‘It is with no little trepidation that I have ventured to enlist myself in the large army of those who have written about Japan.’ These were the first words of the preface to In Lotus Land Japan, written by the British photographer and diarist Herbert Ponting in 1910. Almost a century on, I can only echo Mr. Ponting’s words. However, I would put forward as my excuse the fact that Japan is still – even after the torrent of words written and broadcast in the century and a half since the country first subjected itself to Western ways – persistently misunderstood.

If this book can persuade a few people to look at Japan in a different light, and to try to consider its people and its culture without any preconceived Western ideas or values getting in the way, then perhaps the effort in writing it will have been worth it.

Japan is an enigma. Everybody seems to feel that there is something mysterious about Japan. As another early visitor to Japan, Augusta Campbell Davidson, wrote in 1907, ‘the much talked of Europeanisation of Japan has been, as it were, a mechanical rather than a chemical process. The two streams, where they co-exist at all, seem to flow side by side like oil and wine: each remains distinct. The new may overlay and even hide the old, but that which lies beneath persists undiminished, practically unchanged.’ As she noted, ‘Within a stone’s throw of the big foreign hotel, there is a Buddhist temple.’ There still is.

But consider the position of a Japanese coming to Europe for the first time. He or she could just as easily write, ‘Within a stone’s throw of the big hotel, there is a Christian cathedral.’ These days there will also be a Japanese restaurant, several curry houses, a kebab takeaway and any number of examples of American culture. All around the world, there is a veneer of international cultural, and of globally accepted values and norms, but under the surface the different cultures still assert their differences – and quite rightly too.

Nobody can learn or know everything about a culture, even about their own culture. Nor should we assume that the Japanese culture, or any other culture, is uniform. Everybody will have their own impressions of what is important about the country and its people.

However, in writing this book, I have tried to steer the reader towards the main issues that make Japan different from anywhere else in the world, so that their experiences of Japan may be even more enjoyable. I have made no attempt to cover every aspect of Japanese life, nor to come up with an answer to every confusing situation a foreigner may ever encounter.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but only if you think you have learnt everything. Japan is endlessly fascinating, and endlessly worth learning about.