"Japan Dreams: Notes From An Unreal Country" Now Published By Mark Peters
New Australian author Mark Peters has written an unusual and deeply self-revealing travelogue about Japan. The book combines travel narrative with introspection and recollections, in a format based on medieval Japanese writings, and the result is personal and innovative.
- (1888PressRelease) May 23, 2011 - Peters describes "Japan Dreams" as an encounter between an individual and a country, and that is exactly what it is. In preparing the book, Peters travelled thousands of kilometres across the four main islands of Japan, by car, aeroplane, train and boat. He lived in remote villages, city hotels and the tiny houses and apartments of friends. Througout the story of his travel, chance meetings with office workers, academics, monks, and housewives combine with points drawn from the literature of Japan and related subjects to produce a discourse that ranges widely over Japanese culture, language, art, history, philosophy, and sexuality.
"Japan Dreams" begins straightforwardly enough; a westerner flies into Tokyo and experiences the new of Japan for the first time. He's fascinated by the electronics, the vending machines, the frank approaches of women, and the pressure to conform. However, as Peters travels around the country, trying to make sense of what he sees and the people he meets, a subtle shift takes place in the narrative and, without giving away too much of the ending, it is finally the author himself who becomes the subject.
"Japan Dreams: notes from an unreal country" is now available from Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle formats. ISBN 1456319388, 410 pp, 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches.
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