New Crown Jewel of Tokyo Hotels

Peninsula Tokyo Sets New Standards
For Combining Culture & Convenience

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Luxurious hotels that were perfect reflections of traditional Japanese culture first appeared in Japan nearly four hundred years ago, when the Tokugawa Shogunate decreed that some 270 of the country’s fief lords would spend every other year in Edo [Tokyo] in attendance at the Shogun’s Court.

Since this edict made it necessary for the lords and their entourages to spend several days to several weeks marching in stately processions between their fiefs and the Shogunate capital, the Shogunate also required the construction of a network of luxury inns, called honjin (hoan-jeen), for the exclusive use of the lords, their high-ranking retainers, members of the Imperial family, and court nobles.

Japan thus became the first country in the world to have a national network of luxury hotel accommodations for travelers—setting a precedent and establishing a tradition that was not to appear anywhere else in the world until the 19th century.

The first Western style honjin was constructed in Tokyo in 1890, and was christened The Imperial Hotel. Patronage of the new hotel grew rapidly and an annex was soon added. In 1910 it was decided to replace the buildings entirely with a much larger facility. Work did not start on the new hotel until 1917, and the Mayan-like second Imperial Hotel was officially opened to the public on August 31, 1923.

On the following day, at precisely 11:58 a.m. the Tokyo and Yokohama area was struck by a great earthquake that destroyed virtually every Western style building in the two cities—except for the new Imperial Hotel. The designer of the hotel, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, had “floated” the foundation of the hotel on huge pilings driven into the reclaimed land, allowing the massive stone-block building to ride out the waves of the earthquake like a boat.

For the next several decades the Imperial Hotel set the standard for Western style hotels in Japan, and then it was eclipsed by a stream of new international hotels, most of which incorporated some elements of Japanese arts and crafts into their interiors and furnishings, giving them a cultural façade that brought to mind the traditional honjin of the lords.

But none of these hotels did more than add a few surfaces touches of Japanese culture to their appointments…that is until the arrival of Peninsula Tokyo on the scene in 2007—exactly eighty-four years to the day after the Great Kanto Earthquake made the Imperial Hotel known around the world.

The architects and designers who created Peninsula Tokyo incorporated elements of traditional Japanese arts and crafts in virtually every aspect of the hotel, from the entryway to the floors, the ceilings, the walls, the rooms and the furnishings—all of which complement the ultimate in Western-style conveniences.

But the builders did not stop there. They also made Peninsula Tokyo the most high-tech hotel in the world. In fact, there are so many high-tech features in the rooms that a small manual is provided for guests to guide them through the futuristic amenities…one of the most practical of which is a cell phone that acts as an in-house phone when you are in the hotel and automatically converts to a mobile phone when you are out on the town.

Naturally, Peninsula Tokyo has a selection of gourmet quality Chinese, Japanese and international restaurants, one of which takes up all of the 24th floor and provides a 360-degree panoramic view of central Tokyo and the adjoining Imperial Palace Grounds.

In addition to being across the street from the outer Imperial Gardens, Peninsula Tokyo adjoins the core business district of Marunouchi as well as the Hibiya and Yurakucho restaurant and theater districts, and is a five-minute stroll from the Ginza, Tokyo’s most famous shopping and entertainment district.

For newcomers to the Asian scene, the pedigree of Peninsula Tokyo is impeccable. It is a member of the famous Peninsula group of hotels that began in Hong Kong in 1866 and now includes properties in New York, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Bangkok, and Manila. Peninsula Shanghai is scheduled to open in 2009.

Old Asian hands arriving at Peninsula Tokyo will immediately recognize the famed Peninsula Hong Kong connection: Rolls Royce Phantoms lined up in front of the hotel for use by guests, and the lobby restaurant where breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea is served and iconic Peninsula pageboys page guests who have phone calls or visitors.
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Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 40 books on Japan, including Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, the first book ever on the Japanese way of doing business, published in 1959. His most recent book on Japan: Elements of Japanese Design—Understanding and Using Japan’s Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts.

Foreign Cultures Still Transforming Japan!

