An Indiana Hoosier in Lord Tsugaru's Court by Todd Jay Leonard (iUniverse)

An Indiana Hoosier in Lord Tsugaru’s Court is a play on the title of the Mark Twain book, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. However, author Todd Jay Leonard has not timeslipped to feudal Japan, it only seems like he has because he makes his home in rural Japan. Compared to living in Tokyo, you might as well be in King Arthur’s Court as Leonard feels “as though I have indeed been transported in a time machine to a different era and place.”

This book is actually a sequel to his other collection of essays about Japan titled “Letters Home - Musings of an Expatriate Living in Japan”. Both books started out as a column Leonard wrote for his hometown’s local newspaper, the Shelbyville News based in Shelbyville, Indiana. Thanks to the many readers of his column, Leonard set out to compile, revise, and edit many of his articles about his Japan as he saw it through his own eyes. 

Leonard has spent the last thirty years living in Hirosaki City in Aomori Prefecture, Japan’s northernmost Prefecture of Honshu Island. He had his first exposure to Japan when he was an elementary school student. One of his teachers who taught art at his school was Japanese. Leonard says he was intrigued by her - “She left her home and family - everything she knew and was familiar and dear to her - to come to my little town to teach American kids art.”

As a seventeen year old high school student, Leonard spent the summer in Tokyo on an exchange program and became even more fascinated by the country and its people, customs, and culture. As an undergraduate student at Purdue University, Leonard majored in Japanese history. 

In 1989, Leonard was offered a job to live and work in Hirosaki as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. He worked as an ALT for two and half years when he was offered an associate professorship at a local university where he has taught for over ten years. He currently teaches at Fukuoka University in Kyushu, located in the southern part of Japan. 

Leonard’s book is divided into five sections. He starts off by telling us his top ten list of things Japanese. A subjective list of ten things that he loves and admires about Japan. This is followed by “Rites of Passage” where he talks about the customs and traditions of different life events. Next he focuses on “Japanese Festivals and Celebrations”. The fourth part is “political, educational, and social issues” facing Japan today and finally, “Cultural and Societal Miscellany” where he talks about a number of topics related to daily life of living in the country. 

As an expat living in rural Japan myself, I can relate to a lot of what Leonard says. I even agree with most of his list about things Japanese - the cleanliness and politeness of taxis and taxi drivers, public transportation whose timing is so precise you can set your watch to it, and a personal favorite of mine - no tipping. He does mention one of the major disadvantages of living in “snow country” and that is its harsh winters where some days are filled with the never-ending task of shoveling snow. 

This book is great as a general introduction to Japan and offers a bit more on what it’s like to live in a foreign country and learning about the cultural differences between Japan and the U.S. Perhaps even you will become a Japanophile after reading this. ~Ernie Hoyt