A young English teacher in Japan is infected with what his Japanese friend Endo calls "Asian Discovery Sickness," the obsession with Japan as "a prize to win or a riddle to solve." The English teacher, a Canadian who has taken a position in a fenced and asphalted suburb of Kumagaya City, is at once baffled and enthralled by culture shock: in addition to his language lessons and research, he learns to play kendo--"where you... whack the bejesus out of your opponent with a rather long bamboo sword"--and negotiates a bewildering affair with a student whose grandmother leaves messages of "sex no, sex no" on his answering machine. But even as he clings "to the idea that I would be able to discover for myself the real Japan," he finds his own story inextricably folded into the myth, history, and popular culture that connect the East and West.

Sending as a RABCK to vedranaster. Enjoy!

Arrived safe and sound this morning.
Thanks for this wishlist RABCK, lauraloo29! :)