Not A Geisha: Being Young and Female in Japan

When Kimberly Palmer first landed at Narita airport, she was ready to blend into Japanese life, following whatever cultural rules came her way. She knew it wasn't going to be easy. Friends and advisors warned her that she wasn't going to be taken seriously as a reporter because she was a woman. Despite some bumps along the way - including persistent questions about her love life from her bosses and a friend informing her that, like all Westerners, she smelled bad - Kimberly discovered that in many ways, Tokyo was a more welcoming place for single, young women than New York. At her newspaper, she found a mentor in Suzuki-san, a high-level, female editor, who encouraged her to pursue stories about women in Japan. Kimberly wrote about birth control pills and why Japanese women avoided them, the pill-based diet industry, and the flourishing dating industry. She also found friendships that transcended culture. One of Kimberly's best friends, Asako, a stylish graduate student studying education and women's issues at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, taught her that friendship doesn't require similar cultural upbringings, but just an open mind. Together, Kimberly and Asako dealt with sexual harassment and the ups and downs of ambitious careers. And somehow, while they unwound in steamy sentos, drank in loud izakayas, and talked over beer and tea on futons, Asako made the strange world of Tokyo feel like home.