“French Maid” Shops

Help Japanese Make Friends!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Coffee shops were among the first new businesses to appear wholesale in Japan following the end of the Pacific War in 1945. By 1950 there were dozens of thousands of them, with the larger ones featuring such themes as Russian Cossacks, fashion shows, art galleries, etc., with the waiters and waitresses dressed in the appropriate attire.

The shops were a runaway success for several reasons. First, because there were no other public places where large numbers of people could go for coffee and light snacks—and they were heated in the winter…and by the mid-1950s air-conditioned in the summer!

And second, company offices at that time were generally not heated in winter or air-conditioned in the summer, and most of them did not have private offices for managers and executives or special rooms for business meetings—resulting in hundreds of thousands managers and employees holding their meetings in the new coffee shops.

By the mid-1960s the overall number of coffee shops in Japan had increased but the foreign-culture-theme approach had virtually disappeared.

Now the theme approach has made a comeback, featuring a “French maid” theme not only in coffee shops but also in casinos, karaoke bars and souvenir shops. This new phenomenon first appeared in Tokyo’s famed Akihabara “Electric Town” discount and wholesale shopping district, which attracts several million Japanese and foreign tourists annually.

The petite, cute “French maids” in the various shops wear short-skirted uniforms that include aprons, socks that come just above the knees, and stylized bow ties.

Japanese professors (who specialize in commenting on social behavior of every kind) say this new phenomenon is a spin-off from the custom of young girls to make the uniforms of their favorite animation characters , wear the costumes on holidays and weekends, and gather at popular meeting places to show them off.

Other professors say the real reason for the proliferation of the “French maid” concept in coffee shops, karaoke bars and casinos is that they encourage the usually reticent Japanese to begin conversations with strangers, and come out of their “shells.”

These profs say that the Japanese have become great at communicating via email and text-messaging but that they are still reluctant to engage strangers in instant conversations and make friends the way Americans and other Westerners do.

“French maids” in karaoke bars sing along with patrons and take requests—at ¥500 a pop!
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. To see a list and description of 40-plus books on Japan by the author, go to http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

It is Now Alright to Smile in Japan!

Dramatic Shift in Japanese Culture

Upsets Social Critic

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Cultural changes in Japan since the 1950s have been both profuse and profound—beginning with and prompted by the introduction of personal freedom and individuality into Japanese society for the first time in the history of the country.

One of the new elements in modern-day Japanese culture that is both amazing and enlightening – in comparison with earlier times – is the custom of smiling. Traditionally, the Japanese were known for smiling when they were embarrassed and when referring to personal tragedies, but not smiling in situations that Westerners considered funny and not continuously injecting humorous comments or actions into their behavior that would elicit smiles in other countries.

It is not fair or correct to say, however, that earlier Japanese did not have a sense of humor and did not laugh and smile in their daily lives. They did have (and still have) a highly honed sense of humor, and both smiling and laughter had their place.

But it is true that the Japanese have traditionally been restrained in their use of humor and in smiling because of the formality and strictness of their etiquette in their relations with others. A serious demeanor in virtually all formal situations and in the workplace was a key part of the culture of the Japanese. At the very least, it was considered rude for clerks, receptionists and others to smile when dealing with customers.

There was a time and place for humor and for laughing in pre-democratic Japan, but to engage in such behavior when it was not the time or the place could have very serious consequences. During the long samurai era (1192-1870) a smile in a formal situation could get you shortened by a head. And still today in offices and workplaces a smiling face can get you labeled as insincere and not worthy of promotion to a higher position.

But beginning around the 1970s the new breed of Japanese began adopting the Western custom of smiling as an integral part of creating and maintaining harmonious relations with others—something that was diametrically opposed to traditional Japanese behavior.

Now, says noted Japanese social critic and author Tomomi Fujiwawa, the Japanese born after 1970 have gone so far in substituting smiles for seriousness and sincerity that it has begun to have a deleterious affect on their ability to solve problems.

In an interview published by the Japan Economic Weekly Fujiwara is quoted as saying that there is now too much smiling in Japan and that he fears for the future of the country. He says that the constant smiling that one sees in restaurants and stores gives an impression of peace and harmony, but in reality it can be and often is misleading and can make genuine communication difficult or impossible.

