As the first British Professor of Philosophy since 1882 to be invited to teach at the prestigious and enigmatic University of Tokyo - the Oxbridge of Japan - Simon May enjoyed a degree of access denied to other commentators. Each chapter of the book focuses on some everyday human matter, such as love, death, bureaucracy, hygiene, food, toilets, commuting, education, marriage and memory. Japanese attitudes to such issues are explored through a mixture of lighthearted anecdote and trenchant analysis, and through his vivid accounts of Kafkaesque bureaucracy, flying goldfish, gangsters at funerals, businessmen paying good money to be whipped, doctors faking death certificates and cover-ups at all levels of society. "Atomic Sushi" is the first book to provide so much anecdotal material and the first book to herald Japan's resurgence after over a decade of recession.