money. Japan was still hot at the time, and the opportunity to teach came via my university. Teaching at university in Japan was my first real job. I had planned on staying for five years.

Have you formally studied the Japanese language? Can you read and write Japanese? Are you fluent?

I studied Japanese formally at a language school the first year I was here. All the other students at the school were Chinese studying to pass the Japanese university entrance exams, so I had to study very hard to keep up (they already knew the kanji). I was also working full time at the university then, so I didn’t have time to do homework. I would go to language school for four hours in the morning, go teach university in the afternoon, then go home and grade papers. Nonetheless, I still managed to learn to read and write Japanese.

You live on a remote island in Japan. Tell us how you ended up there and a little bit about what it's like to live there.

I had lived in Okayama city, for almost five years when I moved to the island. I was looking for traditional Japan in its raw, unadulterated form. I found it, in a big way, on this little island. The people welcomed me into their community and that’s when I found out how much I really didn’t know about Japan. I wouldn’t trade this little island for anything! The people are awesome—all 650 of them! Life on the island is a sub-theme in my next book, about running the 900-mile Shikoku 88-Temple Buddhist Pilgrimage, which I currently have an agent interested in.

Thanks, Amy!

You can get Japan, Funny Side Up as a Kindle e-book HERE.

Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Ryu Murakami Giveaway!

I was psyched when the good folks at W.W. Norton & Co. Publishers sent me two copies of the latest English-translation novel by acclaimed Japanese author Ryu Murakami, Popular Hits of the Showa Era, to use as giveaways. An irreverent satirical take on the inter-generational battle of the sexes, this novel was first published in 1994 in a serialized version in the Japanese magazine Playboy Weekly. In 2003 it was made into the film Karaoke Terror: The Complete Showa Japanese Songbook directed by Tetsuo Shinohara. You can watch the trailer HERE.

 

Not to be confused with the other Murakami writer (Haruki), Ryu Murakami has won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and many of his books have been made into films including Audition. I remember reading his first novel, Almost Transparent Blue about drug abuse and promiscuity among disaffected Japanese youth as a beginner Japanophile in the 1980s, and it really impressed me.

Popular Hits of the Showa Era is quite funny a lot of the time, but it’s not for the faint of heart. There’s a fair amount of violence and graphic scenes, but it’s all in “good fun” as a group of young slacker guys escalate a battle against an unlikely (and hilarious) gang of obasans (middle-aged career women) who are out for revenge when one of their members is found brutally murdered. I’m not sure if the protagonist from my novel, Midori by Moonlight, (Midori Saito) would have joined these gals, but who knows? And despite it being written in the mid-1990s, I think a lot of what the book has to say about modern Japanese society and the pressures both genders face is still relevant today.

This new English translation of Popular Hits of the Showa Era will be released at the end of January 2011 as a trade paper back. But I’m giving away two advanced reader copies to two lucky winners. All you have to do to be eligible is write a comment on this blog by Sunday, November 7. Tell me about other Ryu Murakami books you’ve enjoyed or films based on his novels. Or share about your favorite contemporary Japanese authors. Then I’ll pick two winners at random on Monday, November 8 and contact them for their postal mail addresses. No geographic restrictions apply!

Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband to Become E-book

The Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband portion of the Chirashi blog is undergoing a redesign in order to become an e-book! More details will be coming soon. In the meantime, if you're the foreign wife of a Japanese husband and would like to be interviewed for this project, write me at: info (AT) WendyTokunaga DOT COM. Yoroshiku onegai shiimasu.

Love in Translation: Foreign Wife, Japanese Husband - Part 3

Patrice, originally from the United States, now lives in Japan with her Japanese husband Junya, who goes by the name of Jack. In this interview she speaks candidly about the challenges of being a gaijin in Japan, bringing back lots of memories for me!





Where and how did you meet your husband?
I met my husband in the United States while I was working as a translator/interpreter in the engineering department at a Japanese company in the mid-West. He had been sent over to work for a few years at the company's mid-West branch office.

He couldn't speak English well so he was often asking me for translation help. I was actually seeing someone else at the time, so Jack and I were just amicable office mates. I helped him with some private translation and he took me to dinner to show his appreciation. I found him to be a charming gentleman and extremely easy to talk to. I confided my personal problems with my current boyfriend to him and he listened patiently, then said in completely seriousness, "Break up with him and go out with me.”

Do you live together in Japan now?
Yes. And we lived together for about a year in States before getting married.

What are the challenges of living in Japan?
Ohhhhhhh jeez. Well, I had lived in Kyoto for three years on my own while working for the JET Program, so I had a pretty good idea what I was getting myself into. However, I quickly learned the differences between Kansai and Kanto since living in Saitama. Now, I've become practically numb to the challenges, so it is hard to recall what I find or found challenging.

Two weeks after we had our wedding in the States, I followed Jack back to Japan and at first I was horribly homesick. I also had some physical challenges adapting to the climate and environment. I felt exhausted all the time and suffered chronic muscular pain. Just going to the grocery store felt like a huge feat. Looking back, my particular challenges with living in Japan had nothing to do with our marriage per se; in fact being married to a Japanese man and living in Japan was far better than the years I spent single in Kyoto.

