Windows on Japan - A Walk Through Place and Perception [Perfect Paperback]

Bruce Roscoe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2007

In 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

On the premise that speed blunts the mind, New Zealander Bruce Roscoe decided to make his journey on foot, following a route across the waist of Japan, from the port city of Niigata to Yokohama. By walking, he would discover that 'Time isn't lost but found.'...

Roscoe discovers a country where 'subordination, not coexistence' with nature is the depressing norm. Approaching the city of Takasaki, he comes across the base of a stream, 'concreted and strewn with rubbish plastic drink bottles, vinyl bags and a white cat lay dead on the footpath. Old futons, tins, and household waste smothered a house at roadside. Other garbage half-buried a car.' Crossing a bridge north of Kogetsu, he admonishes that 'it's best not to look underneath.' Roscoe may not offer much to the prospective tourist, but a great deal for those interested in a journey of inquiry.

Like the picaresque novels of Laurence Sterne and Henry Fielding, Roscoe introduces each chapter with a companionable preamble: "We resume our journey in the snow country,' he writes in one of these literary orientations, where we stumble upon a priceless collection of Western art, learn that Japan is pouring more concrete than even China, and relax to the balm of jazz in an unusual coffee shop.'

...It takes a few pages to sink in, but there is method and management in what first appears to be free association, an improvised musical notation. A night in a Niigata jazz bar is succeeded by an analysis of Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels,' a note on tombstone dealerships, the watchmakers Seiko, even a chapter on the travel writer Paul Theroux, whom he takes to task for his oddly personal contempt for the Japanese....

A combination of travel writing, reportage, personal rumination and culture essay, there isn't much that slips the attention of this uncommon traveler. ...

There are no highway robbers, menacing bikers or roadside ordinance along these routes, but the way is nonetheless fraught with abrasive sights, moments of tension. Roscoe is a generous, evenhanded writer, however, giving the people he meets the benefit of the doubt, even when innkeepers are slamming their doors in his face.
Ultimately, Roscoe's Japan is a human landscape. Flawed, immensely diverse, it is never quite the monoculture many foreigners and Japanese, in a cozy collusion suggesting a comfortable mutuality with stereotypes, would like us to believe. As for his journey, given the choice, few of us would take this route, let alone on foot. Taking roads largely reserved for motorized transport, Roscoe acquits himself admirably in the role we assign him of proxy pilgrim. --The Japan Times, Feb. 3, 2008: Journal of an uncommon traveler, by Stephen Mansfield

During this journey, [Roscoe] not only takes us on a trip through the heart of Japan, but in a number of chapters he also gives us a glimpse of his thoughts on Japanese culture after having lived in the country for over 20 years.

Roscoe walks effortlessly into the lives of earthy barmaids, subdued jazz aficionados, stale government workers, crabby cooks, and passionate Buddhist priests. His knowledge of Japan's history, language and culture is as deep as it is admirable....Roscoe's book is not only a fresh view on life in Japan, it gives us a peek into wider issues affecting our world. --THE DAILY YOMIURI - Trans-Japan stroll crosses varied lives, by Gregory Hadley

Roscoe, who divides his time between Auckland and Tokyo, reflects on his walk from one side of the country to the other along a route connecting the ports of Niigata and Yokohama. He offers a series of observations on the cultural, social and political mores of Japan past and present, and Western perceptions of the Japanese. Academic but accessible to 'intellectually curious travelers' and those interested in Japanese culture, environment, history, language, literature, politics, the problem of racial perception and the memory of war. --Reference Research Book News November 2007

About the Author

Bruce Roscoe was educated at the universities of Canterbury (Christchurch, NZ) and Sophia (Tokyo) and holds a bachelor degree in political science and Asian area studies. He lived in Japan for 22 years as student, journalist and corporate researcher. He has written widely on Japanese business, politics, and society for the Far Eastern Economic Review and Chicago Sun-Times, among other newspapers. He divides his time between Auckland and Tokyo.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Algora Publishing (June 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875864910
• ISBN-13: 978-0875864914
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,924,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Journey through Japan and One's Own Heart, November 16, 2007

By 

Gregory Hadley (Niigata Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Windows on Japan: A Walk through Place and Perception (Hardcover)

In "Windows on Japan", Bruce Roscoe takes us on a journey starting from the "rear" of Japan in Niigata, over the Japanese Alps and then through the bustle of Tokyo to the port of Yokohama. During this soujourn, he takes us not only on a mystic walk through the heart of Japan, but also on a tour of the philosophical graffiti written on the walls of his heart.

To be honest, when I began reading the book I wasn't sure if I would like the format -- one chapter typically covers his trek through a little-known area of Japan, while the next would survey his thoughts on Japanese cultural issues. Nevertheless, I soon got used to his style and found myself enjoying the book immensely. As an aside, I live in Niigata City, so I had a particular interest in his views about many of the places in where he walked.

Roscoe does not write with the whiny, judgmental tone of many Westerners living in Japan. He writes instead with respect and integrity. Where he sees corruption, discrimination or injustice, he says so, but where he finds beauty, sincerity and flashes of the transcendent, there he writes truly memorable prose.

I was filled with both respect mixed with envy for Roscoe's experiences, because he walks quietly and effortlessly into the lives of earthy barmaids, subdued jazz aficionados, stale government workers, crabby cooks and passionate Buddhist Priests. His knowledge of Japan and the Japanese language is deep as it is admirable, and this allows him to be very much something of an insider dressed foreigners' clothes. Roscoe is one who can show us that the Japanese are no more inscrutable than those from other island cultures (such as New Zealand with its own dirty laundry of war crimes against Japanese) or cultures who treat the world with an island-like mythos (such as America, who corporately is committing acts of torture in defense of an imaginary war that is disturbingly evocative of the Japanese rhetoric from the 1930s).

