Customer Reviews

Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The primary strength of this book is the writing style. Unlike many books about Japanese culture, this book is funny and "living." The book contains a series of anecdotes, each one focusing on a particular experience that Bruce S. Feiler had during his stay. The stories are written as first-person memoirs, and cover such broad topics as Hiroshima and Nagasaki to how to date a Japanese girl. The writing is clever and engaging.

The only thing I felt this book was lacking was an update of some sort. Written about 11 years ago, "Learning to Bow" is about Japan during the "bubble economy." Japan has gone through severe economic and societal changes since then, and I wonder how much of the information is still current. Surely, with the JET program in full swing for several decades now, the presence of foreigners is not such a surprise anymore. Also, the place of women has gone through some significant changes since this book was written.

Still, anyone planning a long-term stay in Japan should read this book. It is fun, insightful and has great tips for climbing Mt. Fuji.

Bruce Feiler was one of the first participants on the JET program, a program sponsored by the Japanese government to bring foreign young people to Japan for the purposes of education and "internationalization." While Feiler's experiences are a little unusual, in that he can already speak Japanese when he arrives and the events at his school are rather dramatic, overall his story reflects the life of a typical JET program participant. The culture shock, the unbending bureaucracy, the complex and often disaffected attitudes of students, the instant celebrity and lack of privacy that goes with it, are all symptoms that JETs experience. I read the book and often found myself nodding in agreement, having experience the same events and feelings myself. If you want to have an intimate look at the world of education in Japan today, Feiler's book is an excellent place to start. If you are thinking about joining the JET program, this book is a must, along with Importing Diversity.

I was very disappointed in this book. I have lived in Japan for 6 years (and still do), married and taught on the JET Programme. As a former JET I was disheartened as this book does not paint an accurate picture of life in Japan as a JET. Granted people's experiences differ from prefecture to prefecture and from school to school, but Learning to Bow's anecdotes and observations about Japan are far too extreme and at times border on lies. Also the frequent use of sarcasm and satire is not in anyway humorous and portrays the author as "god's gift to English teaching". For anyone curious about life on the JET Programme, teaching English in Japan or life in Japan in general, I do not recommend this book.

If I hadnt actually lived in Japan i could see how i could mistake this thing for authoritive, but it amazes me that anyone who has lived out here more than a year could see this as much more than the bag of wind it is. With its pretentious title and lofty quotations of translated haikus, Feiler proves he knows how to make a good impression. The problem is, if you actually read it, you realize he isnt much good at doing anything else.

At the time of writing this book, Feiler had been living out here a year as JET highschool teacher (though he doesnt actually admit to that in so many words- to hear him tell it, he was here on "special invite from the japanese goverment", as if he was some kind of high-ranking diplomat). The title ("Inside the heart of Japan") and chapter headings ("Drinking alone in rural Japan", for example), suggest that by reading it you'll gain powerful, poetic realities about this mysterious country. But every chapter left me unsastisfied. He has a habit of starting chapters with an overwritten account of the kind of thing everyone does within a week of being here, and then, when its time to actually say anything, starts quoting press articles off the english language news services wire. If you comb the book carefully to seperate these rote repetitions of facts already freely available from what he actually writes himself, you'll be left with a very slim and trite account of japan indeed.

Its a good thing for the author there are so few books of this type about Japan out there, because if people had more to compare it with they'd realize how bad it is. Anyone who came out here to teach english for a year and scanned the internet for newspaper articles to quote from for padding could have written this book.

As one who logged a few years teaching in Japan around the same era, the subject matter certainly interests me, and this is an interesting study of Japanese culture and the experience of AETs as existed in the late 1980s.

However, the book is a bit dated and I don't know how accurate of a portrayal it'd be for those interested in the Japan teaching experience of today. During the author's experience, the JET program was in its early years and gaijin in the classrooms was still a novelty. In the last 20 years or so, however, an entire generation has grown up accustomed to native english teachers and encounters with foreigners no longer prompt the level of surprise, ignorance, and curiosity portrayed by this author. Also, this book was written at the apex of Japan's bubble economy, and SO many of the attitudes, beliefs and opinions expressed in the book about Japan and its future are the product of that era, circumstances that have obviously changed dramatically in the years since the bubble burst.

Also found parts to be exaggerated. As one example, the author repeatedly informs us of what a rural backwards hamlet he was assigned to, I believe at one point even alleging that most people in his town had never seen a foreigner before him. I found these descriptions dubious: in reality Tochigi contains about 2 million people, is located in the most populous region of Japan on the outskirts of the Kanto plain right next to Tokyo, and contains sites like Nikko that attract thousands of foreign tourists every year. It is hardly the inaka backwoods outpost depicted in this book.

