Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa

by Karin Muller

During a year spent in Japan on a personal quest to deepen her appreciation for such Eastern ideals as commitment and devotion, documentary filmmaker Karin Muller discovered just how maddeningly complicated it is being Japanese. In this book Muller invites the reader along for a uniquely American odyssey into the ancient heart of modern Japan. Broad in scope and deftly observed by an author with a rich visual sense of people and place, Japanland is as beguiling as this colorful country of contradictions.

Genres: Japan, Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Asia, Biography, Japanese Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2005

Reviews

[elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author is one of the types of Western folk I encountered occasionally while living in Asia and always hoped would leave quickly to stop giving the rest of us a bad reputation.

Deciding that living in Japan would mystically cure her of her ennui was the first clue that I was going to find this book annoying, and sure enough, she showed up at her host family's house and proceeded to be annoyed they aren't more contemporary American in their views about gender roles and that they're what we would call passive-aggressive here in the States (but there, normal and she only seemed to figure that out in the last couple of chapters after being there almost a full year). It's like she did absolutely no research and expected ~~magic~~ to happen while everyone in Japan fawned over what a special snowflake she really is or whatever.

I nearly quit this book multiple times in the first 100 pages, and her bad attitude persists even after she finally starts to figure out she's not in America anymore (after basically being kicked out of her host family's place, and for darn good reason). Toward the end, while reading the feudal stories and understanding the culture for the first time, she comments that she'll come to her senses in the morning. Lol okay. Frankly, all she sounds like is one of the few people I'd listen to complain about literally everything about a culture while they're living in that country as a guest and how it's all terrible because it isn't Western. If you want Western culture, stay in the West, jeez.

Apparently, she travels for a living? Horrifying that someone with this significant lack of cultural awareness is representing Americans abroad. No wonder we have a bad reputation as tourists.

I guess, on the positive side, she didn't get drunk all the time, cause massive scenes, and harrass the locals. So, there's that.

This book made me unreasonably angry. Don't be like this woman, y'all.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Japanland is a fierce, funny account of a filmmaker's desire to experience the harmony, or "wa," she believes is found in traditional Japanese culture. Muller lives in Japan for one year, staying with a modern host family in suburban Tokyo for five months and in a variety of other locations for the rest of her time in the country. She wrangles with the transportation system, learns about the ancient arts of swordmaking and pottery, encounters "New Human Beings," tries to be a geisha for a day, fails in her attempts to plant a garden and, most hilariously, stays in a monastery before going on a particularly ill-fated Buddhist pilgrimage.

It's not a typical travelogue. Japanland reads more like a cross between the candid diary of Lucy Ricardo and the wry social commentary of Cornelia Otis Skinner. I found the narrative hysterically funny, yet touching. Muller is the exact opposite of introspective: trying to cope on a daily basis leaves her no time for philosophizing and she cheerfully admits to her shortcomings, just as I believe I would in her situation. Having just finished reading Claire Dederer's yoga memoir "Poser" I couldn't help making comparisons, and sorry, Dederer comes up short again.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who can fathom the ways of readers? Here I was, smack-dab in the middle of a book about a person who travels to China, and I suddenly find myself drawn to a book about a person who travels to Japan. This one. Go figure.

Nevertheless, a compelling read. Japan is not all it appears, it seems. In fact, that's the central theme of the book, the mask that Japan and the Japanese wear for the rest of the world. All is well, the mask says, while underneath the person dies for another day. This take on Japan has altered the appeal Japan has always had for me. Appearance as more important than essence. Hiding sadness and pain with stoic masks. Just an Eastern version of my deep South America.

[Mr. Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Documentary filmmaker Karin Muller writes about her time living with a host family in Japan. what ensues is a fascinating story of an American woman’s attempt to assimilate into a culture that is both rigid and alien to her. it was heartbreaking to read how she tried, but failed, to get those around her to like her. eventually, she leaves her host family and sets out on her own to complete her documentary. she finds out that Japan is very big, and populated by very kind, caring people that go out of their way to make her feel at home.
Karin Muller is a great storyteller, and this is one of those books that is so interesting… it’s over way too soon.

