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Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan Editorial Review:
Learning to Bow has been heralded as one of the funniest, liveliest, and most insightful books ever written about the clash of cultures between America and Japan. With warmth and candor, Bruce Feiler recounts the year he spent as a teacher in a small rural town. Beginning with a ritual outdoor bath and culminating in an all-night trek to the top of Mt. Fuji, Feiler teaches his students about American culture, while they teach him everything from how to properly address an envelope to how to date a Japanese girl.
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I really like learning about Japan through the eyes of an American, and this American speaks fluent Japanese and has a pretty good sence of humor. I really enjoyed his year in this little "city".
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Things have changed (read Westernized) so much in Japan and in their educational system that this book needs to read for what it is: a glorified diary of what Japan was to him in the 1990's. I went to Japan in 2005 to observe their educational system (paid for by the Japanese government) and they showed me their best... it was wonderful, the dedication, the beauty, and the sad statistics.....they admitted that they were revamping their system to be more like ours in order to embrace all types of learners. I returned to Japan on my own in 2008 and it is VERY different from what I saw in 2005. I saw little of his Japan in 2005, I saw almost none of it in 2008. In his defense, Gail Benjamin was in Japan during the 90's and wrote some similar things. Although things have changed, I would suggest you read hers if you read his.
Pretentious
"I came to Japan at the invitation of the Japanese Ministry of Education . . ." indeed! Feiler has a very high opinion of himself. And isn't it a bit inappropriate for a teacher to kiss the hand of a junior high girl, let alone a junior high girl of another culture? I've been reading a lot of Japanese non-fiction and travel essays since a recent visit to Japan and so far this book ranks low in terms of enjoyment, educational value and insight because of its pretentious tone.
Still don't know how to bow, but at least I learned a few things about Japanese and American culture
As I made my way through Feiler's account, I was primarily amused by his humorous initial encounters with Japanese culture: the often awkward questions frequently posited him by his friends, coworkers, and students; the stark dissimilarities between the Japanese and the American-style classroom; the extent to which Feiler's foreign appearance and personality caused him to stand out amid an otherwise fairly uniform populace. In nearly every chapter, I found myself laughing out loud. As the book progressed, however, I became disturbed by the author's general exclusion of personal reflections on his experiences. For example, it remains ambiguous whether the author is interested in trying "nanpa"--a procedure in which strangers "pick up" on women in bars, discos, or similar environments, mostly popular among young Japanese men--out of a genuine desire to procure a Japanese girlfriend, or merely in demonstration of a detached cultural curiosity. He interjects almost no explicit discussions of his feelings or emotional reactions toward the many shocking, challenging, and even tragic events that he encounters throughout the narrative. As someone interested in going to Japan to teach English, and curious about the types of experiences had by Americans who have done so in the past, this particular quality of Feiler's narrative was a bit disappointing.
By the end of the book, however, I came to the realization that the very inclusion of certain information in Feiler's memoir speaks volumes on the nature of the clash between Western and Japanese culture. The details that Feiler includes on the overbearingly autocratic leadership style of his school principle, the structure of a seventh-grade fieldtrip to Disneyland Tokyo, and the reaction of Japanese students toward his unorthodoxly American pedagogical style all attest to the impression that Feiler was deeply moved and challenged by his interactions with Eastern culture. And the laughter and tears that several of his anecdotes drew forth compel me to conclude that these passages were not written without emotional affectation.
In my preparation to move overseas to teach and live among an unfamiliar society, I found this book deeply enlightening and encouraging. As previous experiences abroad have taught me, being a foreigner in a new country can be a direly lonely and often stressful experience. Feiler has given us an insightful and meaningful account of what Americans moving to Japan ought to expect from the culture clash, as well as detailed many interesting aspects of Japanese society that outsiders interested in the country might not otherwise consider. I highly recommend it.
Inside the heart of a big yawn, more like
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.
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