Fujiwara adds that people who have become conditioned to smiling their way through life become susceptible to “running amok,” when they encounter challenges or obstacles that they cannot deal with by smiling.

Having been intimately involved with Japan since the late 1940s my own judgment is that adoption of the Western way of smiling and using humor in private and public relationships by the younger generations of Japanese has been one of the best things that has happened to the country.

One of the primary cultural traits of the Japanese born and raised before the spread of unrestrained smiling was a deep-seated feeling of being fundamentally different from people in the rest of the world, of not feeling at ease with foreigners, of experiencing extraordinary stress when dealing with foreigners.

This feeling no longer exists among post-1970 Japanese and has dramatically subsided in those who are older – and is one of the reasons why so many resident foreigners and foreign visitors regard Japan as a kind of paradise – made so by the friendly outgoing personalities of the people and their continuing attention to the care, comfort and needs of others.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a list and descriptions of the author's 40-plus books on Japan, go to: phoenixbookspublishers.com

The Amazing Globalization of Japan!

Japan Leading the Way in Globalization

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

TOKYO (BNS) -- The changes that have occurred in Japan since the end of the long samurai/feudal era in the early 1870s is one of the most remarkable sagas in modern history – changes that are, in fact, incredible, particularly to someone who has been directly involved in them since shortly after the end of the Pacific War in 1945 when the industrial areas of the country and vast stretches of housing were mostly rubble.

In fact, contemplating Japan’s rise to economic superpower status between 1948 and 1968 is now like a dream…and then to take into account the additional changes in the physical infrastructure and the culture of the country since then evokes even more incredulity.

Why and how the Japanese were able to transform themselves into leaders in virtually every scientific and technical field of human endeavor and their country into the world’s second largest economy in less than 30 years is a story that has not yet been fully told.

Much of both the “why” and “how” portions of this question can be found in the heritage of the samurai that became embedded in Japan’s culture over a period of a thousand years—a heritage made up of the ability to focus with incredible precision, to work with equally incredible energy and perseverance, to strive for perfection in everything, and to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for achievement and success.

And now Japan is on the cusp of economic globalization, putting itself in a unique position to take advantage of all of the positive and beneficial principles and practices that this includes.

Japanese companies are continuing to dramatically increase their holdings in foreign assets, from buying into leading companies to long-term contracts for raw materials. As witnessed by the business news media, the number and value of these investments is multiplying at an amazing pace.

A single issue of The Nikkei Weekly (The Japan Economic Weekly) reveals new tie-ups and manufacturing operations in Australia, China, Denmark, England, Germany, India, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, the United States, and Vietnam—not to mention several South American nations as well as other African countries.

And this list of overseas investments made by Japanese companies in recent weeks and months is by no means complete. The overall scale and potential of these and other globalizing efforts is simply staggering.

Both foreign countries and foreign corporations are also playing key roles in the rapid globalization of Japan’s economy by continuing to expand their investments in Japan, becoming significant shareholders in a growing number of companies. There is now hardly any Japanese company of note that does not have foreign stockholders.

Of course, the level and pace of globalization in other countries, especially the United States, China and India, is also rising rapidly but Japan seems to be leading the pack, and while its ranking as the second largest economy in the world will soon fade, the transformation to a global economy will surely help ensure the future welfare of the country.

While there are unique factors that often make it easier for Japan to globalize than other countries, I believe the Japanese example is a good one for other nations to follow.

Obviously, politicians and diplomats are incapable of bringing about world peace and prosperity. With Japan helping to lead the way, the globalization of the world’s economy could achieve both of these long-sought goals.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. To see a list and description of 60-plus cultural and language insight books by the author go to http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/; also Amazon.com. His current bestsellers include: Japan’s Cultural Code Words; Samurai Strategies (that modern business people can use); Chinese Etiquette & Ethics in Business; Survival Chinese; and Why Mexicans Think & Behave the Way They Do.

Amazing New Japanese Technology for Auto Designs

American & European Auto Makers
Could be Left Further Behind

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

In boxing terms, American automobile manufacturers are now on the ropes and unless they can get their act together they could soon be on the canvas. New technology developed by Japan’s Ichikoh Industries Ltd., now makes it possible to eliminate side mirrors—allowing for a fundamental breakthrough in the exterior design of automobiles.

