Culture Shock! Japan (Culture Shock! Guides)

As an administrator in a ESL school, where 10% of our students come from Japan, and at least 10% of our ESL teachers trainees plan on going to Japan to teach English, Culture Shock Japan was an wonderful discovery for me! P. Sean Bramble unveiled the cultural mystery step by step from every aspect of life. It's a great reference book for anyone, no matter whether you are planning a trip to Japan, moving to Japan for a long period of time, your work involves dealing with Japanese culture like mine, or you are simply curious about this modern and ancient eastern country. One of my favorite things about the book are the hilarious little stories that Bramble collected from his own 12 years of experience living and working in Japan, which gave me many giggles through out the reading.

Those stories are particularly funny to me, because they often echo my own experience of of culture shock when I first immigrated to the United States from China 7 years ago. Although, I am...Read more

It certainly seems that the author would rather we not visit Japan, and perhaps he'd rather not live there. He seems to focus entirely on the struggles a Westerner will experience, and focuses very little on the daily interaction and culture of a country with several thousand years of cultural history. But hey, if you're a business-person planning on spending six months working in Japan, Culture Shock Japan might be able to tell you how not to embarrass yourself in very specific corporate interactions...but maybe you might just want to skip the experience altogether.

Also, with Tokyo being the nexus of technological advancement, the author too often editorializes with a "kids these days" sort of attitude regarding technology and entertainment. I can just picture the typewriter he used when writing the first draft.

I was stationed overseas for about 1 1/2 years before I read the book. Many questions I had were answered. This book explains a lot of the everyday things you'll see/notice in Japan. Not much of a history book (which wasn't what I was looking for @ the time) but a very modern explanation of all the strange things Japanese people do.

I highly recommend this book for anyone that is going to live in Japan for an extended period of time.