So this book is great!  Honestly, like one of those crazy soap’s and I love it!  Let’s talk about Jane.  What a gal!  She honestly is trying to do the best she can.  She seems to embrace her Japanese culture but isn’t sure what direction to head into.  It’s almost as though she’s embarassed of her crew and can’t stand them as well.  She goes against the what the Japanese head people want; a nice, clean cut white family and insteads casts these crazy people- the one family with like 8 Korean kids; yeah a little insane.  But anyways, Jane is a great character but Akiko is the one we have to watch. 

I thought it was interesting on page 87 where it says, “The modern Japanese housewife, living a hermetic existence, increasingly cut off from contact with the world, is literally losing her voice.  Is it any wonder she prefers to interact with a machine?”  Wow!  Even today these women don’t have much of a say-forget what Takaki said!  This is kind of like a step back for women.  I thought this book took place in present day, not the ’70s.  This shows true for Akiko.  The poor girl even hates going grocery shopping!  Her and “John Wayno” are strange ones and definitley need to be watched throughout the book.  And I’m glad the African Americans at the church didn’t laugh at his joke (pg. 103).  He’s a perve and shouldn’t be allowed to have babies.  Hopefully Akiko won’t get pregnant, even though she got her period back.  On that note, I wonder how the guys in our class feel about part of the book being focused around periods and sex…well, I know they like the sex parts but the periods..do you guys feel uncomfortable when we talk about periods?  I guess I’ll have to bring up the issue on periods in class tomorrow..