Molly

Whoa.
The main ideas of this book are extremely intriguing. This isn't just a descriptive account of the pop culture flow between Japan and the West. It is a deep, but by no means long-winded or exhaustive story of the Japanese things that have shaped our lives and all the forces-historical, cultural, societal-that converged to make them be. There are so many good tidbits in here that are funny, fascinating, and unexpected. The way he intricately weaves all of it together is impressive. I also like the inclusion of little bits of Matt's personal stories here and there which were often very relatable. After my own childhood filled with many of the things in this book, which led me to study Japanese, live in Japan, and fall in love with even more things about Japan, this book gave me a bit more insight into how exactly all that even happened...and is still happening.

This is the first book I've read on this topic.
The author talks about what good self esteem is, and the behaviors that support it.

He also counters the idea that self esteem is just inflating one's ego. I'm currently reading “The Art of Not Giving a Fck” and I noticed that author has the exact misconceptions about self esteem that “The Six Pillars” author argues against. He would have done well to read this book as it seems “The Art of Not Giving a Fck” is ultimately drawing a few similar conclusions that this book did on how to approach life.

The main strategy presented to build your self esteem is an exercise called “sentence completions.” These are sentences like “If I bring more awareness to my life today...” that you are supposed to write endings for without thinking too much.

Simply by writing these endings quickly everyday, you'll be more conscious about your behavior and thought patterns throughout the day, which encourages you to question and/or disrupt your typical ways of thinking and behaving that lead to low self esteem. If you feel annoyed or resistant to doing the exercises, then there are strategies for that too.

I'm trying it now, and I do think this is the best takeaway from the book for me.

The sentence completion exercises you should work on are organized by weeks and are located in the back of the book. There are about 4 sentences per week.

That being said, I do feel like this book was kind of wordy, and the writing was not very accessible to me. Sometimes I found myself reading sentences over and over again and I felt like I had to dig for the valuable knowledge.

I skimmed the last 5 or so chapters because they were mostly about how we need to prioritize self esteem in schools, the workplace, psychotherapy, parenting, and such. If you are interested in the history of the concept of self esteem, then you may find it interesting. Personally, I just wanted more actionable strategies out of this book for myself.

This is the first book I've ever read about hate speech. It took me two months to read it, and I considered abandoning the effort several times throughout. Long-winded sentences made it difficult to follow his points without re-reading and re-reading...and oof, that vocabulary! But I found the main argument of the book-that we should consider how hate speech compromises the dignity and social status of minority persons-compelling enough to wade through it. And that's why I'm giving this book four stars...because I sense it is an important counterargument in the free speech/hate speech debate.

But ultimately what I'd rather read is a more relatable account of the harms of hate speech...real stories, about modern people. This book exists mostly in the academic realm, in that it feels like it is directed towards other legal scholars, and it stays philosophical and theoretical more often than it roots itself real life events. Well, it is an academic book, I guess. Is it valid to expect it to be more approachable for the average person? I'm not sure.

Regardless, it did make me think about the topic of hate speech regulation more deeply than I ever have before. And I'm interested to read more on the topic. But I don't think I would go out of my way to recommend this book to my friends, mostly because I find the writing style off putting.

Are you tired of not understanding this most essential part of the Japanese language than never seems to be the focus of any language learning books or classes? This is a good start. There are a lot of onomatopoeia in Japanese, and it can be overwhelming to try to learn them, but the way this book teaches some of them in short snippets through simple little comics makes it easy. Instead of treating this like a textbook by taking notes, making flashcards, and trying to absorb everything, I took more relaxed approach and casually read a few pages while eating breakfast every morning. I think this is a decent way to study onomatopoeia because there are so many of them.

The dialogue in the comics shows you how onomatopoeia are used in spoken sentences, and there are also sound effects outside of the dialogue like you see in other comics. It's nice that there are explanations in both Japanese and English of what the onomatopoeia means, and English translations of the dialogue. However, if you are looking for a direct translation for the sound effects in the comics, there aren't any-just explanations to help you understand what it's referring to.

It's clear reading this book that Seigle thoroughly researched the Ooku, of which there are very few historical records of due to the private nature of the Ooku itself. She is a meticulous historian who has drawn out a lot. Despite this being academic literature, I found her writing style to be incredibly approachable and I enjoyed reading it before bed.

The conclusions of her research are very interesting. The Ooku endured throughout the entire Tokugawa era for a reason–the institution of the Ooku and some women in it became quite powerful over time. Also, by providing many jobs, it was a way for women to have some power over their lives–gaining skills, money, and for a few, the ability to move up in rank to secure lifetime financial support and have some influence within the palace.

I think Seigle made a great contribution to scholarship of Japanese women's history with this book. If you are interested in Japanese history, women's experiences, or have read the Ooku manga series by Fumi Yoshinaga and want to learn about the real Ooku, I would recommend this book.