Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Very disappointed. Japanese words used were not often historically accurate in this book. Especially, maji.. used often in this book is more of a new word and mostly used by youth. I am from Japan and I was excited to learn what went on in the Japan-korea history in a personal level. The story was all over the place and no focal point through out the book. And the author assumed a lot of Japanese traditions be same as western ones. Like in Japan, a family shares a family tomb stone and the urns containing ashes of the deceased are stored under the tomb stone. Why does noa not have a tomb stone ? I have never heard of anyone buried in a casket like here in the U.S. Pachinko isn't necessarily associated with Yakuzas at all. In fact, I was confused throughout the book. It is more of a pass time activity. Many people to do it to release stress. Unless you choose to associate with them, you do not really find them at all. I feel like this book was written based up on what she learned from people she knew and also her assumptions of Japanese people and culture. Not accurate. Also, I was very distracted by the sexual interactions. I felt like it was not needed at all in this story and too vivid and descriptive. She should have described how people felt about each other, especially what was going on sonja*s head and more details about how people died, rather than sporadic detailed sex scenes. People just die in this book and you kinda find out in later chapters that it has been some time since their deaths. So I was like oh so he is gone. But well, how did he go ? How did others endure ? This book left me with a lot of questions and confusion