This new technology will make automobiles more aerodynamic and much safer than president-day cars, and given the philosophy and management practices of Toyota and other Japanese auto manufacturers they will be the first to have this new technology on the road.

Japan’s automobile designers have long wanted to have an alternative to side mirrors that would give them more freedom in the exterior design of cars, prompting Ichikoh Industries, a primary supplier of side mirrors, to come up with a substitute based on charge-couple-device (CCD) cameras and radar devices.

The company’s prototype vehicle using the new technology has a monitor inside the car built into the dashboard that gives the driver a 360-degree view around the vehicle—back, front and sides, day or night, and in all kinds of weather.

One of the most impressive features of the new system is that unlike mirrors which show only line-of-sight views, its cameras and infrared sensors lets the driver see areas around the car that are blind spots on present designs.

Ichikoh predicts that as soon as the first cars featuring the new interior view monitors appear on the market they will take off like a flash—leaving any car maker who still uses side mirrors far behind.

Another piece of high-tech pioneered by Toyota that is changing the basic design of cars is the use of LEDs in their headlights rather than the conventional system that requires the light source to be located at least 30 centimeters behind the headlight lens.

LEDs can be closer than 10 centimeters from the headlight lens, meaning there are many new options as to their shape and where they can be placed. One prototype created by Toyota’s headlight supplier (Koito Manufacturing), runs along the side of the hood of the car and is shaped like a samurai sword.

Another break-through in the basic design of cars that is planned by Toyota: small fuel cells and motors built into the wheels of cars.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
See the author’s website, www.phoenixbookspublishers.com, for a list and descriptions of his 30-plus pioneer books on Japanese business practices, culture and language. All of his books are available from Amazon.com, other online booksellers and retail bookstore chains.

The Most Dangerous Man in Japan is Not a Yakuza or Politician!

The Weapon of the Most Dangerous Man
In Contemporary Japan
Is a Single Word!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Japan’s history is filled with extraordinary individuals, from samurai warriors and ninja assassins to military leaders, who could be described as the most dangerous men of their era.

In contemporary times, this label has often been applied to one or more infamous yakuza gang members, including Yoshinori Watanabe, former boss of the Yamaguchi Gumi, Japan’s largest group of professional gangsters (which has its own telephone directory, listing 101 gangs throughout Japan).

But I have long had my own candidate for “The Most Dangerous Man in Japan” title—and man whose only weapon and whose only form of attack is a single word: the interrogative “Why?”

In my opinion the most dangerous man in Japan today is a combination martial artist, scholar, professor, former NHK TV host, debate enthusiast, prolific author (over 100 books), and accomplished poet named Michihiro Matsumoto.

Matsumoto began his professional career in 1962 as member of the Foreign Department of Nissho Iwai trading company, then went on to serve as a simultaneous interpreter and translator at the American Embassy in the early 1970s, associate professor of Business Administration at the Sanno Institute, executive assistant at Nikko Securities, instructor at International Christian University, host of NHK-TV’s popular English/Debate Interview Program, and professor of Foreign Studies at Nagoya University.

In the 1980’s Matsumoto founded the Matsumoto Debate Institute. In 1986 he became the president of the Kodokan Debating Society and in 1998 he became president of the International Debate Development Association, concurrently serving as professor of Intercultural Communications at Honolulu University.

Matsumoto’s checkered career in commerce, government service, academia and public broadcasting has been about as un-Japanese-like as you can get because in a culture in which employees didn’t ask questions, hunkered down, and remained with the same organization for life, he didn’t stay quiet and he didn’t assume a low profile.

Having pattered his early life after that of Japan’s most famous samurai warrior, Musashi Miyamoto [1584-1645], author of the noted treatise Go Rin Sho (Go Reen Shoh) or Book of Five Rings on how to fight duels-to-the-death and win, Matsumoto questioned everything and everybody, and wherever he went he soon became known as a maverick—as someone who didn’t think or act like the typical Japanese and invariably upset the famous wa (wah) or harmony that was the foundation of Japan’s traditional culture.

