Download or read book Memoirs of a Gaijin written by Benjamin Hesse and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2007-05 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hello from Japan. Not much new here. My four-year-olds attacked me, my crazy female stalkers jumped on the desk and professed their love for me, my depressed coworkers fist-fought each other at the all-you-can-drink karaoke bar, and I have no idea what I ate yesterday but it was uncooked and squishy. Pretty much the usual. What's new from home? Ben took the teaching job in Japan because he wasn't quite ready to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Instead, his efforts were put towards figuring out his new students, coworkers, and dinner. He is a "gaijin," the Japanese word for "foreigner." From festivals and temples to bicycles and cleaning supplies, Memoirs of a Gaijin: Emails from Japan is the one-year collection of emails and journals that chronicle Ben's experiences in the comedic and confusing country of Japan. "A witty, honest work. Ben Hesse's Memoirs of a Gaijin should be a required read for those college grads who are contemplating the increasingly popular first 'real life' step of teaching English abroad."-C.J. Renner, author of Tried to Say

Download or read book Memoirs of a Gaijin written by Bretigne Shaffer and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adventures of a young American woman living in a Tokyo Gaijin house.

Download or read book Yokohama Gaijin written by George Lavrov and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: G e o r g e L a v r o v George Lavrov was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, where he attended St. Joseph grade and high school. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University, with a major in international trade management with area specialization in Japan and the Pacific Rim. He is the author of The Pacific Rim--Threat or Promise, as well as various other articles dealing with Asian and international business. Being trilingual, he speaks English, Russian and Japanese. During 1975 to 1986, Lavrov was based in Tokyo where he represented American insurance interests. Since returning to the U.S., he has continued to work in the international arena, especially related to Asia and the Pacific Rim. Yokohama Gaijin is George Lavrov's personal story, told from his own eyewitness account. It recounts the horror of WWII carpet bombings of Japanese cities, including the tragic loss of his elder brother, Konstantin, who was killed instantly when a bomb from an American B-29 bomber made a direct hit on the Lavrov residence in Yokohama, Japan, on May 29th, 1945, the harsh wartime treatment of gaijin (foreign) residents of Japan and much more. It is the true story of a stateless White Russian and his family, as they coped through some of the most difficult times of the 20th century--the WWII period in Japan and the postwar years that followed. But it's also a story of faith and hope in the future--a future that spelled A M E R I C A and a successful career in the international business world.

Download or read book Memoirs of a Gaijin written by Pascale Crane and published by . This book was released on 2009-10-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adventures of a young American woman living in a Tokyo Gaijin house.

Download or read book Memoirs of a Gaijin written by Elaine L. Honstein and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Memoirs of a Gaijin written by Erin Neff Peters and published by . This book was released on 2007-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan is one of the great loves of my life, but it wasnat always that way. As little as six years ago, Japan wasnat even on my list of places that I wanted to visit, let alone live. It seemed too aoriental.a Yet, through a weird twist of fate (and, as it turned out, luck), I ended up living there two separate times, most recently as an English teacher. Life as a agaijina (literally translated, aoutside persona) in Japan was oftentimes frustrating (especially when, time and again, people looked into your shopping cart at the grocery store to see what a gaijin would buy) and at the same time side-splittingly hilarious. This is a humorous collection of my experiences written while I was living in Yamagata Mura, Iwate Ken, Japan. I hope you enjoy reading them (and laughing at them) as much as I enjoyed living them.

Download or read book The Only Gaijin in the Village written by Iain Maloney and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2016 Scottish writer Iain Maloney and his Japanese wife Minori moved to a village in rural Japan. This is the story of his attempt to fit in, be accepted and fulfil his duties as a member of the community, despite being the only foreigner in the village. Even after more than a decade living in Japan and learning the language, life in the countryside was a culture shock. Due to increasing numbers of young people moving to the cities in search of work, there are fewer rural residents under the retirement age – and they have two things in abundance: time and curiosity. Iain's attempts at amateur farming, basic gardening and DIY are conducted under the watchful eye of his neighbours and wife. But curtain twitching is the least of his problems. The threat of potential missile strikes and earthquakes is nothing compared to the venomous snakes, terrifying centipedes and bees the size of small birds that stalk Iain's garden. Told with self-deprecating humour, this memoir gives a fascinating insight into a side of Japan rarely seen and affirms the positive benefits of immigration for the individual and the community. It's not always easy being the only gaijin in the village.

