Emily and I are really excited about our JET interviews (20 days and counting). Yesterday I started reading a book by a former JET participant. Titled "Learning to Bow", the book chronicles the author's year in a rural Japanese town. It is more than just a history of his daily goings-on (is that a word? It is now). It talks about some of the larger themes of Japanese culture. I've only read the first couple of chapters, but he talks about the hierarchy of the society, the difference between your personal and professional relationships and how they intermingle, and then some of the less important things, like how the Japanese love talking about the changing of the seasons. I'm going to try to finish it up in the next couple of days so that I can move on to studying some of the more statistical aspects of Japan in preparation for my interview (i.e. population, prime minister, stuff like that).