[Kevin J. Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous, insightful, entertaining, at times even poignant, this companion volume to Karin Muller's multi-part PBS documentary of the same name was a fascinating read. At the beginning of the story Ms. Muller makes a decision to leave her stale and unfulfilling life in Washington D.C. for a year in Japan, ostensibly to study judo (she's a black belt) and film a documentary about the experience, but really to to find "wa"--a state of focus and harmony that she found in her judo instructors' "almost ethereal calm and inner strength". ("Wa" literally translates as "circle" or "ring".) Her judo contacts in the United States find her a host family, the Tanakas, in Fugisawa, about an hour from downtown Tokyo. Genji is a sixth-degree black belt and a highly successful businessman; his wife, Yukiko, is the model of the perfect Japanese wife; their daughter, Junko, is rapidly approaching an age where marriage is literally mandatory, lest she lose both her job and her place in the social order. For six months Ms. Muller enjoys the hospitality of the Tanakas--with mixed results--and in so doing finds part of the essence of Japan. To find the rest, she leaves their prosperous home (under difficult circumstances) and settles into a run-down apartment on a crowded alley in Osaka maintained by a gay American expatriate who, like many of the "gaijin", earns his living by teaching English. Capitalizing on her new-found freedom from the strict social restraints of the Tanaka home, Ms. Muller sets out on a variety of adventures throughout the Japanese countryside, making friends, exploring, and occasionally pressing herself to the very limits of her physical endurance, all the while searching for the elusive Wa. She tracks down an obscure mountain cult, attends a variety of local festivals, and finally sets out on a 700-mile pilgrimage to some 88 Buddhist temples in honor of Kobo Daishi, the patron saint of Japan, in a final, desperate quest for that "elusive inner peace . . . (t)his pilgrimage is my last hope." That she finds it in a completely unexpected place and in a completely accidental manner is a fitting and appropriate ending to this joyous and absorbing tale. I highly recommend this book, and the documentary film as well.

[Victoria Robkis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and I was quite surprised to read so many negative reviews. I'm not trying to negate opinions, just commenting that I was surprised. Something in this book really spoke to me. Maybe it's my love for travel, and doing zero research about a country before moving to it. True, this may be how I ended up living in a country for a year with the highest murder rate in the world. If I had only researched in advance... Honestly, I found the author's observations rather factual. This may also be because I did in fact live in Japan for 2 years myself. So, no, I did not find anything she wrote condescending. I also found it to be quite similar to "Eat, Pray, Love." I will admit, though, that I read that book over 10 years ago, so maybe I misremember in some ways. I was surprised to look up and see that they were published only about 3 months apart from one another! It seems like while "Eat, Pray, Love" became a huge hit, this book was a bit less known about. However, I'd suspect that people who enjoyed "Eat, Pray, Love" would also enjoy this book. I also looked at the reviews for "Eat, Pray, Love" and it also had a lot of negative reviews, which one again, took me by surprise. Overall, come to your own conclusions. There doesn't seem to be an in between for this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karin Muller has a very nice voice. I liked her. I thought she told her story well. There were chapters and storylines I liked better than others, and some I wasn't too moved by. I liked hearing about her living accomidations and her relationships with the various people she got to know. The last 30 or so pages of the book were kind of a snooze for me. I wasn't too into hearing about her last minute pilgrimage to bring her year to a really amazing zen-like head. I more enjoyed hearing about her attempts to film the last train leaving Shinjuku and then staying at the men's capsule hotel. At the end, she kind of goes for that classic college thesis wrap-up, like, oh everyone meant so much to me and are with me and each one was so great and meaningful. Well, I have to say, I would have been happier to hear her say something like, Yukiko, sorry I would occasionally chat with your husband, who INVITED me to stay here, and by doing so I sometimes got in the way of your vegetable chopping, but Japanese customs-shumstoms, COME ON. There is a decent way to treat people and then there is absurdity. Throwing your vegetable garden onto the lawn and keeping it there so when your mother comes to visit she can she the train wreck that you created and be asshamed and dissappionted? No babe, that is not Japanese customs and poiteness and whatever. That is just out-of-control bitchiness. I was so relieved when you got out of there!

