I find Pico Iyer's writing insufferable and this is a good example why: how, exactly, do random interactions with the Japanese equivalent of a spoiled trust-fund kid who can afford to spend his life noodling about with haiku and abstract painting show the "living heart of traditional Japan"?
Then again, given that Iyer can't read Japanese despite living there for several decades and he seems to take perverse pride in being illiterate [1], he's not going have a lot of other local sources for insight...
Then again, given that Iyer can't read Japanese despite living there for several decades and he seems to take perverse pride in being illiterate [1], he's not going have a lot of other local sources for insight...
[1] http://m.dailygood.org/story/1092/the-art-of-stillness-pico-...