she knew that the Japanese had a word for the seemingly effortless state of harmony that she longed for: wa.What follows is a thoroughly readable account of how she spent a year filming her interactions with local Japanese while also trying endlessly to please her host mother and nemesis, Yukiko, who finds fault with almost everything Muller does.In an effort to make amends with her host mother, Yukiko, Muller sets about doing all the domestic chores to perfection.Genji, her beloved host father, is a sixth degree black belt judo instructor and runs one of Japan’s largest corporations — but even he knows better than to cross Yukiko.Meanwhile, her host sister, Junko, is one of Japan’s “New Human Beings” — a woman who’s aggressively modern and dismissive of herparents yet utterly dependent on them (at 28, she parties every night, but must get married in the next two years or lost her job).Muller also meets Roberto, a young Brazilian who went to Japan to become a lowly apprentice with the sword maker, Masamune.Armed with encounters with sumo wrestlers, Buddhist monks, geishas and even laid-off, homeless former corporate executives who now roam the streets, Muller paints a portrait of Japan that you might not necessarily see by merely visiting for a week or two.Muller seeks out the Yamabushi, who are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. With permission to film their eight-day fall training, she slowly starts to understand the power of this cryptic cult.“It’s the silence. The time away from their web of obligation, from the voices that