Okami

"This book is a faithful translation of the book originally published in Japan on September 29, 2006."--Colophon.

This book explores the relationship between the “human constant” (Jen) of the four large-scale civilizational societies—China, the USA, Japan, and India—and their international behavior, response patterns, and interaction with the international system. The book analyzes the characteristics and limitations of the current international system, as well as the way it is related to the Western type of “human constant”. It also analyzes the challenges facing China in its integration into the international system. This book aims to explore international relations from the combined psychological and cultural perspective. The key concept of this book is “Jen”, which contains a distinct Chinese cultural experience, into the theory of international relations. Unlike other IR books to treat state as the main political actor, the book analyzes both the political aspects of state as an “organizational entity” and its civilizational aspects as a “civilizational entity”; hence, it proposes a new ontology of international relations. By integrating the concept of “Jen” based on the unique Chinese cultural experience into the theory of international relations, the book reveals the interactive nature of relationship between the international system and “human constant”. The book explains the causal relationship between state’s behavior and its “human constant”, analyzes the cultural characteristics of state actors and the international system, and tries to provide a new theoretical framework for understanding culture and modernity.

At the close of Flame in the Mist, to end a bloodbath between the Black Clan and imperial soldiers, Ōkami allows himself to be taken prisoner by Prince Raiden, Mariko’s betrothed. For someone who doesn’t believe in heroes, it’s a surprising choice: to trade his life for the lives of his friends and the one he loves. For he will surely be killed when he arrives in the Imperial City. But he decides if his life is the cost of love, it may not be too high a price after all.

A comedic adventure of the lifetime! Join Okami and her friends as they journey around the world doing whatever they feel like doing while under supposed orders of the King Steve to hunt down what they call as “heretics”. Meet various exciting characters as you read through this story of adventurers and incompetent villains who try to make sure that nothing goes smoothly for our dear adventurers.

This story is not about Japan. It is about all people. It is about tragedy and fear. It is about courage. It is about love, and it is about growth. It is about doing the right thing. It is written in English, but the setting is Western Manchuria early in World War II. The pilots of the Japanese forces are facing their first combat against top notch Russian pilots. They apply their training but find that actual combat is not what the books described. They find comfort in the arms of the women that provide relief for a price. Manchuria + Mongolia. Russia + Japan. Buddhism + Christianity + Islam. Occupation + Oppression. The Worlds Oldest Profession + Sympathy and Humanity. Add them all together and you get: A compelling story of a young man thrown into a stark reality. He must grow quickly and learn the hard way. From the fear and danger to: The Tigers Den

From New York Times bestselling author Eric Lustbader, the suspense mastermind behind the smash bestsellers featuring Robert Ludlum’s™ Jason Bourne, comes a blockbuster thriller of one man’s debt of honor—and his ultimate destiny. Years ago, Nicholas Linnear, a.k.a. “the Ninja,” made a promise to his father: If a man named Mikio Okami ever sought his help, he would respond without question, no matter the cost. Now the time has come to fulfill his pledge. Okami is the Kaisho—the boss of bosses of the Yakuza, the Japanese underworld—and in his Venice headquarters, he realizes that he has been marked for death. But the identity of the assassin and the inexorable compulsion that drives him are shrouded in mysticism and madness. Honor bound to protect Okami, Linnear is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice: a descent into a chasm of knowledge so potent, of dangers so unfathomable, that even if he survives, he will emerge changed forever.

This volume examines how child abuse and youth violence are understood, manufactured, represented, but still disavowed, in contemporary everyday life and culture in Japan and the United States.

Amid the decline of many of Japan’s rural communities, the hot springs village resort of Kurokawa Onsen is a rare, bright spot. Its two dozen traditional inns, or ryokan, draw nearly a million tourists a year eager to admire its landscape, experience its hospitality, and soak in its hot springs. As a result, these ryokan have enticed village youth to return home to take over successful family businesses and revive the community. Chris McMorran spent nearly two decades researching ryokan in Kurokawa, including a full year of welcoming guests, carrying luggage, scrubbing baths, cleaning rooms, washing dishes, and talking with co-workers and owners about their jobs, relationships, concerns, and aspirations. He presents the realities of ryokan work—celebrated, messy, ignored, exploitative, and liberating—and introduces the people who keep the inns running by making guests feel at home. McMorran explores how Kurokawa’s ryokan mobilize hospitality to create a rural escape from the globalized dimensions of everyday life in urban Japan. Ryokan do this by fusing a romanticized notion of the countryside with an enduring notion of the hospitable woman embodied by nakai, the hired female staff who welcome guests, serve meals, and clean rooms. These women are the face of the ryokan. But hospitality often hides a harsh reality. McMorran found numerous nakai in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who escaped violent or unhappy marriages by finding employment in ryokan. Yet, despite years of experience, nakai remain socially and economically vulnerable. Through this intimate and inventive ethnography of a year in a ryokan, McMorran highlights the importance of both the generational work of ryokan owners and the daily work of their employees, while emphasizing the gulf between them. With its focus on small, family-owned businesses and a mobile, vulnerable workforce, Ryokan makes an invaluable contribution to scholarship on the Japanese workplace. It also will interest students and scholars in geography, mobility studies, and women’s studies and anyone who has ever stayed at a ryokan and is curious about the work that takes place behind the scenes.