| Dave Barry has also published a book where he describes his adventures in and with Japan.
The book has the title "Dave Barry does Japan"
(www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0449908100/
) and it is highly recommended for everybody, whether one has been to Japan already (= as an experienced gaijin, you will laugh knowingly about many of the scenes he describes) or whether one ever plans to go to Japan (= as an inexperienced gaijin, which people sometimes refer to as a Nama-Gaijin = literally Raw Foreigner = somebody who has just arrived in Japan).
Among many other things, the book describes the hilarious usage of English phrases on Japanese t-shirts ("I am a plump Mary", "We always hope to have an open", "Boneractive wear"...) and street signs ("No car intercourse on this bridge"), as well as some of the stranger food you can get in Japan, and the way Japanese and foreign people communicate (where yes and yes can have a totally different meaning).
Other topics: Japanese and foreign humor, eating in Japanese restaurants, visiting a Japanese bath house, lost in Tokyo and -- last but not least -- the Japanese language itself.
Of course, he is totally exaggerating with many of the things he describes and one sometimes has to laugh more about him being such a fool, then about the Japanese people he meets -- but shining through the whole book is the fact that he must like Japan quite a lot and that being in such a foreign country makes one even more aware of one's own cultural background. | 
