I'm fairly certain I read this one when it first came out years ago, but did not recall a single detail, so it was essentially new for me.Tough one to review, as things have changed enough so that finding it somewhat dated wasn't a huge surprise. I'd like to think that the sexism of an "office lady"ceiling for female college graduates is not what it was back then. As far as travel narrative goes, I don't mind expat stories of their lives in a country, but here things became less interesting when...

This was a great book. A story of Japan, diaspora and life. I quite enjoyed it. Content-wise, it was very similar to Fifty Sounds or Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan - but not as good though.Unlike the 2 books above, this book really focused on subjects such as life, introspective personality, identities, belonging, and death. Whereas the others were lighter and more about Japanese culture. This book was more of an internal monologue of "is Japan for me". Still, I am really enjoying my...

The first seven chapters were incredible and poignantly captured what it feels like to be a foreigner in another country. Each chapter focuses on a specific part of Japanese culture such as Japanese women, students, "salary men", foreigners, the taboo night life of Osaka, and sacred temples. I appreciated the philosophical musings on what it feels like to be a foreigner, to stick out, to enjoy not understanding the language fluently, to bumble around trying to figure out how society works. I lea...

A delightful book by the author describing one of the four times that she lived in Japan with her husband and son as a professor. The title comes from a set of woodblock prints (36 of them originally) by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The woodblock prints which is a series of prints - depicts Mount Fuji in varying seasons/weather conditions from different places/distances. The series consists in total of 46 prints created between 1826 and 1833. The first 36 were included in the ...

This is a typical Gaijin-goes-to-Japan-for-a-year-and-writes-a-book-about-it book. It has reasonably good descriptions of some of the strange (to a westerner) customs of Japanese culture. The author for instance spends some time in the "floating world" of hostess bars. Some of what she relates is different from what our experience was. I was able to get about 2/3 of the way through this before I lost interest.

SPOULER FREE!!!ON COMPLETION: Below I state that the author was teaching on all of her trips. This is not trueI She returned for other reasons, which you will find out by reading the book.Furthermore, Cathy, in fact returns a fifth time in 2005, 10 years after the the earthquake in Kobe on January 17, 1995. This final trip is chronicled in the Afterword. The book has a dictionary of useful terms and an Acknowledgments chapter at the very end. The acknowledgements are essential reading. She state...

Like so many American sojourners to Japan, Davidson taught English, and here she describes her relationships and experiences in Japan over a period of 10 years, during which she moved back and forth between there and North Carolina. Some of her experiences were outmoded by the time I arrived there (staying at a "practice house," where young women are groomed to become good wives for American men; counseling a young female student fattening herself up so she won't have to enter an arranged marria...

I read this book when we first moved to Japan, about 9 years ago. I decided to re-read it and see if it still seemed insightful to me. It's aged very well, and some parts (especially about the frustration of teaching female college students) moved me to tears this time around. Other parts seem a little facile, but it's still a wonderful and insightful exploration of--not so much Japan itself, but how living in a foreign country shapes your image of yourself and your place in the world.

I so enjoyed this book. Davidson has an engaging style that is easy to read. I felt like I was right there with her on all of her adventures and encounters in Japan. She vividly describes the experience of being a stranger in a strange land - the similarities and differences (one funny scene involves having to give a urine specimen while on antibiotics that turn her tinkle blue, confirming for all present that Americans really ARE different - they even have blue pee pee!); being held at arms len...

I quietly finished this memoir at my office, I have no work to do but as it is Japan they won't let me leave so I sit and read...I loved this book, especially now as my time in Japan draws to an end. Davidson aptly captures the spirit of living as a foreigner in Japan, the wonder, the aggrivation, the struggle to learn Japanese, the education system, it's all there, told in a warm, comfortable way. I am glad I found the book and can't wait to pass it on!