reading this book because it was written by a "typical westerner." In the beginning, Ms. Muller struggles to adapt to Japanese life. Living with a host family that values cleanliness, obedience, and conformity far more than she, Muller feels isolated. Despite this, her book manages to be lighthearted and funny. Her style of writing is easy to read and to follow, and is, in my opinion, written in a way to grab the largest western audience possible. She can be critical and unfair in her opinions, but the longer she spends in Japan, the more she grows and begins to understand that merely because someone does things differently than her does not make it wrong, and her right. I liked reading about her adventures, because she does thingsbest friend first got me interested in Japan, and there's something about its cultural differences from the West, its contradictory values, and its unique way of blending the past and the present so seamlessly that fascinates me. Karin Muller's journey into this country only deepened my knowledge and wonder. In easy, conversational language, Muller jumps among the people and places she meets, from her up-and-down relations with her host family to various strangers, professionals, roommates, homeless, monks, and pilgrims she interacts with. Sometimes she is met with incredible acts of kindness and understanding, other times with coldness and even cruelty. It serves to underscore the kind of experience a foreigner can have in Japan; either welcomed or shunned, or sometimes both. Muller's style makes it easy to get