Update: The DH has done his mathematical random drawing thing and I’m pleased to announce my winner is Tina Rucci! Congrats, Tina. I’ll be sending you an email to gather your mailing info. For everyone else, thank you for leaving a comment. If you didn’t win here, I hope you’ll pop over to my website and enter my contest there. The Grand Prize is a set of my entire print backlist!
Sign near the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo
I just returned from a week long trip to Japan. My DH had to go on business and I tagged along for pleasure! There are so many amazing things to see there and I’m sharing some of them on my blog and later this week on Facebook. But today, I’d like to talk a bit about this sign I saw near the Imperial Palace Gardens. I think it really sums up the Japanese way of looking at things.
Every society has a collection of rules, either spelled out or tacitly accepted, that helps things run smoothly. For example, in Japan people drive on the left hand side of the road just like the Brits. Which means they also queue and walk on the left as well. I can’t tell you how many times I caught myself walking into oncoming foot traffic because I automatically drifted to the “right” American side of the walk way.
Money does not literally change hands there. It took me a bit to notice that there is always a little tray by every cash register where I was expected to place my payment and where the sales person would place my change. (However if I was having trouble figuring out the money, it was perfectly safe for me to hold out a handful of change and the vendor would take out only what was needed to complete the transaction. The Japanese are honest to a fault.)
If however, someone handed me something, it would be with two hands, indicating their total attention to me. It would have been bad manners for me to accept it with one hand only, but I really had to concentrate in order to make myself use both hands.
Being “others-centric” seems to be the Japanese way. No one pushes to the head of a queue. Everyone defers to those around them. And they do it with a smile and a bow. They follow the rules. In a city of 12 million souls, it’s almost a requirement in order to have peaceful coexistence.
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Every society has their own rules and while following them leads to harmonious life, it makes for very boring fiction. Which is why my characters tend to be rule breakers big time. Take my heroine Lady Julianne Cambourne from Touch of a Rogue, for example. She’s a widowed countess, but she refuses to come to heel when her step-son tries to marry her off to one of his friends. If she were a “pattern” sort of lady (“pattern” being a huge compliment during the Victorian era because it indicated a thorough conformation to the expected course of action) she’d accept the man the new earl wants her to wed. Tired of living under a man’s thumb, Julianne doesn’t want to give up the freedom of widowhood and she’s determined to do what’s necessary in order to maintain her independence.
This is a sentiment my hero Jacob Preston applauds until he realizes he loves her and wants her to surrender her widow’s weeds…to HIM! For a peek at how Jacob and Julianne met, click here for an excerpt. While you’re on my website be sure to enter my contest. I’m giving away a complete set of my print backlist there.
Today, I’d like to offer a copy of Touch of a Rogue to a commenter here. Share a time when you broke the rules. Share a rule you find impossible to follow. Share a time when following the rules was the absolutely right thing to do. Whatever you leave for a comment will enter you in the drawing. Good luck!
I would say that no cell phone in classes is very hard to do. It’s the right thing to do but it’s *REALLY* hard since we are all so used to our cell phones everywhere…
It is hard to put down the cellphone, but it can be done. My cellphone wouldn’t work in Japan, so I was tetherless all week.
Hi Mia,
It sounds like you had a really enjoyable holiday in Japan. I really love hearing about other countries customs.
I’ve always been a bit of a “good girl” and always followed peoples rules.. However, the one rule that I did find hard to follow when I was younger was “no talking ” in the library. My friends and I always got “shushed” so many times.
I’d love to read “Touch of a Rogue”.
I wonder if libraries aren’t starting to relax that a bit now. We want people to have fun with books. Talking about them is a natural extension of reading them.
I follow the rules when driving a car, so I will also add the cell phone laws to this. I do not talk or text while I am driving. I am so bad with it that I will yell at a person to get off the phone while they are driving because it is illegal in our state. My daughter says that the state should hire me to see that the cell phone laws are followed by others.
Oh, I so agree. It scares me to death when I see someone texting next to me.
I always follow the rules. I think it’s a good thing to follow the rules regarding drinking and driving.
I guess being sleep deprived is just as debilitating as being under the influence.
Wow, a trip to Japan sounds so fun. Sometimes it can be tricky not breaking rules depending on different countries. I remember a time we accidently broke a rule. When I was younger our family went on a mini road trip and stopped at an isolated lake. My sister and I decided to dip around in the water near the edge while our parents looked on. While doing that we saw what *looked* like an alligator. That scared us and we left and walking back we saw a sign that said “Warning, Alligators in the area” which basically means no swimming. We had a “duh” moment right there.
I don’t drink alcohol so not driving under the influence is not a problem I would ever have but I confess to driving (frequently) while somewhat sleep deprived. I tend to sleep between 3-4 hours on weekdays then make it up over the w/end. There just aren’t enough hours to read all the books I want to. Guess I need to figure out how to read faster!
I follow the rules because it makes things so much easier in life. I feel they are there for a reason. I can’t grasp how everyone who texts while driving doesn’t see the danger they create. If not for themselves how about the other people being jeopardized. I’ve broken the Library rule of no talking. I get so excited about books and am always trying to share with someone.
I know our Library has relaxed the rules a lot in the last couple of years when it comes to talking.
I can’t wait to read Touch Of A Rogue. It’s already on my TRL. Thanks for the chance Mia.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Hi Mia it sounds like you had a brilliant time in Japan. I always follow the rules. I have however once broken a rule ,in my defence I had no choice.
I was meant to be getting some typing done for work but I also had just received a new book by the wonderful Abby Green , it kept staring at me from the desk so I put it away in the drawer but that did help for long. I needed a pen and had to open the drawer in the end I grabbed it and read about 4 chapters before I actually got back to sticking to the rules and working instead of reading.
Thanks for your great post and thank you so much for the chance to win your incredible sounding book !
Desere
i break the rule when our office has blocked an access of browsing website but i still go to IT’s room and browsing to open facebook, i cant if i do not open facebook even one day