book on Japanese social interactions, psych, etc

[derrick_odd]

There's this one book out there. I can't remember the title. All I remember is that it was recommended to me by a friend, it sounded really, really good (not just a bunch of nihonjinron BS) and it was blue. Written by a Japanese guy. I can't get in touch with my friend. He said that he would read it in bed in the evening with his wife next to him and go "OMG, this is soooo you..." Any idea what it might be? They have it in Japan, but I never bothered to buy it.

By far, the longest of shots...

[kurogane]

what shade of blue was it?

Any idea how thick it was in millimetres?

[derrick_odd]

I ***SAID*** it was a longshot...

A millimeter is like .37 inches, right?

By the way, you spelled "millimeters" wrong.

[derrick_odd]

How's about this: can anyone suggest a good book on Japanese social psych? What I'm looking for is explanations of behavior I don't understand.

[person]

How's about this: can anyone suggest a good book on Japanese social psych? What I'm looking for is explanations of behavior I don't understand.

The Japanese Mind by Davies/Ikeno (Tuttle) ??

I have this. Not sure how much it enlightened me but...

[alexcase]

I find the ones that claim to give a general understanding from a few principles to be wildly overambitious and not give you any insight into the things you actually wonder about as you go about your life - worst offendor is "Kata" or anything else by Boye La Fayette, but the same for "The Crysanthamum and the Sword" (Ruth Benedict) etc. etc.

On the other hand, the ones that start out with a very limited range of subject matter can end up illuminating all kinds of other seemingly unrelated stuff- "Shinohata" by Ronald Dore, being the best, but also lots of books on Japanese education like "Learning to go to school in Japan" or "Pre-school in 3 cultures" and Japanese history like "Embracing Defeat". Again, the more specific the focus the better, even if it wasn't a subject you were interested in for its own sake. The best example of this for me are the books by Robert Whiting- still can't understand or appreciate baseball, but they told me a lot about Japan.

Almost on the same topic, I'm making a collection of the Why??? questions that have popped into my head over the years, plus any answers I find on http://japanexplained.wordpress.com

[blackpassenger]

How's about this: can anyone suggest a good book on Japanese social psych? What I'm looking for is explanations of behavior I don't understand.

a good book on japan is the one i authored, to be published in april.

BLACK PASSENGER, YELLOW CABS, an erotic ethnographic memoir explores in easy lay person’s terms the socio-psychosexual dynamics of Japan and the erotic capital of the Western male, Black and White. As a sex addict with a ‘yellow fetish,’ I drew on extensive research, along with my own experiences and those of my friends and random individuals. As a memoir BLACK PASSENGER exposes my own history and childhood environment which created the predator that I became. Growing up as the only child and the only male on a church commune with some fifty women in an east Kingston ghetto, I consider myself a Black, Feminist, sex addicted Lesbian, happily trapped in a man's body. Having left Jamaica at 15, I spent 21 years in the US and the UK, before moving to Japan in 2001. A move motivated completely by my addiction and extreme yellow fetish. BLACK PASSENGER, YELLOW CABS ends at my August ‘07 marriage to one of sixty women in six years.

NOTE:a total of 50 pages can be read in sequentially posted excerpts on myspace.com/blackpassenger, with the first chapter, MAKING OF A RICE KING posted june 26

should be out by mid april

[what's it to you ?]

There's this one book out there. I can't remember the title. All I remember is that it was recommended to me by a friend, it sounded really, really good (not just a bunch of nihonjinron BS) and it was blue. Written by a Japanese guy. I can't get in touch with my friend. He said that he would read it in bed in the evening with his wife next to him and go "OMG, this is soooo you..." Any idea what it might be? They have it in Japan, but I never bothered to buy it.

By far, the longest of shots...



It wasn't "The anatomy of dependence" was it? by Takeo Doi?

That was a book about how all the psychological insights from the west like Freud's etc. do not apply to the Japanese Psyche...or at least something along those lines....something to do with all the fish they eat here and how the Japanese Mum's offer pleasurable relief services to the young boys so they'll focus on their studies.

[The Old Man]

It wasn't "The anatomy of dependence" was it? by Takeo Doi?.

That was one of the worst books I read on Japan.

[what's it to you ?]

That was one of the worst books I read on Japan.


I'm with you there!

[blackpassenger]

I'm with you there!

yeh, that book sucked! laced with typical japanese illogic.

[alexcase]

I hope the criticism of a book full of gross generalisations containing gross generalisations was ironic...

I've only flicked through the anatomy of whathaveyou, but does look like pants

[tiowawa]

Amaeru, by Takeo Doi. A mindful work on how japanese citizens got fixed since early childhood -and then frustrated- with mom's over protection. A must for understanding locals' behavior.