Few Japanese travelers would dream of embarking on a journey to an English-speaking country such as Canada without being able to at least converse in the language, but Shogo Onoe’s memoir Dance to Dreams: Making the Right Choice chronicles Onoe’s choice to begin a new life in Vancouver sans the benefits of fluency. Moreover, his passion for the written word led to his aspiration to become a writer. Despite numerous rejections, he pursued his dream of achieving publication, and Dance to Dreams is just one result from a pen that has experienced many forms of rejection, acceptance, and challenge.

 The first thing to note about this story is its passion. Readers might not expect the depths of the candid, passionate tone to ripple through a Japanese writer’s memoir. Onoe cultivates excitement, translates that energy to the written word, and brings readers along on a rollicking ride of discovery that translates to readers through dialogues with all manner of people that he encounters along the way:

“What the hell are you talking about, Seiichi? You were forever reproaching me that I don’t respect the Japanese culture and outrageously insulted me that I’ve become a total stranger to my own country before going to Mexico, remember? And on top of it all, you heatedly rejected Canadian and Mexican cultures, notwithstanding you had never gone to either country. And now, you’re somehow praising Mexican culture to the heaven? Are you shitting me, Seiichi? What’s going on here?”

Onoe navigates these strange worlds and their inhabitants with an astute eye to examining the kinds of realities that Japanese natives and those supportive of the culture may find uncomfortably enlightening:

“I think Japanese people are the meanest bastards walking on two legs under the sun, you know… they always make fake smiles and use polite language to strangers. At first, they seem to be very kind people, but this is just a sheer illusion that they make. Oh no, they’re just wearing social masks and pretending to be nice to everyone all the goddamn time. Once they’re alone with their friends, they’ll start showing their true colors unrestrictedly, gossiping about their colleagues, even their friends, and saying bad things behind their backs as if they are talking about the weather.

They never say what they mean directly; they always say it behind people’s backs. Unfortunately, this is a Japanese pandemic. I have never seen such sick people except in Japan.”

These confessions could prove painful to some, but can serve as intriguing discussion points in book clubs choosing this memoir for not just its cross-cultural encounters and journey, but for its succinct, hard-hitting points about how the Japanese interact and intersect with other cultures.

Ex-pat Onoe creates a dialogue of examination that forces readers to probe the undercurrents of the Japanese psyche and its underpinnings. Perhaps he is in a relatively unique position to do so, given his independent journeys through other cultures which lead to new insights and critiques of disparate facets of a Japanese culture that tends to pigeonhole and dehumanize those outside Japan.

The story of one who spent only four days in Mexico before deciding to move from Japan to Guatemala creates a powerful inspection especially highly recommended for book clubs interested in Japanese cultural explorations that pull no punches in critiquing psyches, powers, and prejudices.

Libraries will find Dance to Dreams a unique blend of memoir and cross-cultural encounters that challenges belief systems and assumptions alike.