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of all the foreign-woman-living-in-Japan memoirs I've read in my day, this is my least favorite. While there were a few clever descriptions or turns of phrase here and there, the condescending tone and extreme hyperbole really put me off. A humorous exaggeration is one thing, but constantly doing so is annoying and in a memoir it's unforgivable. How can the uninitiated know when you're being authentic and when you're just playing it up for laughs? In a related vein, there were plenty of subtle errors that also furrowed my brow, such as "we're well into dessert- salty pickled squid" (pg 38). I don't doubt that pickled squid would be served as a last course at a traditional restaurant; but I know for certain no Japanese would consider it "dessert" just because it was served last. Little things like that, small but definite wrongs, piled up and pushed me from vaguely enjoying this into actively disliking it.

Perhaps that is persnickety but when it comes to Japan, I am very picky.

[Leonie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed parts, I enjoyed certain sections, but mostly the author annoyed me.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Our differences are obvious from the very first day. Yukiko is very traditional. I am not. She is quite sure, for example, that all these newfangled cooking devices, like microwaves, break down food. I've done nothing to disabuse her of this notion because there is only one microwave in the house, and it is now conveniently located on my kitchen counter."

This is a story of about the author, Karin Muller's, attempt to ingratiate herself into the world of Japan. Not the touristy, superficial world - but the real, get to know the people, Japan. Muller does a marvelous job in this witty and well-written account of her year in the land of Nippon.

"Her ceaseless vigilance is making an impression. For the first time in my life I feel guilty about putting the toilet paper roll on backward. Until now, I never even knew that toilet paper had a front and back. I resent feeling guilty, so I refuse - on principle - to turn it facing forward. Then I worry that Yukiko will see it, so I use it up as quickly as I can and hope the next one will end up the right way around."

What I really loved about this book, is that I learned so much. I always prided myself on my knowledge of the world, and like Karin, I approached this journey (although mine was the written kind) certain that I had a good foundation on which to set out. She quickly came to discover how little she really knew, and how much her own cultural values stood in her way of living a Japanese way of life.

Muller is brave, optimistic and doesn't give up. I really enjoyed traveling across Japan with her!

[julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most first-hand accounts of being a foreigner in Japan are annoying. One is beaten over the head with first impressions, the futile attempt to describe in minute detail what was seen, heard, smelled, felt. There's also the soul searching ending with profound realizations. If you've ever been to Japan or traveled to a foreign country yourself it's almost certainly contrary to your experience and entirely nauseating.

Karin Muller's memoir is none of these offensive things. Her writing style is quick - it's hard to even fathom the different experiences she describes in under three hundred pages. Even one of them would be a rare experience for even the most seasoned tourist. She doesn't beat you over the head with her profound realizations and even if she's not describing MY Japan I'm content with her assessments and not rolling my eyes.

If anything, I find Muller's book inspirational - assured that if she could survive in Japan for a year I can, too, anywhere.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My friend Sara, also on goodreads, lent me this one, and even the preface had me laughing. The author, Karin Muller, is bravely daring a year in Japan, seeking to understand what makes Japan so interesting yet so foreign. She seeks "wa", a type of focus or harmony. Is it possible for a foreigner to learn this? Muller is using herself as the test subject, and already having a rough time subjugating her own desire for independence and her own sense of self in order to please Yukiko-san, her host-mother--an exacting and imperious Japanese lady of the house. Although I just started this one, it does not seem it will be possible to please Yukiko-san, nor will it really be possible to become Japanese unless the author is willing and able to shed a great deal of her own character. Does that seem likely or desirable? Nah.

