Wrong About Japan

I'm not sure I understood the point of this book.

My first impression about Wrong about Japan was that it was going to be a delightful memoir of the author's trip to Japan with his then twelve year old son. Instead I found the book was a thinly veiled excuse for the trip.

Instead of doing a lot of fun and interesting sightseeing of anime/manga locations and activities, the author seemed intent on interview after interview with industry folks in order to “understand” a culture he felt alienated from. Granted, some of those people were pretty famous for their work and his son probably felt the privilege and awe of meeting one or two of them but the child seemed genuinely bored at a lot of the interviews and Carey seemed more interested in getting his own answers than giving his child a fun experience.

There seemed no rhyme or reason for the inclusion of Takashi who appeared and disappeared at random and aside from the odd comment or two contributed little to the experience.

Carey claimed they were looking for the “real” japan, but it felt like anything “real” they encountered was glossed over (or complained about) in preference of name dropping the industry giants that he annoyed and pestered with silly questions, the answers to which he seemed disappointed in.

In the end, there was no real conclusion drawn about the author's (or his son's) experience in Japan, and I wish he had continued for another chapter to at least sum up their experience and what they had learned from it overall. A conversation with his son perhaps about what he thought about the “real” japan they had encountered. But no, that didn't happen and it just felt like the author didn't really learn anything at all.