Dave Barry Does Japan

By: Dave Barry

Narrated by: Arte Johnson

Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Without bothering to get approval from the President, the State Department, or even the FTC, Dave Barry's publishers sent him to Tokyo. You'd think they would have known better. Now the word is Barry has set back our diplomatic relations with the whole Pacific Rim by a couple of decades. Japanese culture, dining, sport, and industry all come under Barry's relentless scrutiny. So if you think President Bush committed a social gaffe by losing his composure and his lunch in front of the Japanese Prime Minister, wait until you hear Barry's commentaries. And if you're planning a trip to Japan, don't leave home without Barry's pearls of wisdom about the mysterious East. This complete, unabridged recording is read by Arte Johnson.

©1992 by Dave Barry (P)1992 Dove Audio, Inc.

Let's hope the Japanese don't hear this

This book is a wonderful way of showing the world how little we know of anything that is not America. Dave Barry paints a picture not of Japan but of Americans abroad. I must confess I could not get through more than three hours of listening before I gave up. I wanted to hear this book because I will be visiting Japan shortly and I wanted to have as much information as I could about the country. Instead of information on Japan's culture, I got endless goings on about how awful life had been for an american family deprived of pizza, hamburgers and dozens of other typically american products that I am happy to do without. Dave Barry should have stayed home.

Dated and only sometimes funny

I have enjoyed a lot of Dave Barry over the years, and I am interested in Japan and Asia in general, so I thought this would be a great experience. However, this book manages to be preachy, patronizing and outdated all at the same time. Particularly annoying was the narrator's attempts at funny Japanese accents. I don't know how those bits looked in the text, but they came across as insensitive and jingoistic. The book starts with a long monolog about how Japanese were protrayed in 1950s movies, which was most unpleasant. Pick another Dave Barry book!