[Columbine]

Putting this out there for everyone; you may also come across 'The Chrysanthemum and the Sword' by Ruth Benedict which a lot of people still cite as being a definitive anthropology text about Japan. It IS interesting, and it was a defining text on Japan but take it with an enormous pinch of salt if you read it now because A) it's vastly outdated; hello WW2. and B) the author never went personally to Japan whilst she wrote it. All her information came from interviews with japanese ethnics living in America and some other media. Worth reading for the history of international relations; not worth taking as verbatim fact.

"Kitchen" by Yoshimoto Banana is a modern novel that's... not exactly about normal people (transsexual parents, huzzah!) but is a lovely story with lots of little details about everyday life around a surprisingly uncomplicated yet subtle plot. I didn't actually like it much when I read it; i thought it a little dull, yet it's one of the few stories that's really stuck with me, so there's clearly something in it that resonates.

See also if you can't find some of those morning soap drama type programs. They're like... 15 minutes long or so and show daily and are often set in small, real-world settings. I was watching one called "Hitomi" ( I think), about a year ago, about a girl who wanted to be a dancer ( more or less an OAP's intro to hip-hop kind of show). But it was set in one of the declining, old-fashioned tokyo suburbs and also featured her grandfather and his shop/customers a lot, and the ordinary stuff that went on down the road with the people who lived there.

Joy Hendry is another anthropologist, and she HAS been to Japan. 'Understanding Japanese Society' is probably her best and most well known book, but I have actually had her has a professor and I'm inclined to say that as a person, she tends to form strong opinions of things and people and dislikes being challenged on them. I'm not alone this perception either; other students say the same, sometimes rather more crudely. In my opinion, if she is like this with her day-job, she's likely to retain these traits as an observer, which might skew her writing towards observational bias. Read them by all means, she's still a very smart writer and they're not dry books, but again, take the time to form your own opinion and bear in mind this is Japan viewed through a foreign lens.