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Live From Japan!

John Rachel

Anecdotes on the People and Culture of Contemporary Japan from the Perspective of an American Expat

A captivating, heart-warming, funny, and informative look at contemporary Japan, through the eyes of an American expat.

  Travel   79,357 words   100% complete   4 publishers interested
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$632.00 funded

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Synopsis

This is a captivating, heart-warming, funny, and informative look at contemporary Japan, through the eyes of an American expat. I arrived for my first visit to Japan 13 years ago, am now married to a brilliant Japanese lady — she's a music teacher, concert pianist, opera singer — and have lived here permanently for over eight years. My book is a collection of sixty anecdotes about the Land of the Rising Sun, its people, culture, traditions, and institutions.

Mind you, I live in a quiet, rustic, rural community 1 1/2 hours from Osaka. I'm surrounded by rice and bean fields. The loudest sound I hear is the ringing of temple bells three times a day at a local hilltop Shinto shrine. This is not the Japan of ultra-high technology and glitzy Westernization. This is the Japan of calm, dreamy landscapes; simple, unhurried farmers; long memories, deep history and time-honored traditions. It's the Japan of family, community, respect for others, and resolute honesty. Even after all these years, I'm regularly shocked by the stark contrast between my current life and the my-way-or-the-highway, not-in-my-backyard, what's-in-it-for-me, what's-mine-is-mine-and-what's-yours-is-mine-if-I-can-get-my-hands-on-it mentality I was conditioned to regard as normal and acceptable, growing up in post-modern, pre-dystopian America — specifically Detroit, Michigan.

If you come from the U.S. — or any country with European, Judeo-Christian roots — and are curious, as I have been all of my life, about this mysterious and fascinating place, I believe this book is a good place to begin discovering what makes Japan so unique and such a sharp contrast to countries of the West.

Sales arguments

  • Discover how living in a completely foreign culture will change you, greatly expand your understanding of the world, and hopefully make your life infinitely more interesting.
  • Japan is an archetypal hybrid of modern technology and centuries of tradition. It's the past, present, and future for all civilization.
  • To date I've had over 195,000 visitors to my personal website, https://jdrachel.com, which gives an overview of both my personal life and creativity.
  • I have over 4,950 friends on Facebook, over 2,800 friends on Goodreads, over 5,400 connections on LinkedIn, over 1,600 followers on Twitter, all of whom apparently enjoy my tales of adventure and world travel.
  • Unlocking our minds is critical in a lock-down. This book is the next-best thing to being able to go and live in Japan.

Similar titles

  • "Japan - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture" by Paul Norbury - Kuperard, (Third Edition, April 1, 2017): A definitive guide through modern Japan's shifting social and cultural maze.
  • "Culture Hacks: Deciphering Differences in American, Chinese, and Japanese Thinking" by Richard Conrad - Lioncrest Publishing (June 11, 2019): Scholarly overview of the cultural differences between East and West.
  • "Loco in Yokohama" by Baye McNeil - Hunterfly Road Publishing (September 16, 2013): Real-life experience, funny, touching, entertaining.

Audience

Broadminded, curious people in both America and Japan who wish to put their respective cultures in perspective.

Advance praise

"Very few people can catch the local zeitgeist in Japan like John Rachel, who does it with familial relations, years in-country and with a wry sense of humor that puts it all into empathetic, cross-cultural perspective." - Jeff J. Brown, China Rising Radio Sinoland (Chiang Mai, Thailand)

"This author is a de facto Japan-to-America cultural ambassador. With wit and candor, he exposes sides of Japan hidden to most all, except the Japanese people themselves." - Motohiroshi Hiro, Director of Japanese-American Relations, 文化交流省 (Tokyo)

"I just finished reading the ARC, and will definitely be using this as a supplementary textbook for my advanced Japanese studies courses." - Professor Sarah Markham, Global & Int'l Studies, Penn State University

"What appears to be a random collection of personal stories about life in Japan as a displaced U.S. citizen, eventually coheres into a brilliant, far-reaching, highly-entertaining disquisition, offering profound insights into the Japanese and their rich heritage." - Mark Trevaud, Translator of English Classics to Japanese (Granta Books; Europa Editions; Pushkin Press)

