Including her survival of Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake, this book is an enthralling account by Anglo-American author, poet and musician Dorothy Britton of her long and amazingly varied life and career.
Bilingual from birth, she found the immense joy of blending in with peoples of different cultures simply by getting the sound right when speaking their languages to the extent that she herself sounds Japanese. While interviewing Talent Education's Shinichi Suzuki, she realized his peerless 'mother tongue method' for learning the violin was ideal for foreign languages too. Amusing episodes and stories of fascinating people and relationships abound in the book including her friendship with the Imperial Family, as do valuable insights into topics such as the post-war Occupation and its impact on everyday life, the role of women, learning Japanese, marriage customs, food and many other aspects of Japanese culture and society. This long-awaited memoir will be widely welcomed. Here is the remarkable and remarkably frank story of a life lived to the full by the doyenne of Anglo-British residents in Japan that has benefited so many and touched the lives of countless others.