Some challenges I faced were loneliness, the inconvenient location we lived in, the apartment where we lived, the neighbors that lived above and next to us, failed friendships with Japanese women, cooking for two (if I was single, I could eat very simply and no one complained), getting used to driving on the “wrong” side of the road, frustration with the climate and its effect on me, and last but not least, the endless family obligations.

Had you ever envisioned that you might marry a person from another culture?
Yes. Definitely.

Do you and your husband speak Japanese to each other?
Yes. I throw in a few English words just for fun. My husband is very talented and smart in many areas, but acquiring languages is not one of his strong points. Somehow he still gets along with my family and friends with his broken English and the universal love for drink and food certainly helps.

Do you and your husband have any communication problems that have nothing to do with language?
No, we are very open and don't keep anything suppressed. He is very no- nonsense and doesn't hesitate to show his emotions. In other words there is no “double-speak” and the typical beat-around-the-bush guessing game is non-existent in this house.

Jack is from Tokyo's equivalent of the Bronx. His family is working class and they are not exactly what one would call cultured or intellectual. I don't mean that in a snobby way. In fact, I rather like it because I don't feel like I’m being judged, tested and evaluated all the time like I do with some other families I know here.

I know this may sound strange, but in a way I think it is good that we don't speak each other’s language perfectly. I understand Japanese better than he understands English and that is probably a good thing. Why? Because I can be very sarcastic and cutting, so it's probably better for our marriage that he doesn't understand my occasional barbs. When I watch TV from the States, I am often amazed at how mean couples can be with their words (in an argument) and I often think, thank God I don't have that aspect in my marriage. Words can be daggers.

What are some of the most challenging aspects of your cross-cultural marriage?
I would have to say the biggest challenge is tolerating his family. It's not that I don't like them (and my mother-in-law and I get along very well) but she seems overly dependent on my husband. The chonan, the oldest son of his family, has been living in the States for the past six years. He is finally being sent back to Japan, but this whole time Jack has had to pick up the chonan slack, which means all kinds of duty and obligations that sometimes overly complicate our lives, and can be rather nerve-wracking.

But to be fair, I should also explain that my mother-in-law is a widow and has never had to learn to do anything independently. She just has a middle school education and was never encouraged to pursue further studies. She was just expected to help the family and eventually get married, have children etc. Despite the fact that she was the only daughter out of four other sons, Jack’s father married into her family. This is unusual because normally when men are “adopted” by the bride's family, so to speak, it’s because the family has only daughters. So Jack’s mother never experienced having to be the wife/daughter-in-law in an unfamiliar household.

And also I must say that my mother-in-law has been kind to me in her own way. She doesn't complain about me and has accepted me completely, despite my being a gaijin. So, I have to give her credit for that. I know things could be a lot worse. For example, we don’t live with her and that helps.

Do you work outside the home? If so, what is your job?
I do. I work at a little company that provides translation services and conversation in English, Spanish, Chinese & Korean. I am the English translator/teacher obviously. I have “clients” for which I translate mostly business-related documents and then I have a few students. I had another job working as a public (government) translator/interpreter and I mostly worked for hospitals, public lawyers and government offices, but that job was so wracked with petty politics and twisted people that I just had to leave before it got the better of me. I did enjoy being a translator for hospitals though.

What attributes do you feel are most important for a successful cross-cultural marriage?
I know everyone says this, but a sense of humor and the ability to just go with the flow and not try to control things. It's taken me a while but now I have the attitude of, "OK, whatever, that's just the way it is." I feel like my husband and I get along because we are very compatible as living partners and we just click. If I'm the pot, he's the lid. Our "cross-cultural-ness" doesn't seem to play too much of a part in the whole thing.

What do you find frustrating about Japanese culture?
Body temperature. You're probably thinking, "What the hell? Body temperature?" Yes, Wendy. I’m serious.

Winter is the worst for me because every single store, office, restaurant, train, bus etc. is blasting the heat soooooo high, I just want to tear off my skin. It amazes me that winter is the only time I wear short sleeves and I wear long sleeves in the summer to protect my skin from sunburn. I complain about this every fall and winter, but everyone tells me, "Japanese have a very low body temperature and they are easily cold, unlike you, who has the body of a “hunter/gatherer meat eater.” Japanese will never complain about it being too hot, but they get very upset about cold. Also there are so many old people now and they must stay warm, which makes me want to shout things about scarves, hats, gloves and global warming. It does not need to be 82 degrees (F) in a tightly packed train. Ever hear of natural body heat?

That brings me to another frustration: the constant living under a microscope and being measured against Japanese (mis)conceptions about gaijin. I'm not just talking about the "You use chopsticks so well!” or “You can eat sushi?!?!" bits, I’m talking about the "We Japanese are originally peaceful farming people who live (lived) on a simple diet of rice, fish and vegetables. You, however, are a hunter/gatherer meat-eating (in other words barbarian) so....[fill in the blank with whatever reasoning.]" And whatever I do, even down to the tiniest thing, whatever I do is constantly "Gaijin dakara..." (because you’re a foreigner) or else "Nihon-jin mitai..." (like a Japanese) when whatever behavior I do is positive and satisfying in their eyes.

—Wendy Nelson Tokunaga conducted this interview. She is the author of the novels, Love in Translation and Midori by Moonlight. Get more info at: http://www.WendyTokunaga.com