Pictures From the Water Trade: Adventures of a Westerner in Japan

This book is rightly considered a classic, and his description of Miss Suzuki in the chapter "Slaying Dragons" is, oddly enough, one of the most erotic things I've ever read. It describes a severe and businesslike woman, dressed all in black, in a cold white room. As she works, the room warms and he catches the scent of her skin coming from her hairless forearms. (But he writes it far better than I.) The author was young when he wrote this book, and it shows, but it's pretty dead accurate of what it's like to be young and full of life in a very foreign land.

As an introduction to Japan this novel is superlative. It reads as a collection of memoirs on the Japanese lifestyle bound by a loose but well-sketched narrative. It covers the life of an English cultural visitor to Japan in the early 1970s, detailing the elements of Japanese culture, attitude and character that particularly affect him during his stay. The narrative parts of it are quite entertaining but it is the insghts that this book provides that make this a valuable text for understanding the Japanese.

If John David Morley's use of English does not bring a gasp of pleasure then the contents of his work certainly will. If you have the slightest interest in things Japanese then you are sure to enjoy this remarkable journey of cultural exploration seen through the eyes of a fictional Englishman. It seems very real, and for those who have traveled in Japan the context is set so perfectly. But more than that, it provides delicately woven connections and insights into a whole fabric of Japanese society of which most Westerners will never be aware. Perhaps the author's fluency in Japanese helps him unravel the thinking behind many interpersonal and cultural patterns which otherwise remain opaque to outsiders. To me the book was emotive, and real, with a captivating web of characters and a motion which maintained my interest to the last page.

I don't remember where I got a copy of "Pictures of the Water Trade," or why, but I know I haven't lost track of it since. "Pictures" is a fictionalized account of the author's experience in moving, as a young man, to Japan, and his experience of 'turning Japanese.' He passes through several stages of understanding, incomprehension, accepatance and rejection, examining his feelings and reactions through the prizm of the Japanese language. He explores how concepts and metaphors embedded in a language can change the perception of someone who immerses themselves in it completely. His relationships with co-workers, his roomate and a girlfriend detail these changes. I recall a scene in which he realizes he has begun to bow when on the telephone, and he understands how his personality is changing in response to culture. This is a poignant and intellectually challenging work. John David Morley alternates personal, illustrative events from his life with detailed explanations of sociology and linguistics. I am reminded of authors like Neal Stephenson, and Noam Chomsky. Strange and heady company.