Matsumoto’s professional and public life became epitomized by the question “Why?”—the word he constantly used in an effort to force people to publicly explain and justify their opinions, policies and actions, something that had long been taboo in Japanese society.

His dedication to the why/because way of interacting with other people has finally begun to pay off. A growing number of Japanese are adopting his philosophy—a phenomenon that is particularly conspicuous among some academics, senior business executives and leading politicians.

Matsumoto has, in fact, been something like a virus that started out as a tiny irritant but has now begun to impact on Japan’s contemporary culture in fundamental ways that are having a slow but profound affect on society in general.

But this does not mean that Matsumoto himself is no longer Japanese in any traditional sense. He is, in fact, more traditional in his overall philosophy than most of his contemporaries, having remained a strong advocate of the value of the fabled spirit of the samurai, and he uses this spirit as the foundation for his teaching.

Just as Kendo (The Way of the Sword) was the primary principle in the discipline and training of the samurai, Matsumoto’s uses the same principle in teaching English, calling his method Eigodo (The Way of English), and in his debating tournaments.

Matsumoto’s latest book, Kokka no Kigai (Koke-kah no Kee-guy), or The Spirit of a Nation [Nisshin Hodo, September 29, 2007], is a call for Japan to return to the positive elements of the samurai way.

The Spirit of a Nation was, in fact, written to counter a 2006 book entitled Kokka no Hinkaku (Koke-kah no Heen-kah-kuu), The Dignity of a Nation, written by mathematics professor Masahiko Fujiwara.

Fujiwara’s book is a critique of capitalism and democracy and basically calls for the Japanese to return to the militaristic style of government and business administration that characterized pre-World War II Japan… It sold over two million copies during its first year in print.

Matsumoto’s philosophy represents not only the best path for Japan to follow into the future, it is also the country’s best defense against those who advocate a return to the aggressive, militaristic principles and policies of the past.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente.
The author is the writer of 40-plus books on Japan’s culture, language, management practices and sexual mores, including KATA—The Key to Understanding & Dealing with the Japanese. To see a list and descriptions of his books, go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Two Adventurers Cross Pacific in Amphibious Jeep Called “Half-Safe”

Journalist-Author Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Of Crossing Pacific Ocean & Bering Sea
in Amphibious Jeep Called “Half-Safe”

Margaret Warren De Mente

PARADISE VALLEY, AZ—In the winter of 1956/57 Boyé Lafayette De Mente, my soon-to-be husband, was a Tokyo-based journalist working for The Japan Times.

The newspaper carried a brief article about the landing of an amphibious jeep called “Half-Safe” (after a popular deodorant of the day!) at Kagoshima, on the southern tip of Japan’s Kyushu Island.

A few weeks later the jeep, owned and driven by Ben Carlin, its Australian “captain,” arrived in Tokyo. Being of a sporting if not adventurous nature my husband-to-be contacted Carlin and made arrangements to interview him.

During the interview, Carlin invited Boyé to accompany him on the last leg of his around-the-world trip on the jeep—a journey that had started in 1948 from New York with his then American wife Elinore, but which had ended abruptly some 500 miles off the eastern seaboard of the U.S. when the engine of the jeep conked out.

Carlin, his wife and Half-Safe were picked up by a Swedish freighter and deposited in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Carlin rebuilt the engine and once again the two set off across the Atlantic Ocean. After a stop in the Azores, they made the coast of Africa, and from there finally reached London by land and water.

Elinore went to work as a secretary while Carlin, over a period of several years (he was a notoriously slow worker), virtually rebuilt the jeep from scratch and they set off again, heading for the Near East, the Mid-East and Asia. Somewhere in India Elinore jumped jeep, left Carlin, and later divorced him.

Carlin recruited another “mate” (a young man from Australia) because the jeep required a two-man crew when at sea. This young man hung in with Carlin until they reached Kagoshima, Japan, and there he too decamped from the adventure, so Carlin was on his own when he arrived in Tokyo in the late fall of 1956.

