Windows on Japan: A Walk Through Place and PerceptionIn Windows on Japan, a New Zealander walks across rural Japan and ponders centuries-old perceptions about the country that is still prisoner to an isolationist past. In a deeply insightful commentary, the author surveys cultural, social and political mores, explores the wellspring of racial perception and the problem of the memory of war. Windows on Japan alternates chapters of physical travel with travel through perception about Japan, and challenges the logic of much Western thought about the country that perplexes as much as it pleases. The author walked a route that connects the ports of Niigata and Yokohama and from these windows on the world considers perceptions of people and place. He also assesses the effect of Japan on writers from Jonathan Swift to Oscar Wilde, Shirley MacLaine and Paul Theroux with surprising results. The trading entity that wraps its tentacles around the globe, converses in most languages and understands most customs, is perceptive and urbane and none appears more capable or cosmopolitan. Yet the individuals who inhabit these islands take refuge in their language as a private habitat, resent intrusions, and are captured by a cultural particularism that distances them from others. The author discusses this paradox, as well as environmental and linguistic issues and topics of history and literature. Along the way, he lifts a veil on the life of a snow country geisha, discusses current events with a priest and a reporter, and takes advice on becoming a Japanese. Though he is understood, it is only on return visits to places he has come to love that he wins acceptance. Notes on music delightfully enrich the narrative. |
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... percent in the three years follow- ing the accord . US goods thus became cheaper for foreign buyers , but the country itself seemed for sale . The more enduring result was that Japanese firms became even more competitive . They pared ...
... percent in the three years follow- ing the accord . US goods thus became cheaper for foreign buyers , but the country itself seemed for sale . The more enduring result was that Japanese firms became even more competitive . They pared ...
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Contents
| 5 | |
| 19 | |
| 29 | |
| 41 | |
| 51 | |
100 SACKS OF RICE | 59 |
SHIRLEYS CLOAK | 73 |
FEUDAL FACSIMILE | 77 |
LYRICS AND MIRRORS | 173 |
THE GAZE OF THE GODDESS | 177 |
STOLEN WORDS | 185 |
SLEEPLESS IN SAITAMA | 191 |
74 MINUTES | 199 |
KAWAGOE COMFORT | 201 |
AS WE SEE THEM | 207 |
THE CITY THAT WORKS | 213 |
JACKS EPIC | 85 |
AN ORDERLY TOWN | 87 |
GOLF AND TULIPS | 97 |
THE SCENE CHANGES | 99 |
TRADING TERMS | 107 |
AMID THE TALL CEDARS | 111 |
ONCE WERE ANIMALS | 119 |
MATSUES LIFE | 121 |
PUPPETS FEEL NO PAIN | 135 |
TRAVELERS ARE STRANGERS | 137 |
A MURDEROUS CULT | 147 |
WAKEUP CALL | 151 |
WHAT OSCAR REALIZED | 157 |
THE PATH OF GHOSTS | 163 |
LOOKING OUT TO SEA | 225 |
HE LOVED HIS WIFE | 235 |
UNTIL THE END | 239 |
THE UNCOUNTABLE Dead | 243 |
WAR AND MUSIC | 255 |
FEATHERSTON | 259 |
THE WAY BACK | 267 |
OPERA CITY | 277 |
HIGHER GROUND | 281 |
ENGLISH BORROWINGS OF JAPANESE WORDS | 287 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 289 |
INDEX | 297 |
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American appeared army asked Ba Maw believe bombs bullet train called CHAPTER China Chinese daimyo dams death dogs edition English Featherston foreign geisha Gulliver Gunma Hokkaidō Honshū inside Japan Japanese jazz Jazz Mama Kaempfer Kawabata killed kilometers Koide Korean Kyūshū language later live looked meters miles million minshuku Muikamachi Nagaoka Nagasaki night Nihon Niigata Numata Old Patagonian Express Pacific War park percent Perhaps political port POWs Prefecture priest prime minister prisoners produce records residents restaurant rice River Road 17 ryokan Saitama Saitama Prefecture samurai Sanjō seemed Shibukawa Shinano River ships shogun snow country Station Takasaki Tanaka temple There's Theroux tion Tōjō Tokugawa Tokugawa shoguns Tokyo told tombstones Tone River town trade translation trucks tunnel Untoan villages walk wanted woman word writing wrote Yokohama York Yuzawa Zealand
Popular passages
Page 18 - The History of Japan, giving An Account of the ancient and present State and Government of that Empire; of Its Temples, Palaces, Castles and other Buildings; of its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes ; of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Nativcs, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese.
Page 159 - If you want to know who we are, We are gentlemen of Japan: On many a vase and jar — On many a screen and fan, We figure in lively paint: Our attitude's queer and quaint — You're wrong if you think it ain't.
Page 249 - We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners.
Page 159 - If you think we are worked by strings, Like a Japanese marionette, You don't understand these things: It is simply Court etiquette. Perhaps you suppose this throng Can't keep it up all day long? If that's your idea, you're wrong, oh!
Page 105 - and come out of him.' Then the devil, after throwing the man down in front of the people, left him without doing him any injury. Amazement fell on them all and they said to one another: 'What is there in this man's words? He gives orders to the unclean spirits with authority and power, and out they go.
Page 77 - All streams run into the sea, yet the sea never overflows; back to the place from which the streams ran they return to run again.
Page 105 - In the distance a 30 large herd of pigs was feeding; and the devils begged him: 'If you 31 drive us out, send us into that herd of pigs.' 'Begone', he said. \Then they came out and went into the pigs; the whole herd rushed over the edge into the lake, and perished in the water. The men in charge of them took to their heels, and made for the 33 town, where they told the whole story, and what had happened to the madmen.