Introduction

Stuck.  That's how 33-year-old aspiring singer Celeste Duncan feels, with her deadbeat boyfriend and static career. But then Celeste receives a puzzling phone call and a box full of mysterious family heirlooms which just might be the first real clue to the identity of the father she never knew. Impulsively, Celeste flies to Japan to search for a long-lost relative who could be able to explain. She stumbles head first into a weird, wonderful world where nothing is quite as it seems?a land with an inexplicable fascination with foreigners, karaoke boxes, and unbearably perky TV stars.

With little knowledge of Japanese, Celeste finds a friend in her English-speaking homestay brother, Takuya, and comes to depend on him for all variety of translation, travel and investigatory needs. As they cross the country following a trail after Celeste's family, she discovers she's developing "more-than-sisterly" feelings for him. But with a nosy homestay mom scheming to reunite Takuya with his old girlfriend, and her search growing dimmer, Celeste begins to wonder whether she's made a terrible mistake by coming to Japan. Can Celeste find her true self in this strange land, and discover that love can transcend culture?

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Excerpt

Chapter One - A Proposal

When I first set eyes on Takuya, my immediate inclination was to take him in my arms and kiss him like he’d never been kissed before.

Such impulsive, reckless behavior, though, was never my style. And, besides, taking such a course of action would have been inappropriate for several reasons:

1. We had yet to be officially introduced.
2. He, at twenty-eight, was five years younger than me, a fact that would be considered rather scandalous in Japan.
3. I had kind of a boyfriend back home in San Jose.
4. Takuya was my homestay “brother.”

It had been his mother, Mrs. Kubota, who first referred to him as my homestay brother. And the fact that I was experiencing more than sisterly feelings toward him was probably against one of the rules stated in the Kubota Homestay Handbook, if there’d been such a thing. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

~ Celeste's homestay situation reminds her of when she was a foster child. Why? Discuss the conflicted feelings she has about Mrs. Kubota as a mother figure and living with a family with free room and board simply because she is a native speaker of English.

~ Celeste must grapple with a number of cultural mistakes and miscues in being a gaijin in Japan. Discuss what are the most embarrassing and if you would handle anything differently than she did.

~ Takuya grew up in Japan, but has also lived and worked in the United States. Do you think he can be happy living permanently in Japan? What might make him want to return to the U.S.?

~ Mrs. Kubota seems to be obsessed with foreigners. Why do you think this is?

~ Celeste must deal with a number of insecurities that seem to manifest even more as a stranger in a strange land. What are some of these? Does she overcome any of them by the end of the book?

~ By the end of the novel Celeste sees Mariko as an older sister, but at first the relationship has its difficulties. What do you think drives Mariko's behavior? Was there anything that surprised you about her?

~ What makes Takuya so attractive to Celeste? How is he different from her old boyfriend Dirk? Have you ever been in a cross-cultural relationship either personally or professionally? What were the positive and negative aspects?

~ The power and love of music is a theme in Love in Translation. Have you ever been attracted by songs sung in foreign languages? Do you have special memories of a song you heard while abroad? Have you ever sung karaoke?

~ What is your opinion of Sakura Sasaki, the Hen Na Gaijin television show, and the way foreigners are depicted?

~ Discuss why Celeste's mother referred to her Aunt Mitch as a witch. Was this justified? Was Aunt Mitch too rash in her actions regarding Kenji and Barbara? Why or why not?

~ By the end of the book Celeste has discovered her own voice. Why is she able to gain confidence in her singing?

~ Discuss any experiences you might have had traveling or living abroad. What were the challenges? Would you ever consider living in a foreign country? Could you see yourself becoming a permanent expatriate?

Weblinks

»	Author Wendy Nelson Tokunga's web site
»	Publisher's Book Info

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