This book features a collection of encounters, clashes, mistakes, and rescues, and provides an account of an Italian intellectual’s bewilderment in the country of Asian islanders, the land of the rising sun. The author is accustomed to understanding, mastering, even dominating the reality surrounding him, but in Japan finds himself constantly having to acknowledge his beginner’s status. Yet this situation does not cause any distress, for Japan is mild-mannered and treats its visitors with respect even when they are arrested for some sort of crime. It is a country of stunning beauty when it manages to reveal its grandeur. The author’s adventures involve boxes of candy, cautious bears, earthquakes, proper girls, coloured chalks, destructive dinosaurs, patient police officers, precious trash, a snack food called Big Katsu, a mock Lamborghini, rivers, lakes, volcanoes, jade stamps, the football player Alessandro Del Piero, and Sophia Loren. The final verdict: it’s okay not to understand a country so full of mysterious things, since continuing the search is such a pleasant experience.

Edoardo Lombardi Vallauri teaches General Linguistics at the Roma Tre University in Rome.