Ten Years in Japan is a fascinating and unique look inside the government of Japan before and during the attack on Pearl Harbour. Written from the detailed personal diaries of Joseph C. Grew the American ambassador based in Tokyo from 1932 and up until war was declared in the beginning of 1942. This book deals, as is right and proper, primarily with American-Japanese relations. But for British readers it has a special interest because it covers a period during which British and American policies in the Orient followed parallel lines; a period when the two Governments were grappling with problems always similar and sometimes identical. The interest is not lessened by the peeps that we get of what were, in fact, unremitting efforts on the part of the Japanese to sow discord between Britain and America on the principle of 'divide et impera.'

In October 1943 a small group of Mongolian pilgrims set off westward from Inner Mongolia. Before them lay a confused battleground where the Japanese and rival armies of Chinese and Mongolians fought over the fate of Central Asia. Among the pilgrims was a young monk named Dawa Sangpo beginning what was probably the greatest travel adventure undertaken by anyone of his nationality in this century; for he was not Mongolian at all, but an enterprising Japanese named Hisao Kimura.

In the spring of 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal. Hunted in turn by American troops, the Philippine police, hostile islanders, and successive Japanese search parties, Onoda had skillfully outmaneuvered all his pursuers, convinced that World War II was still being fought and that one day his fellow soldiers would return victorious. This account of those years is an epic tale of the will to survive that offers a rare glimpse of man's invincible spirit, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. A hero to his people, Onoda wrote down his experiences soon after his return to civilization. This book was translated into English the following year and has enjoyed an approving audience ever since.

Part 50 Shades of Grey, part Purple Rain, The Eternal Outsider is an erotic true story about one man¿s whimsical journey to the fourth largest city in Japan. When Trevor¿s efforts to bring emotion to an emotionless society gets lost in translation, he is given fifteen minutes of fame as a consolation prize. However, with this new found notoriety came unheralded street fights, near death experiences, sold out concerts, magazine covers, billboard ads, and of course the excessive amount of women, including a ¿lovesick¿ model who suffers from an acute memory lapse, an emotional Japanese Jazz singer¿and then there¿s his withdrawn wife, who one afternoon found the courage to plead with his addictive girlfriend to dissolve their secret rendezvous for the sake of their two children. Notably, one of the finest love stories ever told¿revealing, shocking, sometimes witty and vividly unforgettable.Visit the dark side of Japan without actually leaving your house. Japan; arguably the most mysterious and cultural enigmatic place on Earth. Japan.It¿s not what you think it is¿

Complete with maps and extensive advice, this guide to Japan's hot springs is an invaluable resource for anyone travelling to Japan. Easier to get to than many might imagine, Japan's hidden hot springs are among the few remaining repositories of ancient Japanese ambiance and sensibility. Bucolic and charming, they bear little resemblance to the sterile, clinic-like spas of the West or to the concrete jungles of Japan's best-known onsen towns. The hot springs introduced here belong to another time but they are disappearing fast. Discover them before it's too late through this selective, personalized, and authoritative guide. In this spa guide are unbelievable gems that you would otherwise never, ever, find by yourself. Japanese people are often shocked that you found such a place. It's a very concise collection of the "true and traditional" Japanese onsen ryokan. It is for anyone who seeks a traditional experience of what onsen used to be before modernization set in.

In Kansai Cool anthropologist, writer and filmmaker Christal Whelan offers profound insights in the only collection of essays to focus on Kansai, Japan's ancient heartland. Kansai--the region in Western Japan that boasts the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, the bustling commercial city of Osaka and the cosmopolitan port city of Kobe--has a character all its own, right down to its dialect, mannerisms, and cuisine. It is home to some of Japan's oldest history and an area where the country's most time-honored arts and crafts still thrive. Worldly and otherworldly, spirited and spiritual, trendy and traditional, it's a place where past and future live side-by-side, sometimes at odds. Part Japanese travel book, part cultural commentary, these 25 spirited essays and 32 pages of color photos paint a broad yet penetrating portrait of the unique Western Japan region, covering such diverse topics as: The needs of the spirit--shrines, temples and the call to pilgrimage The arts in Kansai--dance, painting, anime, and combat The relationship between hi-tech and old-tech Material culture--bikes, robots, and dolls The culture of fashion in Kansai--from kimonos and obis to modern fashion designers, and the Lolita complex The meaning of landscape-- human-made islands and the mystical power of water The hidden meaning of food--an anthropology of coffee and traditional cuisine From the deep-seated ancient beliefs of Kyoto to modern teen otaku culture, costume play and haute couture of Kobe and Osaka--Whelan delves below the surface to let readers eager to travel to Japan experience how art, science, faith and history swirl together in the Kansai region to produce this unique wellspring of Japanese culture.

This title introduces a collection of the finest bonsai pieces to be found in Japan today. Over 180 plates of priceless specimens with informative commentary provide a definitive tour of the bonsai world. The notes for each piece offer insights into the balance, style, harmony and aesthetic as well as history of the bonsai. The Nippon Bonsai Association, Japan's pre-eminent voice of the bonsai tradition, introduces a collection of the finest bonsai pieces to be found in Japan today - some of them presented to a Western audience for the first time. Over 130 full-colour and 71

A hilarious story of one man’s obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nation’s cultural confusion—from a master Japanese novelist. When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly smitten by her exotic, almost Western appearance. Determined to transform her into the perfect wife and to whisk her away from the seamy underbelly of post-World War I Tokyo, Joji adopts and ultimately marries Naomi, paying for English and music lessons that promise to mold her into his ideal companion. But as she grows older, Joji discovers that Naomi is far from the naïve girl of his fantasies. And, in Tanizaki’s masterpiece of lurid obsession, passion quickly descends into comically helpless masochism.

A wide-ranging collection of essays on diverse aspects of contemporary Japan, held together by the thread of continuity within change, this volume presents fifteen distinct points of view on aspects from immigration to regulatory reform to critical thinking in education to theatre, literature, and religion. The essays are provocative, international in scope, and deeply analyical of the challenges facing both Japan and scholars as they enter the twenty-first century.

Japan's official surrender to the United States in 1945 brought to an end one of the most bitter and brutal military conflicts of the twentieth century. U.S. government officials then faced the task of transforming Japan from enemy to ally, not only in top-level diplomatic relations but also in the minds of the American public. Only ten years after World War II, this transformation became a success as middle-class American consumers across the country were embracing Japanese architecture, films, hobbies, philosophy, and religion. Cultural institutions on both sides of the Pacific along with American tastemakers promoted a new image of Japan in keeping with State Department goals. Focusing on traditions instead of modern realities, Americans came to view Japan as a nation that was sophisticated and beautiful yet locked harmlessly in a timeless "Oriental" past. What ultimately led many Americans to embrace Japanese culture was a desire to appear affluent and properly "tasteful" in the status-conscious suburbs of the 1950s. In How to Reach Japan by Subway, Meghan Warner Mettler studies the shibui phenomenon, in which middle-class American consumers embraced Japanese culture while still exoticizing this new aesthetic. By examining shibui through the popularity of samurai movies, ikebana flower arrangement, bonsai cultivation, home and garden design, and Zen Buddhism, Mettler provides a new context and perspective for understanding how Americans encountered a foreign nation in their everyday lives.