A couple of places in Roscoe's book have left an indelible mark on my own thinking. One was his conversation with Japanese cultural authority Donald Richie, in which he noted that "Japan upsets puritan moralists...those who believe in a wrong way and a right way" (pg. 52). How true. I have seen this in the lives of many foreigners who struggle with Japan and who have not yet made Roscoe's mental journey. I must admit that I too have had my issues with this, but Roscoe's attitude of openness throughout the book suggests a non-judgmental way out of that mental prison. In addition, when he writes of nationalism, Roscoe states, "I don't believe that anyone is a Japanese or a German or an American. We should strip these accreted coatings as we strip peeling paint from wood, leaving only the grain and texture of our native timber to show through. The coatings seem always seized upon to impress that one people are inferior or superior to another, with no good and frequent fatal result" (pg. 214). Such thoughts are certainly threatening to the elites of various countries who would want their respective tribes to toe the line uncritically. That is why I found myself liking Roscoe's book even more the longer I chose to mentally travel with him through Japan.

As with any book, there were weaknesses. I think "Windows on Japan" should have concluded with Roscoe reaching Yokohama. However, he backtracks to Niigata. To me this somehow seems to go against the flow of his journey, though his reasons for returning are understandable. There are also a number of typographical errors in the book, which were probably unavoidable, but I can't help but thinking that the proofreaders at Algora should have redoubled their efforts before publishing this excellent book.

Despite these minor shortcomings, I would highly recommend "Windows on Japan". The book is not only a peek into some of the little-known areas of Land of the Rising Sun, it also has the potential to pry open a window into one's own heart as they reflect upon the deeper implications of Roscoe's thoughts and experiences.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A true gentle walk with flowing thoughts awaits - refreshingly different, November 6, 2007

By 

Gretchen Shinoda "[e-mail]" (Minami Uonuma Shi, Niigata Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Windows on Japan: A Walk through Place and Perception (Hardcover)

When you take a walk in the cool Fall air, and you let your thoughts swirl around some theme that is on your mind while a song runs through your head . . . it feels refreshing, often leads to new and fresh insights into whatever is on your mind, and can end with a new outlook for yourself. In a way, that is the experience you get from reading Bruce Roscoe's unique book about Japan, Windows on Japan: A Walk through Place and Perception. This book allows you to explore thoughts and experiences about Japan from such likely suspects as Commodore Perry and Lafcadio Hearn, to some surprise appearance of Shirley MacLaine and Paul Theroux. It touches on some Japanese people's discomfort or embarrassment when dealing with foreigners, to how easy communications and relationships can begin here when a common ground is found, like the shared love of a dog. The book is both critical of, and inspired by Japan. Some surprises are also uncovered by the author on his walking journey, such as the International University of Japan where diverse students, living in an international community made up of over 50 nationalities, are found amongst the Koshihikari award winning rice fields. The book offers bits on the history of the Niigata to Yokohama region, some startling present-day findings, and suggests a visit to this often overlooked region of Japan is a must.

I live in Niigata, as a foreign female, and enjoyed reading about the areas around my home from a very different approach. I also found much of his references fun to ponder! I share many of the authors experiences including the some-times difficult task of making friends. Though I might like to challenge his feelings that many Japanese are a bit foreigner-phobic, or cold to foreigners. I wonder if a lone walking foreigner would be immediately and warmly accepted in the country side of any land . . . But do find out what happened to him when he found a dog to pat. Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A walk on the mild side in Japan, December 5, 2007

By 

Kaoru Kikuchi - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Windows on Japan: A Walk through Place and Perception (Hardcover)

What most impresses me is Bruce Roscoe's very calm and measured writing. His observations are offered without favor or malice. In other words, I feel I can trust him as a writer.

Walking makes one contemplative, and that is the feeling the book has about it. Roscoe looks at each place he visits through its geography, history and people, as well as the music and the art he came across, and sometimes through writings about Japan by other writers old and new. It is not, as he explains, meant as a travel guidebook. He walks through ordinary scenes of everyday life and offers intelligent insight and observations on Japan. I don't think the book is meant to be a very personal and intimate account of his trip, in the sense of focusing on his own inward journey, but rather to open windows on Japan.

Along the way he discovers that, when in trouble, the most helpful Japanese are young students and older women. Along the way he faces rejection by a bar owner and by inn keepers. You will find out what he had to do to get to the other side of tunnels - there are so many in Japan - without being squashed by passing traffic. His chance meeting with a journalist at a jazz bar leads to an introduction to people who knew a woman, a former Geisha and the model of Komako, the heroine in Nobel-prize-winning author, Kawabata's book Snow Country. He also talks about his attempt to becoming naturalized Japanese.

The book has two chapters on Paul Theroux. Any reader of Theroux's books will be interested to learn about his tedious prejudices against Japanese. Anyone who is interested in reading about Japan will find these chapters very interesting for their stimulating subtext on things such as race, history, personalities, writing and so on.

I found the book to be intelligent and balanced reading. The author's clever, dry humor often put a big grin on my face. There are no huge revelations about Japan in the book. Yet, it reminded me how much more, even for a Japanese, there is to see in my country.