Customer Reviews

Too Late For The Festival: AN AMERICAN SALARY WOMAN IN JAPAN

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Author Paine says something unintentionally funny at the end of her book. After returning to the United States after spending 1.5 years in Japan she finds that Americans do not want to hear anything about her experiences unless they can be stated in 25 words or yes. I spent 1.5 years living abroad, too, and also found Americans to be totally uninterested in even very brief recountings of adventures outside of the American territorial limits. So who is this book for? Well, if you are also a member of the one time expatriate club you will probably find this book quite amusing. Then there are the remaining 2% of Americans who have a curiosity about other cultures. They might enjoy curling up with this slim volume of goofs, gaffes, and good times in a foreign land.

Trying to fit into a foreign culture can be challenging, and attempting to fit into the daily life of the Japanese seems an especially daunting assignment. Ms. Paine relates her experiences with humility and humor. How was she to know that blowing your nose in public is one step below passing gas? She, as everyone else who has left the security of America, quickly learns that indeed there are no absolutes in this world.

On the negative side Ms. Paine seems to ration out her tales of cultural assimilation. She interjects them between traditional tourist stories, and some boring commentary on life on the Hewlett Packard payroll. I did learn one interesting thing about HP, though. They seem to have a penchant for wasting money. To me there is one great classic in the "funny times living abroad" oeuvre: Bill Bryson's "Notes From A Small Island", an hilarious account of his years living in Great Britain. One a one to ten scale I would give him a 10, and Ms. Paine a 5. Bryson's is also a standard width book (Paine's publisher gives us a very narrow book in order to increase the slim number of pages) at over 300 pages, thus giving much more good reading for the buck.

rhiannon-san has described a lonely life in japan with humor and honesty...her year as a salary-woman in tokyo was alleviated by her interests..language,customs,cooking,travels. She spares no feelings, even her own. When the end of the book comes(too soon) we want to know more.A few pictures would have added to the enjoyment. All in all,though, I don't want to loan it to anyone. Let them get their own copy.

Take this book with you on that next, long flight to Japan! Reading Paine's hilarious chronicle of her experience as an American "Salary Woman" will make the time fly. In fact, whether it's your first trip to Japan or your tenth, her account of the culture shock she experienced will serve to lessen your own. Her struggle to learn the Japanese language will be especially pleasing to Americans who have had similar struggles with that incomprehensible language. After all, here was a highly-intelligent, multi-linqual American author who couldn't master elementary Japanese. Hooray! We nihongo flunkers are not alone! Although some of Paine's feminist proclivities did find their way into the text, they were not offensive. The charm of Japan and its people can overcome anything.

There is a genre of book by people who live in Japan, experience culture shock, then return home (or stay in Japan) and write about it. As far as I can tell, there don't seem to be many books similarly written about other countries or cultures. The quality of such books about Japan depend on three factors: the quality of the experience, the quality of the writing, and the candor of the author.

It's hard to be critical of Rhiannon Paine, when she has been so open in her book about her insecurities, the challenges she encountered in Japan, and how Japanese nipple covers aren't quite up to the task for her own requirements. She does write, however, about how she tends to live in her head and the tendency evidently limited her experiences in Japan. Paine also constructs her book from only 18 months in the country.

To be successful, a "Japan culture shock" book has to bring some quality of the experience that is unusual, a "hook" to grab the reader. Paine's hook should have been the Japanese business experience and cross-cultural communication and difficulties in the workplace. She might also have focused on the growing rivalry between Japan and the U.S. which existed then, and how the battle lines were being drawn in the information technology area. As it is, she is covering much the same ground as did Laura Kreska in her book, The Accidental Office Lady. Both are young American women working for Japanese. Both developed a greater appreciation of their own culture from the experience. Kreska, however, is the more interesting read.

For me, this book was painfully accurate. I wish I had read it before moving to japan. Or read it early in my stay.

In some ways, Rhiannon was positive about her situation, compared to others I've known.

I knew some long-term expatriates who "went native". Even they said that if they had started out working in a Japanese office, they would never had stayed.

Western women in Japan frequently have a much tougher time than men.

The culture is so much based on uniformity. The Japanese have a saying: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down." Whereas in the US, people say "You can't fit a square peg into a round hole".

Japan is such an interesting country with an interesting culture, but you won't learn about it from this book. Try The Traveller's Tales of Japan for a fabulous sampler of all the wonderful things that have been written. This book is about Rhiannon Paine and her inability to connect with Japan. She uses nicknames for her co-workers which are derogatory and may or may not mean something to her, but they mean nothing to the reader. The people don't come alive because she never got to know them. She admits at her going away party, "Maybe I should have invited them over." She whines about her American co-workers and their petty feuds. Maybe it gets better, but life is short and I could only offer this book enough time to get half way through before tossing it.