Tracks Ahead

Khen - Never Lose Your Innocence

Saturday, early morning train. The weather was sublime. I’m trudging through this book,
JAPAN: A Guide to Traditions Customs and　Etiquette KATA as the Key to Understanding the Japanese by Boye Lafayette De Mente (published by Tuttle), and managed to finish today after months of leaving it on ice. It sucked.

It took me ages, because a) I’m a slow reader, and b) I never jump between books. I always finish the one I’m on first before the next. It’s a habit of mine to devote myself to something until the very end, even if I hate it. The book was fine but I just didn’t like the tone. It felt like a laborious rant from an old guy that’s been hard done by. It really did. Despite the writer’s immense years of experience in Japan, it’s visage of being scholarly was only slight, big topics hanging of short paragraphs of piffle, disguised as research.

To be honest, the more I live here, I’ll probably end up like that, but not having published any books. The old guy at the gaijin bar just drinking and annoying the customers.