A Tokyo Romance Quotes

“In a sense, the gaijin is offered a sojourn in a fool's paradise. For some lucky fools the sojourn might stretch to a lifetime.”
― Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance

“did not see much of Kara after we returned to Tokyo. My honorary position in the Situation Theater had come to an end. Kara was right, of course: I was just an ordinary gaijin after all. It was as though I had flunked an important test; my immersion in a Japanese gang had run into an insurmountable barrier. That last night in Kyoto had been the moment of truth that all foreigners face in Japan at one point or another. No matter how much you might behave as a Japanese, you never will be Japanese. Some foreigners find this painful. But you cannot blame the Japanese for failing to comply with the illusions of foreigners. Just as Kara faced his Japaneseness in the Chelsea Hotel, every gaijin in Japan must realize that a gaijin he or she will always remain, no matter how well a person speaks Japanese or has mastered the etiquette of Japanese social life.”
― Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance

“Even though I decided to leave Japan, I knew that Japan would never leave me. I arrived in Tokyo when I was still unformed, callow and eager for experience. I can only hope that this eagerness will never be entirely dissipated. To be fully formed is to be dead. But Japan shaped me when the plaster was still wet.”
― Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir

“In her prime, she bore a slight resemblance to Liberace, but in a more masculine way”
― Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir

“The Japanese have an expression for human relations that are sticky with the mutual obligations and dependencies of the collective life. They use the English word “wet.” Traditional Japanese family relations are “wet.” Yakuza gangs are “wet.” Behavior that is more detached, more individualistic, often associated with a Western way of life, is “dry.” Terayama Shuji was “dry.” Kara was most definitely “wet.”
― Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir

“I think that Ryu Chishu, or Tanaka Kinuyo, or to be more precise, the imaginary characters they portrayed, were more real to the film buffs than any existing human being. This is why cinephiles are spookier, on the whole, than music lovers or balletomanes. For they are creatures of the dark, getting off on the lives of others.”
― Ian Buruma, A Tokyo Romance: A Memoir