Also found it a bit odd the way the author seemed intent on avoiding mentioning that he was actually just a teacher in the JET Programme, which is well-known and imports thousands of new young english teachers every year to serve in public schools throughout Japan. Instead, he described his job in vaguely pretentious terms along the lines of "I was selected by Japan's Ministry of Education", as if to imply that he alone was some sort of specially selected ambassador.

Nonetheles, despite having aired these pet peeves, I must admit that I still enjoyed the read because it brought me back to an earlier much enjoyed time in my life. I'd recommend the read to Japan "has beens" like myself, but not necessarily to those seeking an accurate portrayal of today's Japan teaching experience.

I can understand how people who haven't lived in Japan could mistake this book as authoritive, but it amazes me that anyone who has lived out here more than a year could see this as much more than the bag of wind it is. With its pretentious title and lofty quotations of translated haikus, Feiler proves he knows how to make a good impression. The problem is, if you actually read it, you realize he isn't much good at doing much else as a writer.

Stylistically, this book is an imitation of travel writer Pico Iyer's "The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto", but while Feiler has the poetic trappings down, he doesn't have the insight into Japan to back it up.

At the time of writing this book, Feiler had been living out here a year as JET highschool teacher (though he doesnt actually admit to that in so many words- to hear him tell it, he was here on "special invite from the Japanese goverment", as if he was some kind of high-ranking diplomat). The title ("Inside the heart of Japan") and chapter headings ("Drinking alone in rural Japan", for example), are great- they suggest that by reading it you'll gain powerful, poetic realities about this mysterious country. But every chapter left me unsastisfied. He has a habit of starting chapters with an overwritten account of the kind of thing everyone does within a week of being here (drinking in a Karaoke bar, bathing at an Onsen, etc), and then, when its time to actually say anything, starts quoting press articles off the english language news services wire, listing off statistics about how many hours kids study after school and so on. If you comb the book carefully to seperate these rote repetitions of facts already freely available from what he actually writes himself, you'll be left with a very slim and trite account of japan indeed.

Its a good thing for the author there are so few books of this type about Japan out there, because if people had more to compare it with they'd realize how bad it is. Anyone who came out here to teach english for a year and scanned the internet for newspaper articles to quote from for padding could have written this book.

If you want to know more about life in Japan, Try the book by Pico Iyer it was cribbed from, or better still, "Hitching Rides with the Buddha, by Will Ferguson. Not as flashy in style, but a lot more knowledgeable and heavier in substance.

Many of the previous reviews have pointed out Mr Feller's haughty condescension but what really makes his book a drag is how breathtakingly boring it is. Naked with other men in a hot spring bath? Good gracious me! As another reviewer pointed out, anybody who comes to Japan will experience virtually everything in this book in the first week; what that other reviewer failed to mention is that nobody else will decide to write a tedious book about it all. Filled with shallow 'insights' and yawn-inducing 'adventures', Feller's book is a soporific account of a dull year as lived by a dull individual who managed, somehow, to con a publisher into releasing this dull book. The fact that it's still in print boggles the mind.

If you're interested in a good read on Japan look for either of Alan Booth's books (Looking For The Lost & The Roads To Sata), John Morley's Pictures From The Water Trade, Will Ferguson's Hokkaido Highway Blues, or anything by Lafcadio Hearn. All of those authors deliver. Mr Feller's book might be useful for chronic insomniacs but everybody else should steer well clear.

Like many people in Japan this book was recommended to me but I didn't want to read it. A friend gave me a copy and eventually I read it.

The author gets so many things wrong about Japan that I wonder if he really spoke as much Japanese as he suggests. I often found my self scoffing at his opinions and explanations. It seems this was the end of his Japanese experience as he has gone on to write books on other topics.

He also strikes me as quite a loner, if this is the summary of his social interaction he must have had a lonely time, which on the JET Programme is not uncommon.

However he has a very good writing style which makes up for a lot of his failures. I'd suggest reading it and enjoying his perspective but be wary of his explanations.

Feiler's book is entertaining at times and tiresome at others. The entertaining parts are the stories he tells about his experiences; however, his attempt to analyze Japan sound too much like a regurgitation of other books that purport to introduce Japanese culture.

As others have pointed out, the information is quite dated and Japanese high schools have changed greatly. It suffers also from some rather curious translations, which mystify rather than clarify. I'm not sure I'd call shiso "mint" or edible chrysanthemum "a bright yellow daisy". Even more mysterious is how he manages to translate "higaisha" as "one who receives pressure" when the characters literally mean "receiving injury person". A much better translation is "victim", and in fact Japan's "victim consciousness" is an important theme in how they understand WWII. James Orr's book "Victim as Hero" explores this theme carefully.

If you're interested in finding out about Japanese culture, read something by a trained anthropologist. If you're interested in someone's experiences in Japan in the late 1980s then parts of this book will serve you well.

This book is well-written and flows very well. However, some of the events in the book and the way that they are described are too "black and white" for my tastes. A good read, but if you are considering teaching or living in Japan, take this book with a grain of salt.