Shalom, Japan: A Sabra's Five Years in the Land of the Rising Sun

by Shifra Horn, Ora Cummings

Release Date: November, 1997

Edition: Paperback

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Stereotypical, Disapponting

I'll be taking this one back to the book store to get my money back. I've acquired a large circle of Japanese friends and visited the country several times, but I cannot seem to develop the subdued sense of contempt this author has for the culture. For example, she complains that there is no place for vegetarians to dine out, then goes into an extended anecdote about eating at a rare Buddist vegetarian restaurant. GET USED TO IT. Japan serves the masses, not the shifting whims of yuppie liberals from the West.

I was also put off by the author's sweeping (and wrong) generalizations. For example, she claims that Japanese people love their food to be fresh (very true) and all the better if it's raw. Poppycock. I know many Japanese who cannot stand sushi or raw seafood. Most people are not aware that sushi and sashimi are semi-delicacies in Japan and are quite expensive. American pop-culture is responsible for the proliferation of sushi restaurants in the West. Japanese people do not eat raw fish like they scarf down rice.

I was also disappointed that the author seemed to harp on the sex culture of Japan as totally depraved, rather than simply lacking the taboos and inhibitions of the beaten down Western societies. Newsflash: the vast majority of Japanese do not buy used underwear out of vending machines or attend public sex-hibitions. There is simply an accomodation of all lifesyles (if a profit can be made). By the way, there are almost no mixed-sex public baths left in Japan. The author talks about them like there's one next to every McDonalds.

I really love reading anecodotal accounts of gaikokujin (foreign persons) in Japan. The author even manages to present some amusing and interesting stories. However, the feeling I get when reading this book is an uncomfortable sense of having to defend what I know to be true about Japan against a frank, but also almost contemptuous distrust and distaste for the culture of the far East. I don't have a right to not be offended by someone else's opinion, but when the author claims to love Japan, then writes ten pages about how bizzare and depraved her people are, I cannot help but call her bluff.

Japan Over-generalized

I have to say that I was sorely disappointed in Ms. Horn's oversimplication of a very complex society. I lived in Japan for 11 years and am married to a Japanese man. Although she states that she has the utmost respect for the Japanese people, it is not reflected in her words.

I agree with the other readers that a more detailed account of her life as a Jewish woman/diplomat would have been a much more interesting read.

Finally, the horrible spelling of all things Japanese was unbearable and at times - believe it or not - made it impossible to understand what the author was referring to.