Wait - you read the book a long time ago?
I read the "New and Improved" version that was published very recently. (And supposedly by a completely different author)

We MAY be talking about very different books. In the version I read, there was pretty much nothing about culture shock itself. Just a lot of "You`ll find life in Japan shocking because of this! This! And this! Isn`t that all an awful waste of time? The culture we grew up in so much better, so it`s natural you won`t be able to deal with these inferior ideals" sort of feeling.

ETA: If you are talking about the older "version", it may very well be an excellent book on life and culture shock in Japan. (Though supposedly some aspects were outdated which led to it being replaced with the one I did read.) I`ve never read it. If so, I humbly apologize.

Maybe! I'll check it out on Amazon.com. the book I read was a series called Culture Shock and had books for various countries. Stand by for more.

Yeah. Theres a new one by a guy named Bramble. I think the one I red was by Rex Shelley. It has a lot of ettiquite stuff for beginners - which I was when I read it back when half these posters were in diapers. It had a lot of good stuff on the trends I mentioned earlier. I think it's co-written by a Japanese woman.

I say tomato, you say Ramble is a piece of crap, let's call the whole thing off!:D

That`s the series I`m talking about too, but it looks like they update their books in the series with new books, by different authors, that just share the title. The contents of the books are supposedly very different, and other than the name they aren`t related.

Now I want to track down the older version. I do want to find a realistic book that does give an idea of what life actually is like here... I`d like to have something to direct people to.

I feel a little better now knowing that we weren`t talking about the same book. Phew.

When I went to Japan I brought the Japan Hand Book, published by Moon Publications, a travel guide company. the book was originally published in 1983, but the writer continually visited Japan and upgraded it. I lost my copy and it's out of print. I'm considering getting another used copy anyway.

I've never seen a travel guide like it. this book had every little place to see even way out in the boondocks. Places I visited that arent on the web or in any book. I could plan a day trip or a whol vacation anywhere in Japan from that book. It even had the train times and times of buses and what color bus to take to each place. i'm sure that stuff is out of date now. But, the geography hasn't changed.

It was also full of cultural and historical lessons that were really deep.

If anyone were to go to japan, i would say go to Alibris.com and get a used copy.

It was thick as a brick, but lately I bought the best Japan guide I could think of and it had almost nothing in Kansai other than Kyoto and Osaka. the Japasn Hand Book had even tiny things to see in countryside mura.

Is this the book you're talking about Paul11?

9780918373700: Japan Handbook by J D Bisignani (Used, New, Out-of-Print) - Alibris

Personally I'm gonna read all of the books you guys mentioned. I'd rather be prepared than get a big surprise that might send me back home. I'll admit that I have a rose colored glasses view of Japan and could use a dose of reality.
But despite what people say, and I have been around several Japan bashers, I can't see myself hating the place. In the end there's only way to find out and that's by experiencing it myself.

If you`re going to read the one I mentioned, do put forth the effort to track down the edition Paul11 read. The one I read had needless negativity and isn`t worth the time.

In my opinion - it isn`t people discouraging you from going to Japan or convincing you to hate the place. It`s the fact that the negative opinions you read will come back to bite you when you (if, actually, as I never personally experienced any) feel homesick. If you`re feeling down to begin with, it doesn`t take much to make your surroundings look like a hell that is working against you. I`d say a pretty fair chunk of foreigners in Japan end up feeling that way - and the more contact they have with others who feel that way (directly or through books/blogs/etc), the worse things are. I`ve seen someone who was pretty much happy in Japan deteriorate to paranoid racist over a month or so when those around him kept telling him that he was being discriminated against, all those people were talking about him, etc etc. He was able to hunt down tons of "supporting evidence" via books and blogs by other bitter foreigners. He went home early, disgusted with the country.

Having a very good language ability knocks a lot of this out of the water, but most people never get that far. It`s easier to discount bashing when you`re not there and aren`t having a bad day... Then it`s much much easier to blame Japan, Japanese people, and Japanese culture for your own shortcomings and failures. It doesn`t help that a lot of people come to Japan to escape the lives they made - and repeat the same mistakes here.

I say it`s better to have a good history book and an open mind than read someone else`s feelings about something you should experience first hand. The impressions you read will color your own impressions, no matter how little credit you give them at the time.

Yeah, that's the book. It's a travel guide, but full of good stuff. I'm a realist ands don't mind reading negative stuff because I don't have to believe it. I take everything written about Japan with a grain of salt. After arriving I realized mnost books were full of crap.

Even the ones positive about Japan seemed to be written by those who romanticized thier experience and have no cuktural education to back-up thire observations. the stuff written for business were written by guys who spent a super limited amount of time in Japan.

I commented on this when I arrived to a veteran ex-pat. He said, "Too many people write books." I've used that line for years.

Read everything. Take it all with a grain of salt. (and get the older version of culture shock.)