Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan

This guide to Japanese manners, common courtesies, and acceptable behavior is essential for any visitor to Japan. Japanese are unfailingly polite and thus will never tell you if you’ve crossed the line! But by knowing how to act you’ll gain the respect of your hosts and get even better service and enjoyment during your stay. Covered here are all the essentials—like travel, greetings, dining and gift-giving—plus subtle niceties like level of voice, body language, cell phone usage, city vs. country styles, and attire (including what to do about your tattoos!).

The aim of this book is to reduce the number of times you exclaim, “If I’d only known!” after making the same mistake over and over without realizing it. Sometimes we really do need to be told what to do and what not to do. And all this provided by adorably illustrated cats!

Let the manner cats show you:

How to take your shoes off properly before entering a Japanese house (without stepping on the dirty entrance floor in your socks!)