Download or read book Cultured Gaijin written by Joseph Delmastro and published by . This book was released on 2022-10-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honor. Sacrifice. Friendship. Tradition. Love. Cultures clash and hearts open in this exciting memoir set in 1970s Japan. What happens when an Italian-American airman stationed in Tokyo breaks free from expectations and fully opens to embrace-and be embraced-by Japan's traditional way of living and loving? Other books and movies have shown us the politically authorized view, the Hollywood view, the Americanized view of Japan. For the first time, in Cultured Gaijin (foreigner), you will discover the REAL Japan. Whether you are already a lover of The Land of the Rising Sun, or you have been curious and want to go beyond the guidebooks and documentaries, this book is your gateway to an immersion that is as humorous as it is thought-provoking. Through the eyes, mind, and spirit of a U.S. Air Force serviceman willing to step deeply into Bushido, the moral code of the samurai warrior, while staying true to himself, you will journey from Japanese countryside to city, from mountains to temples, and meet real-life characters who will enliven and enlighten you long after you have read the last page of this respectful, revealing, romantic, and raw autobiography.

Download or read book On Tokyo s Edge written by Gordon Ball and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. Edited by Susan Gardner. These twenty-three short stories reaffirm author Gordon Ball's absorption with, and illumination of, "vanished" people, places, and times. Following on the heels of three memoirs, ON TOKYO'S EDGE re-creates the texture of life among a rarefied group of relatively isolated foreigners in American-Occupied Japan and the decade following Occupation. Peopling these interrelated short fictions are a great range of vivid characters, including schoolmates, lovers, military men, chemistry teachers, maids, a lustful preacher, and a missionary of exemplary character. Many of the tales focus on young Robert La Salle, suddenly transplanted at age five to a culture 8,000 miles distant and who, as year follows year, confronts levels of "foreignness" within himself and his family as well as the strange larger world around him. "ON TOKYO'S EDGE is a wonderful collection of stories about a young boy coming of age in a foreign land. The stories draw us into his world and let us learn with him what happens when two cultures collide. Ball's gentle, patient nature and his affection for this vanished world shines through vivid and undimmed by time. Beautifully written, it's a book I couldn't put down." -- Bill Morgan "ON TOKYO'S EDGE gorgeously evokes the privileged world of American expats in 1950's Occupied Japan. Among them is Robert La Salle, a young boy, uncomfortably aware of being an outsider in a defeated country and keenly alert to adult foibles. In crisp, ringing detail, the story reveals a tightly-knit American community that is reshaping Japan even as Japan refashions its place in the world. Like the re-emerging nation, Robert is coming of age. His progress is poignant, funny, and vastly entertaining." -- Cary Holladay "Gordon Ball has proven himself to be a first-rate memoirist, whether he's recalling his role as an observer/participant in the mid-Sixties New York alternative film community (66 Frames) or remembering his job at controlling the mayhem of Allen Ginsberg's upstate New York farm (East Hill Farm). In this collection of short stories, he has taken the shards of his memory as a youth growing up in Japan, shaped then with the tools of fiction, and crafted them into wonderful tales and anecdotes. He has accomplished what good fiction sets out to do." -- Michael Schumacher

