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Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler — book cover

Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan

by Bruce Feiler
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Overview

Learning to Bow has been heralded as one of the funniest, liveliest, and most insightful books ever written about the clash of cultures between America and Japan. With warmth and candor, Bruce Feiler recounts the year he spent as a teacher in a small rural town. Beginning with a ritual outdoor bath and culminating in an all-night trek to the top of Mt. Fuji, Feiler teaches his students about American culture, while they teach him everything from how to properly address an envelope to how to date a Japanese girl.

Since its publication, Learning to Bow has been heralded as one of the funniest, liveliest, and most insightful books about the clash of cultures between America and Japan. Now in paperback, this hilarious and revealing book demystifiesde the world's most heralded school system. Map.

Synopsis

Learning to Bow has been heralded as one of the funniest, liveliest, and most insightful books ever written about the clash of cultures between America and Japan. With warmth and candor, Bruce Feiler recounts the year he spent as a teacher in a small rural town. Beginning with a ritual outdoor bath and culminating in an all-night trek to the top of Mt. Fuji, Feiler teaches his students about American culture, while they teach him everything from how to properly address an envelope to how to date a Japanese girl.

Publishers Weekly

Feiler offers a humorous take on the year he spent teaching in Japan, and on Japanese culture in general. (Sept.)

About the Author, Bruce Feiler

Both funny and intellectually rigorous, Bruce Feiler has applied his investigative spirit to religion, Japan, the circus, country music and assorted other topics. His personal accounts of various cultural forays are always illuminating, if you can keep up.

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Editorials

James Fallows

"A hilarious and revealing book [that] marks the debut of a formidable talent."

Robert Elegant

"A charming and incisive close-up of the most important part of the Japanese miracle- the making of a Japanese."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A refreshingly original look at Japan…this book is a revelation."

Business Tokyo

"An engaging book, Learning to Bow earns higher marks than the usual scholarly analysis."

Elle

"Mark Salzman fans and other aficionados of things Eastern will love…Bruce Feiler’s Learning to Bow."

Washington Post

"Always fascinating and often funny…one of those rare books that shows the Japanese as fully rounded human beings."

Rocky Mountain News

"Gems of insight and understanding."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Filled with rich anecdotes that tell far more than dry, academic tomes on the same subject."

Grand Rapids Press

"As fascinating an account of Japanese life as you could find anywhere…Don’t miss this one."

Washington Post

“Always fascinating and often funny…one of those rare books that shows the Japanese as fully rounded human beings.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A refreshingly original look at Japan…this book is a revelation.”

Rocky Mountain News

“Gems of insight and understanding.”

Elle

“Mark Salzman fans and other aficionados of things Eastern will love…Bruce Feiler’s Learning to Bow.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Filled with rich anecdotes that tell far more than dry, academic tomes on the same subject.”

Grand Rapids Press

“As fascinating an account of Japanese life as you could find anywhere…Don’t miss this one.”

Business Tokyo

“An engaging book, Learning to Bow earns higher marks than the usual scholarly analysis.”

Publishers Weekly

Feiler offers a humorous take on the year he spent teaching in Japan, and on Japanese culture in general. (Sept.)

Book Details

Published
May 1, 2004
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
336
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780060577209

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