The book begins with a surprising confession: “Christoph Peters has been working intensively on Japan for 35 years.

But he has never been to that country. ”He has written well-informed novels and essays that deal with elements of Japanese culture - the way of tea, on which Peters himself walks, but also with organized crime.

Axel Weidemann

Editor in the features section.

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A Japanese concept that caught on early in Germany relates to the ways in which one devotes oneself to an activity and whose goal mastery and enlightenment should wait - regardless of whether one follows the sword or the tea path.

These paths are linked to one another in a variety of ways.

Ceramic handicrafts, painting, flower arrangements, poetry and calligraphy have a permanent place in the total work of art of a tea ceremony.

That's a lot of stuff.

And since collections, translations, reproductions, manuals and associations for teaching these techniques are popular outside of Japan, you can spend years studying a country you have never been to.

Art Theory and Zen Buddhism

But there comes a point at which the impressions collected from afar need to be compared with reality. You can feel the pressure of pent-up expectations, as well as the fear of their disappointment. The reader learns little about why Peters has not yet been to Japan. But the idea of ​​accompanying someone like Peters at the moment when he compares his knowledge with on-site observations is appealing. Also because Peters is honest: When he caught a glimpse of Japan for the first time on the way from Narita Airport, in retrospect he felt like a con man, “who has meticulously prepared for his new role as chief physician and now for the first time one sitting across from real patients ”.

Peters tells chronologically about his stay in Tokyo - illustrated by simple, precise drawings by Matthias Beckmann - in a clear, balanced tone.

In footnotes he questions some observations afterwards or explains them.

At the same time, it becomes clear from the first fifty pages how much knowledge Peters carries around with him through his long study of Japan.

This baggage demands space - as concrete observations are increasingly being displaced by excursions about art theory or the connection of Japanese culture to Zen Buddhism.

Visiting the Senso Temple

When Peters looks at a famous tea bowl like the “Unohanagaki”, one likes to follow his trained eye. But other observations, especially about the living inhabitants of the island state, sometimes seem too fleeting to be written down without becoming clichés. Even if the author takes the trouble to point out the often one-dimensional reporting on Japan and to check it on the basis of random samples, some on-site observations are guided more by hearsay than it is good for them: How and where Japanese people look, if and when you can talk to them and how racism works there - something like that is difficult to assess during a guest stay. "When I was her" - the colleague of a friend named Verena,who "has lived in Tokyo with her Senegalese husband and daughter for ten years" - "asked about her experiences with Japanese racism, Verena shows me cell phone photos of a three-year-old girl in a kimono with curls that protrude wildly from her head, surrounded by numerous Japanese children and parents who celebrate Shichi-Go-San - a kind of initiation festival with a visit to the shrine and lots of sweets. 'When we go to see my parents in Halle,' she says, 'I actually have difficulties and think about where we're going, but here in Japan there has never been a problem.' "the Shichi-Go-San - a kind of initiation festival with a visit to the shrine and lots of sweets - celebrates. 'When we go to see my parents in Halle,' she says, 'I actually have difficulties and think about where we're going, but here in Japan there has never been a problem.' "the Shichi-Go-San - a kind of initiation festival with a visit to the shrine and lots of sweets - celebrates. 'When we go to see my parents in Halle,' she says, 'I actually have difficulties and think about where we're going, but here in Japan there has never been a problem.' "

So the reader looks less at Japan through Peters' eyes than into his head. From Tokyo, after two thirds of the book, we learn what it feels like for Peters to arrive there, enter a hotel, take the train, visit a café and eat sushi. Later he visits the luxury department store Mitsukoshi, the Senso temple and a boxing match. At least the latter deviates from the beaten path. But otherwise “Days in Tokyo” conveys a precise picture of how Japan is perceived by Western lovers of the country, which, right down to the places, people and cultural techniques mentioned, shows that frightening uniformity that has made the success of export goods such as Sen No Rikyu (tea master), Miyamoto Musashi ( Sword Saint) and "Beat" Takeshi Kitano (actor, director, factotum) proves to be ciphers for Japan.Towards the end, all of this leads to the statement that the author feels comfortable in Tokyo despite the differences between his inner Japan and the outer Japan. How nice. Now the undisguised travel observations could actually begin. But then the book is already over.

Christoph Peters: "Days in Tokyo".

Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich 2021. 256 pp., Ill., Hardcover, 16, - €.