Shalom, Japan: A Sabra's Five Years in the Land of the Rising SunWhen Shifra Horn traveled across the world from her native Israel to join her diplomat husband in Japan for a five-year stay, East met West in remarkable and often humorous ways. From the surprising conviviality of communal baths to a system of policing neighborhoods that makes Japan's crime rate among the world's lowest...from rituals of courtship and arranged marriages to the festival of the fertility god Kanamara - which includes a lifelike replica of a certain part of his anatomy being paraded through the town of Kawasaki, Shifra Horn's Shalom, Japan captures the many moods and unique spirit of Japan. A stranger in a strange land, Horn would greet each day with an open mind, a sense of humor, and her own brand of chutzpah. Sharing an Embassy apartment with her husband, her young son and a spoiled Himalayan tomcat, she learned first-hand the rules, restrictions and outright taboos of Japan. In the supremely important art of gift-giving, for example, Horn discovered how the wrong wrapping or ribbons could offend; and how the principle of disposability is crucial in a land that simply has no room for trash. When it comes to the pleasures of bathing, she discovered, the Japanese know no bounds. And there are onsens or communal baths of many kinds: outdoor baths, beneath a canopy of trees on a starry night; and baths reminiscent of the milk baths of ancient Rome. There are mud baths, coffee baths, tea baths, baths filled with rice wine, and baths where the bather is buried in sand. There are baths on rivers and baths in moving cable cars. Nothing, however, can compare to the shock of diving - literally - into a bath that also includes the men and women of the Yakuza, or Japanese Mafia.Usually a closed event that no Japanese national ever sees, Horn not only participated, she was fortunate to escape with her life! Horn's informative, delightful anecdotes offer a window into Japanese daily life and culture. There are the charms of the Oxygen Bar - a three-minute |
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Shalom, Japan: A Sabra's Five Years in the Land of the Rising Sun Shifra Horn No preview available - 1996 |
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Ainu anti-Semitism asked babies bath bride Buddhist burakumin butsudan cabinet cemetery child clothes color cost couple cute decorated divorce door dressed eyes face festival fish flowers foreigners friends garbage geisha giant gift Ginza guests hair hand Harada Hebrew homeless hostess husband island Israel Israeli Japan Japanese girl Japanese language Japanese mother Japanese women Jewish Jews joke kawaii kimono kind kite Kiyako Konishiki Koreans live look love hotel Makuya male married meal million mizu-ko never night offer Okinawa onsen percent police priests religions restaurant rice ryokan sect Seiyo sensei Shinto Shogun Star of David street Sugihara sure tatami temple thousands tiny tion toilet Tokyo told turned usually waiting walk wanted wedding wife woman word wrapped Yakuza Yoko young yukata