weaves a wonderful story with skill, honesty, and respect. She's not ashamed to reveal her own ignorance of some situations, nor is she ashamed to point out when other people are just plain baffling, at least by Western sensibilities.I have read this book more than once now, and it's one of the few books that I can safely say I take more away from it each time I read it. It's an engrossing book, with plenty to amuse those who nothing about Japanese culture and those who know quite a bit.By the end of the book, whether the author feels they've achieved a sense of inner peace and harmony is almost irrelevent. She's learned a great deal, experienced more than most people ever dream of, and she's takenspends a year in Japan and experiences things the average tourist likely is not even aware exist. Throughout the story, the author transforms from a "culturally unaware" foreigner, to a person who, while not even close to becoming Japanese, has a deeper understanding of the idiosyncrasies and inner workings of the culture. At times I felt that the author's views are rather ethnocentric in the fact that, at times, it seems as if she is portraying Japanese culture as "backward," particularly in reference to the culture's collectivist attitudes. However, this tone does eventually change as her story progresses, and at the end of her year in Japan, though she hasn't even come close to "becoming Japanese," we can see that the author has a deeper understanding and appreciation