Download or read book Tokyo Central written by Seidenstic and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The memoirs of Seidensticker, perhaps best know for his translations of modern and classical Japanese novels, including the 11th century Tale of Genji. Seidensticker was introduced to Japan as a young diplomat during the Allied occupation and remained in Tokyo afterwards, befriending many of the luminaries of the Japanese literary scene. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Turning Japanese written by David Mura and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The poet David Mura brings an intriguing perspective to the New World quest for enlightenment from this ancient and ascendant culture” (The New York Times). Award-winning poet David Mura’s critically acclaimed memoir Turning Japanese chronicles how a year in Japan transformed his sense of self and pulled into sharp focus his complicated inheritance. Mura is a sansei, a third-generation Japanese-American who grew up on baseball and hot dogs in a Chicago suburb where he heard more Yiddish than Japanese. Turning Japanese chronicles his quest for identity with honesty, intelligence, and poetic vision, and it stands as a classic meditation on difference and assimilation and is a valuable window onto a country that has long fascinated our own. Turning Japanese was a New York Times Notable Book and winner of an Oakland PEN Josephine Miles Book Award. This edition includes a new afterword by the author. “A dizzying interior voyage of self-discovery and splintered identity.” —Chicago Tribune “There is brilliant writing in this book, observations of Japanese humanity and culture that are subtly different from and more penetrating than what we usually get from Westerners.” —The New Yorker “Turning Japanese reads like a fascinating novel you can’t put down . . . Mura’s story is a universal one, and one that is accessible to everyone, even those whose experience in the U.S. is not that of a person of color.” —Asian Week “[Mura] paints a portrait of Japan that is rich and satisfying . . . a refreshingly kindly and tolerant study, a powerful antidote to the venomous anti-Japanese mood that seems, distressingly, to be seizing some corners of the American mind.” —Conde Nast Traveler

Download or read book A Tokyo Romance written by Ian Buruma and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic memoir of self-invention in a strange land: Ian Buruma's unflinching account of his amazing journey into the heart of Tokyo's underground culture as a young man in the 1970's When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo in 1975, Japan was little more than an idea in his mind, a fantasy of a distant land. A sensitive misfit in the world of his upper middleclass youth, what he longed for wasn’t so much the exotic as the raw, unfiltered humanity he had experienced in Japanese theater performances and films, witnessed in Amsterdam and Paris. One particular theater troupe, directed by a poet of runaways, outsiders, and eccentrics, was especially alluring, more than a little frightening, and completely unforgettable. If Tokyo was anything like his plays, Buruma knew that he had to join the circus as soon as possible. Tokyo was an astonishment. Buruma found a feverish and surreal metropolis where nothing was understated—neon lights, crimson lanterns, Japanese pop, advertising jingles, and cabarets. He encountered a city in the midst of an economic boom where everything seemed new, aside from the isolated temple or shrine that had survived the firestorms and earthquakes that had levelled the city during the past century. History remained in fragments: the shapes of wounded World War II veterans in white kimonos, murky old bars that Mishima had cruised in, and the narrow alleys where street girls had once flitted. Buruma’s Tokyo, though, was a city engaged in a radical transformation. And through his adventures in the world of avant garde theater, his encounters with carnival acts, fashion photographers, and moments on-set with Akira Kurosawa, Buruma underwent a radical transformation of his own. For an outsider, unattached to the cultural burdens placed on the Japanese, this was a place to be truly free. A Tokyo Romance is a portrait of a young artist and the fantastical city that shaped him. With his signature acuity, Ian Buruma brilliantly captures the historical tensions between east and west, the cultural excitement of 1970s Tokyo, and the dilemma of the gaijin in Japanese society, free, yet always on the outside. The result is a timeless story about the desire to transgress boundaries: cultural, artistic, and sexual.

Download or read book Gaijin written by Jordan Okumura and published by Civil Coping Mechanisms. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exquisite and excruciating, Gaijin is a blunt, alarmingly honest accounting of scars and blows to the spirit. Part memoir, part mythology, and part eulogy to a grandfather, Gaijin simultaneously tracks a personal rupture and a family, through the painful and awkward reclamation of the self after sexual violence and the evocation of a patriarch, half dreamed, half real. So powerful is the poetry and aching of Gaijin, it crushes the breath out of you as you read.

Download or read book Sharing a House with the Never Ending Man written by Steve Alpert and published by Stone Bridge Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highly entertaining memoir describing what it was like to work for Japan’s premiere animation studio, Studio Ghibli, and its reigning genius Hayao Miyazaki. A behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like for a gaijin (foreigner) to work in a thoroughly Japanese organization run by four of the most famous and culturally influential people in modern Japan.

