Confessions of a Texan in Tokyo is the third book by Grace Mineta, proprietor of the website, Texan in Tokyo. The book is self published and is available for download and purchase via Amazon.
Grace continues comically portraying her life as an expat living in Tokyo, married to a Japanese citizen. Where her first two books, My Japanese Husband Thinks I'm Crazy, focus on the cultural differences between America and Japan and her encounters with those differences. Confessions turns more inward and explanatory. Having now lived in the country for four years, the things that once struck her as strange and obtuse become part of her accepted daily reality. There are some quirky moments, like how to deal with a neighbors laundered underwear ending up on your patio, but this book focuses more on introspection. There is roughly a 50/50 split between comic and text content in the book and for the most part this is not a bad thing. A good chunk of the second half of the book is used to list positive and negative aspects to living in Tokyo. The book also dips more into the authors own internal conflicts. Her health issues and concern that she is becoming too accustomed to living in Japan and it may no longer present the joy she cherishes. A number of topics spring up relating to the realities foreigners face in the mostly homogeneous Japan and the negative and positive connotations associated with being easily identified as foreign.
In general this was an enjoyable read and I do look forward to more musings by Grace. If you are looking for more of the same content as found in her first two books you might be disappointed as this takes a turn from quirky to reflection. At times it seems she is trying to remind her self of the positive things in her life, warding against the negativity that may be encroaching and discouraging her. There are sad and somber moments with in, as were found in the previous books, but there seems to be more in this volume. Part of the melancholy may be due to the original content of her comics changing as she becomes less aware of the peculiarities in Japan vs. America. In one portion she even states that she may be running out of content to muse upon for this reason. This may be true and the tone of her writing/drawing appears to be on the cusp of change. Hidden in the book, though, are possibilities for her to continue exposing the world to the unique experiences that await foreigners in Japan. If not on her life in general. Through her work her readers have come to know the part of her that takes place in her comic and may enjoy returning to that world for more than just the quirkiness. One thing, that she has touched on before, is her infrequent experiences as a go-to foreigner for the variety shows on Japanese TV. It would be fascinating to see her expand upon her experiences in non-traditional work situations she encounters in Japan.
I enjoyed the book and look forward to more musings! 頑張れGRACE!!
Grace continues comically portraying her life as an expat living in Tokyo, married to a Japanese citizen. Where her first two books, My Japanese Husband Thinks I'm Crazy, focus on the cultural differences between America and Japan and her encounters with those differences. Confessions turns more inward and explanatory. Having now lived in the country for four years, the things that once struck her as strange and obtuse become part of her accepted daily reality. There are some quirky moments, like how to deal with a neighbors laundered underwear ending up on your patio, but this book focuses more on introspection. There is roughly a 50/50 split between comic and text content in the book and for the most part this is not a bad thing. A good chunk of the second half of the book is used to list positive and negative aspects to living in Tokyo. The book also dips more into the authors own internal conflicts. Her health issues and concern that she is becoming too accustomed to living in Japan and it may no longer present the joy she cherishes. A number of topics spring up relating to the realities foreigners face in the mostly homogeneous Japan and the negative and positive connotations associated with being easily identified as foreign.
In general this was an enjoyable read and I do look forward to more musings by Grace. If you are looking for more of the same content as found in her first two books you might be disappointed as this takes a turn from quirky to reflection. At times it seems she is trying to remind her self of the positive things in her life, warding against the negativity that may be encroaching and discouraging her. There are sad and somber moments with in, as were found in the previous books, but there seems to be more in this volume. Part of the melancholy may be due to the original content of her comics changing as she becomes less aware of the peculiarities in Japan vs. America. In one portion she even states that she may be running out of content to muse upon for this reason. This may be true and the tone of her writing/drawing appears to be on the cusp of change. Hidden in the book, though, are possibilities for her to continue exposing the world to the unique experiences that await foreigners in Japan. If not on her life in general. Through her work her readers have come to know the part of her that takes place in her comic and may enjoy returning to that world for more than just the quirkiness. One thing, that she has touched on before, is her infrequent experiences as a go-to foreigner for the variety shows on Japanese TV. It would be fascinating to see her expand upon her experiences in non-traditional work situations she encounters in Japan.
I enjoyed the book and look forward to more musings! 頑張れGRACE!!
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