My Awesome Japan Adventure: A Diary About the Best 4 Months Ever!

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The perfect introduction to Japanese culture for kids!

My Awesome Japan Adventure is the diary of an American fifth grader who travels to Japan and spends four exciting months as an exchange student living with a Japanese family. He records his adventures so he can tell his friends back home about all the exciting things he did in Japan.

With the help of his Japanese foster brother and sister, he visits a Ninja village, tries unusual foods, learns Japanese brush painting, and gets the inside scoop on daily life at a Japanese school. Readers of all ages will love experiencing Japan from a kid's point of view!

Dan's adventures include: Making Onigiri Rice Ball Sandwiches, How and Why the Japanese Bow Correctly, Making an Origami Crane, Eating Sushi and Learning about Japanese Fish, Practicing Aikido, Making Mochi Balls, and much more!

My Awesome Japan Adventure is the perfect book for kids who want to explore another culture and have fun in the process!

'The story and illustrations will hold a child's interest...written in a voice they can easily identify with.' The Japan Times

'Absolutely packed with cultural information: geography, breakfast, school, origami, history, rice harvest, food, pastimes, customs, tea ceremony and much, much more!' Kid World Citizen blog

'Rebecca Otowa truly knows her subject having lived in Japan for 30 years and raised children and grandchildren here...' Uncovering Japan blog

Reviews

*Picked as one of the best books of 2013 by the Association of Booksellers for Children*
"the story and illustrations will hold a child's interest with comparisons to Japanese and American culture written in a voice they can easily identify with." The Japan Times
"This diary-cum-travelogue surveys aspects of traditional and modern Japanese culture from sushi and bowing (how and when to do it) to ninjas and manga." School Library Journal

Author Bio

Rebecca Otowa was born in California, and studied Japanese Language and Culture at the University of Queensland in Australia. In 1978 she went to Japan, and never left. After graduating from Otani University in Kyoto, with an MA in Buddhism, she married the 19th-generation heir to a country estate nearby. In the years since, she has brought up two sons, taught university-level English, played music, acted on stage and kept a vegetable garden, but she eventually returned to her two great loves-writing and drawing. She is the author of At Home in Japan and The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Short Stories, along with her work as a translator and columnist.