For reasons Boyé has never fully explained, apparently to anyone, he accepted Carlin’s invitation to join him on the last, longest and most dangerous leg of the around-the-world journey, scheduled to begin in late April, by which time the storm-tossed North Pacific and Bering Sea would have quieted down.

A few days before the departure date a number of startling incidents involving Carlin and the jeep resulted in several of Boyé’s co-workers and friends urging him to quit the enterprise before it started. But despite a calm and basically un-aggressive nature Boyé refused to back out.

On the morning of May 1, 1957, Half-Safe departed from Tokyo amidst great media fanfare, first from the front of the Mainichi Newspaper Building, and then from the front of the nearby Yomiuri Newspaper Building.

For the first few hours of the journey, several cars filled with reporters followed the Half-Safe as it made its way out of Tokyo and headed north. One man had been assigned by his company to go all the way to Wakkanai on the northern tip of Hokkaido with the jeep. But a series of incidents involving Carlin resulted in him disappearing after three days and nights, never to be seen or heard from again.

Each day and night brought new incidents—not all of them involving Carlin’s irascible character—including a number that threatened to end the adventure before it really got started. This included the jeep springing a leak when they were crossing the straits separating Honshu Island and Hokkaido, collisions with submerged rocks as they neared the port of Muroran, and finally, on what was to be the big day of their departure from Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Carlin jumped from the dock onto the jeep for the benefit of cameramen, cracking a section of the cabin that he had constructed to enclose the jeep from the outside elements. This caused another one-day delay for repairs.

Getting underway the next day turned out to have another set of dangers that threatened the jeep before it got away from the dock. From that point on, the adventure and the dangers really began. The two adventurers encountered Russians, Japanese fishing nets, sea lions, technical problems, the frigid waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea—and each other!

After enough incidents and adventures to fill several lifetimes, the Half-Safe arrived in Anchorage, Alaska on September 1, exactly four months from the day it left Tokyo. The safe arrival of the two in Alaska made news worldwide, and was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records, as well as Car and Driver’s Amazing Stories.

By agreement with Carlin, Boyé did not write his account of the crossing until five years had elapsed, to give Carlin time to get his own book published.

Boyé’s account of the crossing, which he chronicled in a book entitled ONCE A FOOL – From Tokyo to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep, reveals in precise detail the unexpected threats the two wayfarers encountered, including exact—but rare—conversations between them.

In his words, once they set off into the North Pacific the confines and noises of the jeep induced a kind of semi-coma that they came out of only when the daily 24-hour routine of “four on four off” was broken by some emergency.

Their two encounters with Japanese fishing nets and Carlin’s behavior following the last incident is high drama of the most absurd kind.

On another memorable occasion, Boyé stands on the tiny prow of the jeep for several hours in a cold rain and high seas pumping air into a torpedo-shaped yellow tank holding 660 gallons of gasoline to force gas into inboard tanks, with the tank jumping and rearing like a wild animal.

What is perhaps the most remarkable of all, Boyé hung in with Carlin until they reached Anchorage, where he also “jumped jeep,” parting company with his strange companion and flying to Phoenix, Arizona to see his family and recuperate.

And in yet another believe-it-or-not episode, 10 years after Boyé left the jeep in Anchorage, had spent another six years as a trade journalist in Tokyo (where we were married) and moved back to Phoenix, one of our friends spotted Carlin driving Half-Safe down Van Buren Avenue in the center of the city.

Carlin had eventually made it back to Halifax, Nova Scotia then continued for several years touring the U.S. in Half-Safe, lecturing and showing films of the Pacific and Bering Sea crossing, ending up in his hometown of Perth, Australia where he died in the 1980s, and where Half-Safe is on permanent display at his old school.

Boyé went on to have an extraordinary career as the author of more than 40 books on the business cultures and languages of Japan, Korea, and China. We now make our home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, from which he has crossed the Pacific over 100 times—by air!

His book, ONCE A FOOL, became a bestseller in Alaska, and is still available from Amazon.com, other online booksellers, and through major retail chains. To see a full list, with descriptions, of Boyé’s 70-plus books (on Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii), go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.


Contact:
Margaret Warren De Mente
Paradise Valley, Az 85253
Email: mdemente@cox.net