{"product_id":"living-carelessly-in-tokyo-and-elsewhere-a-memoir-9781416553458","title":"Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Nathan arrived in Tokyo in 1961 fresh out of Harvard College  bringing with him no practical experience  no more than two connections  no prospects  and little else to recommend him but stoic  unflappable pluck. Japan at that time was still in the shadow of the Occupation  and only a handful of foreigners were studying the country seriously. Two years later  Nathan became the first American to pass the entrance exams to the best school in Japan  the University of Tokyo. He went on to translate two of Japans greatest contemporary writers  Yukio Mishima and Nobel laureate Kenzabur e  and direct several series of films in and about Japan in collaboration with world-famous directors and businesses; earn an advanced degree at Harvard and a professorship at Princeton; and become a Hollywood screenwriter. Nathan was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum of Sony for his book Sony: The Private Life  and he explored the damaged psyche of postbubble Japan in his acclaimed Japan Unbound.  During his decades of passionate engagement with Japan  Nathan became close friends with many of the most gifted people in the land -- politicians and business leaders as well as painters  novelists  directors  rock stars  and movie stars -- and was privileged to travel  in their very special company  inside domains of Japanese life not normally open to foreigners then or now. In his unique chronicle of that journey  Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere  he details the adventures sublime  profane  and uproarious  many of a distinctly Japanese nature  that characterized his career  which was singular in its success as much as in its chaos. Along the way  he brings the most exciting era in recent Japanese history vividly into focus with wry humor  penetrating insight  and pathos.  John Nathan is not the only foreigner to have developed a rich  full  deeply nuanced understanding of Japan. But his experiences are certainly extraordinary and in fact irreproducible  and his memoir is the most personally satisfying story yet told of Japan (and elsewhere). From Nathans lifetime of wisdom  compassion  and brazen resolve  we learn the value of traveling within our own mental and emotional borders as well as without the many places we call home.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45924479991861,"sku":"ByrdShop_1416553452","price":99.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781416553458.jpg?v=1787672498","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/living-carelessly-in-tokyo-and-elsewhere-a-memoir-9781416553458","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}