Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the kind of cookbook I would love to love. I was prepared to love it and buy copies for my kids who don't read Japanese but have Japanese heritage. But... I can't. What kind of cookbook dares call itself Japan: The Cookbook and leaves out (for example): bento, setchi ryori (New Year's Cooking), Yoshoku, Chinese-influenced dishes, and lists NO Japanese sources as references?! In an attempt to cram in recipes, the print is too small and photos are not labeled. The recipes are all duel titled in Japanese and English, but there are mistakes in the Japanese and some of the translations are weak, exposing the lack of a proofreader and lack of a genuine feel for the language. Also, it is unhelpful to the reader who is studying Japanese because vowel sounds are not distinguished as short and long (poor romanization). What kind of cookbook about Japan that professes to cover various regions does not distinguish between Kanto and Kansai sukiyaki? Or provides a recipe for ozoni (soup at New Year's) without mentioning that each region does it differently? The author is obviously a cook. She knows plenty about cooking but she should have waited until she's gained the ability to read Japanese cookbooks herself. She says she did NOT learn Japanese cooking from her Japanese mother-in-law, but perhaps she should have. This is not the extent of Japanese home cooking at all. Continuing on, a recipe for nikujaga that uses pork....should be called butajaga not nikujaga... and... well, I'm stopping now, because I've spent a full ten minutes flipping through it. I may try some of these recipes, but there are better resources out there than this one. It's a disappointing attempt, though the publisher would have done better to simply translate one of the many comprehensive Japanese cookbooks out there.