[Amelia Laughlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting recount of a writer and documentarian's year in Japan. While there were scenes and conversations captured in this memoir that I found insightful, I also found that this book was written from a very America-centric perspective. Which was surprising, coming from someone as well-travelled as Muller. Her cultural analysis of Japan often takes the 'us vs them' approach, which I find populist and boring. Muller's witty and imaginative recounts were enough to keep me reading, but I can't imagine ever going back to her writing if I was looking to read something about Japan.

Muller's frequent complaints of getting up early and feeling hungry constantly irked me. Convenience stores are so common in Japan and the quality and nutrition of the meals you can buy there is amazing. I don't know how she managed to miss them.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

yikes! This story (non-Japanese woman goes to Japan to learn about the culture and language by immersing herself in it) was all too familiar: the oppressive weight of being a barbarian gaijin in Japan, the terror of the everyday "yuubaba-san"-- the older woman who rules every detail of your life with a brutal iron fist ("there was a stain on your cutting board! You caused me to lose face!")
And also the lovely things about Japan-- the real unstinting generosity you find with strangers, the baths, the food, the attention to detail, the minute-by-minute training in good manners and sensitivity to others' feelings.
For a film equivalent, see "Fear and Trembling."

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A travel memoir about a 30-something documentary filmmaker from DC who picks up and moves to Japan for one year. Muller's storytelling is effortless to read--I'd tell myself I would stop at the next page and before I realized I was already into the next chapter. The book cover boasts that her experiences are "...hilarious, puzzling, sexy, frustrating, elegant..." and I agree. She offers great suggestions about places to see and provides readers with many examples (sometimes stereotypical, sometimes quirky) of Japanese culture. A fun read.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

My sister gave this book to me and recommended that I read it, but I'm not quite sure why, other than the fact that I'm living in Japan. It wasn't published all that long ago (6 years), but from the Japanese people that I know here, her accounts of people's attitudes towards unmarried, single women is outdated.

It was an okay read that had some information about Japan that I didn't know and was interesting (Geisha culture, festivals) but it's a book I could take or leave.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the second half of the book is a great improvement over the first half, many of the stories in here didn't really match my experiences in Japan or with Japanese culture. Also, the editing in this book is pretty bad. There's multiple misspellings, omitted words, and just wrong word choice in general.

[Adriana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it. Found it repetitive and with no plot. The only thing I got was that if you suffer from insomnia running and practicing Martial arts really helps.

[Ria Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have what some might call a minor -- no, major obsession with Japan. As such, it didn’t take much convincing for me to buy this book, which is an account of the author spending a year in Japan in search of harmony and balance for her life.

What this is not, I should say, is a travel guide to Japan. It contains a lot of fantastic insights into the culture, both mainstream and more esoteric, but if you plan to read this book thinking that it will make your trip to Tokyo easier, you’ll be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you have an interest in what Japanese culture is like for both an insider and an outsider, then I definitely recommend this book. From her stay with a host family to her Buddhist pilgrimage, Karin Muller weaves a wonderful story with skill, honesty, and respect. She’s not ashamed to reveal her own ignorance of some situations, nor is she ashamed to point out when other people are just plain baffling, at least by Western sensibilities.

I have read this book more than once now, and it’s one of the few books that I can safely say I take more away from it each time I read it. It’s an engrossing book, with plenty to amuse those who nothing about Japanese culture and those who know quite a bit.

By the end of the book, whether the author feels they’ve achieved a sense of inner peace and harmony is almost irrelevant. She’s learned a great deal, experienced more than most people ever dream of, and she’s taken away a little piece of another place to keep inside herself. In a sense, her pilgrimage toward the end of her time in Japan was only a fraction of the pilgrimage she embarked upon, and it left an impression that even the reader can feel as they share the journey from beginning to end.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the earliest I've stopped reading a book: during the prologue.

She mentions getting a boyfriend and buying a puppy together, and then almost immediately mentions breaking up with the boyfriend and going on a nomadic existence. No mention of the puppy. Did she give it away? Let the boyfriend have it? Immediately I decided I didn't like her as a person.