Download or read book The Fourth String written by Janet Pocorobba and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The word sensei in Japanese literally means "one who came before," but that's not what Janet Pocorobba's teacher wanted to be called. She used her first name, Western-style. She wore a velour Beatles cap and leather jacket, and she taught foreigners, in English, the three-stringed shamisen, an instrument that fell out of tune as soon as you started to play it. Vexed by the music and Sensei's mission to upend an elite musical system, Pocorobba, on the cusp of thirty, gives up her return ticket home to become a lifelong student of her teacher. She is eventually featured in Japan Cosmo as one of the most accomplished gaijin, "outside people," to play the instrument. Part memoir, part biography of her Sensei, The Fourth String looks back on the initial few years of that apprenticeship, one that Janet's own female English students advised her was "wife training," steeped in obedience, loyalty, and duty. Even with her maverick teacher, Janet is challenged by group hierarchies, obscure traditions, and the tricky spaces of silence in Japanese life. Anmoku ryokai, Sensei says to explain: "We have to understand without saying." By the time Janet finds out this life might not be for her, she is more at home in the music than the Japanese will allow. For anyone who has had a special teacher, or has lost themselves in another world, Janet Pocorobba asks questions about culture, learning, tradition, and self. As Gish Jen has said of The Fourth String, "What does it mean to be taught? To be transformed?"

Download or read book The Dream of Water written by Kyoko Mori and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1990 author Kyoko Mori returned to her native Japan to visit the "landscape of my childhood." There--looking for the house in which her mother killed herself, running on land that was once water, and retracing childhood train trips to her grandparents' farm--she relived the memories and uncovered the secrets that unlocked her past. In The Dream of Water, a series of chapters that are themselves "small perfections," she leads us to the "larger happiness" of an autobiography that is also a work of art. Japan is the land Mori fled as a teenager, seeking to escape from her cold, abusive father and her manipulative stepmother. It is the country she spend her adult life putting behind her, but it is also her homeland. As she searches through familiar neighborhoods and on distant islands, she is constantly aware of the culture she abandoned and the one she has adopted. Pushed by the sights and sounds of contemporary Japan into her interior world of memory and dreams, she also looks out toward the daylight land of America. A personal journey of discovery that is also an exploration of national difference, The Dream of Water explores intimate emotions that reveal profound cultural truths.

Download or read book Women of the Pleasure Quarters written by Lesley Downer and published by Crown. This book was released on 2002-01-08 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From critically acclaimed author and Japanese scholar Lesley Downer, an enchanting portrait of the mysterious world of the geisha. Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini's Madama Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence, though, whether today or in history, has rarely been addressed. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but, literally, "arts people." Their accomplishments include singing, dancing, playing a musical instruments; but above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing the worries and stroking the egos of the wealthy businessmen who can afford their attentions. It is this which imbues the geisha with such power—and which makes absolute secrecy such a crucial aspect of their work. As denizens of a world defined by silence and mystery, geisha are notoriously difficult to meet and even to find. Lesley Downer, an award- winning writer, Japanese scholar, and consummate storyteller, gained more access into this world than almost any other Westerner ever has and spent several months living among them. In Women of the Pleasure Quarters, she weaves together intimate portraits of modern geisha with the romantic legends and colorful historical tales of geisha of the past. From Sadda Yakko, who dined with American presidents and had her portrait painted by Picasso, to Koito, a modern-day geisha who maintains her own website, geisha throughout history step out of the pages of Women of the Pleasure Quarters to become living, breathing creatures. Looking into such traditions as mizuage, the ritual deflowering which was once a rite of passage for all geisha, and providing colorful depictions of the geisha's dress, training, and homes, Downer, with grace, elegance, and respect, transforms their reality in a captivating narrative that both informs and entertains. At once a symbol of a bygone age and an institution more quintessentially Japanese than any other, geisha are a society at a crossroads, struggling to reinvent their place in the new millennium while honoring the traditions of the past. Both instructive and evocative, Women of the Pleasure Quarters is an enthralling portrait of a world unlike any other.