"Here life as an American expat, clearly a very inspired and satisfied existence, is related by someone who should know. The author has lived in Japan over eight years and immersed himself in everything Japanese. This book is both a hoot and an education." - Timothy White, YouTube Podcaster, Assoc. Prof. of Sociology (UCLA)

"John Rachel is a wanderer, a seeker, a cultural adventurer. He has collected his impressions of Japan, anecdotes which span all aspects of life there. It's a casual read, thus highly entertaining. But it's also a wealth of facts and insights, especially about rural Japan, the farm country where rice, soybeans and a host of vegetables are grown. Never has farming and living in a farm community come across quite so charming." - Karla Schünzel, ZDF Kultur Radio (Berlin)

"Japan gets under your skin. Not the Western, Modern, Technical Japan we know. No, underneath there is still the silent power of order, tranquility, respect, love and hospitality to visitors. Every fiber in our body comes into balance, the balance we search all of our lives for. The writer of this book knows how to describe this in a clear and humorous way. His experiences are written down about this so well-known, but also for Westerners 'so far-away', exotic country." - Alex Malherbe, Social Worker (Den Haag, Netherlands)

John Rachel

About the author

John Rachel has a B. A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter and music producer, and an evolutionary humanist. He has spent his life trying to resolve the intrinsic clash between the metaphysical purity of Buddhism and the overwhelming appeal of narcissism.

He is author of nine novels, three non-fiction political books, and one creative non-fiction fantasy/travel/cookbook, as well as hundreds of articles, short stories, and poems. Currently in development is a new novel set in Africa, and an American satire on the self-help crazes of the 80s and 90s.

Author Rachel has explored or lived in thirty-four countries since leaving America August of 2006. He now lives in a quiet, traditional, rural Japanese community, where he finds infinite delight in the ringing of temple bells three times a day by monks at a local Shinto shrine. These days he is mostly immersed in good vibrations.

https://johnrachelauthor.com
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Please log in to comment.

  • Eric Arnow
    on May 24, 2020, 3:11 p.m.

    Good luck with your new book, John. Looking forward to seeing and reading it. Eric

  • Clark Kendrick
    on May 26, 2020, 8:39 a.m.

    Hi John, we are both retired now.
    You and yours stay safe in this crazy new environment. All the best,
    Clark, Kathyleen, and Family.

  • Denise Seymour
    on May 27, 2020, 9:17 p.m.

    Thank you for introducing me to your new book, "Live From Japan". I can't wait to read it and it sounds very interesting. Good luck with your campaign for your book.

  • Gail Neustadt
    on May 28, 2020, 6:03 p.m.

    Looking forward to reading your new book and giving one to my sister, Laura.

    Best,
    "G" AKA Dylan Weiss

  • Erik Svehaug
    on June 1, 2020, 5:53 a.m.

    All the best success with this publication, John. I really look forward to reading your witty, insightful prose. Wish I was in a place to afford the tour! I live to travel another day! Erik

  • Mary Graham
    on June 4, 2020, 7:47 a.m.

    Looking forward to it John! All my best from Den Haag,
    Mary

  • Ronald Ruiz
    on June 10, 2020, 7:45 a.m.

    John: We are honoured to help fund this, my friend! Wishing you well. I know the book will be amazing.

    Ron and Kelly.

  • Joe Bennett
    on June 19, 2020, 11:09 p.m.

    Hey
    Just ordered the book. Hoping you can write something more than just signing your name. Will be proud to include it with the other signed editions.
    Love to you and Masumi
    joe b

  • Alex Malherbe
    on June 21, 2020, 9:35 a.m.

    Hello John, with a little help from Corine, I payed for the book. Looks promissing! I see forward to the arrival of your "story of Nippon life"

    greetings, from me an Corine.

  • Scott Hastie
    on June 21, 2020, 10:26 p.m.

    Looking forward to my copy, John - Good luck with it all.... And anything I can do to help things along, don't hesitate to let me know...

    Regards as ever

    Scott

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