Then, a few paragraphs later, she plans to go to Japan to soak up their culture and see if she can achieve Wa. She realises it will take a while ... maybe as long as a whole year ... to become Japanese. And I just wanted to scream at her that after a year perhaps she might know beginner Japanese but that's as far as she'll get in so short a time. Incredibly irritating.

So, I can't.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Mick Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book tremendously, more for the opportunity to tag along with the author than for any knowledge gained about Japan. Muller's writing brings images and people alive with rich detail. I appreciated her willingness to share so much of her thoughts and feelings. It was brave of her to be so forthright about experiences that probably embarrassed or unsettled her at the time. She's an unsparing documentarian. I confess that I found Japan's "culture of shame" difficult to admire. By Muller's account, so did she, in spite of her desire to absorb the nation's singular spirit. However, she clearly found much to love in Japan nevertheless, including a few individuals who were not in lockstep with all of the mores. In spite of some off-kilter experiences, Japanland is not at all about a sad or uncomfortable journey. It's about illumination. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments too.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and enjoyable as a travelogue, though less so as a personal narrative. The author repeatedly comes off as naive and unprepared for a seasoned traveler and documentarian. She seems oddly dismissive of Japanese culture at times, considering she travelled to Japan specifically to experience and record that very culture. Sometimes get attitude is just confusing. For example, she's invited to give a short speech on judo, by her host and mentor, and she is shocked to find the venue is an upscale Playboy club (bunny waitresses and all). She then describes how she has to wrestle with her American pride (or words to that affect) to not immediately wall out in disgust. What?! It's a club not a brothel. Also, Playboy is a quintessentially American institution.

[Hannah Seeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts of this book were great. Others, incredibly irritating. Overall, it’s a good account of life in Japan from the point of view of an American foreigner. In places, the author’s portrayal of her experiences very closely aligned with my experiences studying abroad in Tokyo for four months. In other places, her general lack of awareness and cultural sensitivity grated on my nerves and it was difficult to be sympathetic to her struggles that seemed largely self-inflicted. The narrative gets a little disjointed, too, especially after she leaves her host family. The book’s greatest strength is its portrayal of the difficulty of fitting into a new culture. But, some of the ways it seeks to explain these difficulties was a little questionable.

[Twee · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is by far the most annoying book I have ever read. This author shows her complete ignorance to Japanese culture through some of her distasteful, snarky comments and observations during the short time she was there. She came to Japan “to find herself” because she is a privileged white female who has connection that no one else has. And of course such privileges plus her ignorance enable her to freely judging others’ culture; a culture that is so different from her own and she has no understanding of it. This is a worst read. Don’t even bother to have a glance!

[Julie Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are planning on living in Japan and just all around refusing to accept their culture then why even write a book? As someone who married into a Japanese family I found much of this offensive. The book is 16 years old and outdated and many of these views are not tolerated in modern day anymore. If you plan on going to Japan DO NOT read this book and let it cloud your judgement of their culture.

[Yumiko Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Muller's witty observations and self-deprecating humour.
She never stood by as an observer, she was always leaping, head first, right in to learn and help-sometimes to her own charging or detriment.
I'd happily recommend it to anyone who has a thirst for knowledge or curiosity about Japan.

[Anna Lorentzon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a completely different book after reading thie negative reviews but found it honest and insightful. Of course it’s a huge culture shock to be expected to follow a myriad of unspoken rules (often contradicting direct requests ftom the ”head of househokd”) and spend 6 hours a day preparing food when you’re in the country to film a documentary.
A good and relaxing read.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karin muller decides to continue her vagabond ways with a one year trip to Japan. She makes documentaries. But what she really learns as she investigates the Japanese culture is more about herself.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book ,liked the way it flowed easily for me .Meeting different characters from different parts of Japan . She does not hide her feelings and herself while recounting her experiences.I would love to see her documentaries .

[SS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following Karin on her time in Japan in her mission to find the real Japan for her documentary. Some interesting cultural experiences with her host family and discovering some of the lesser known activities in Japan, whilst Karin also tries to. reclaim herself.