The Wagamama Bride

Book excerpt: Wagamama means "selfish" in Japanese, and Liane Grunberg certainly had no intentions of being selfish when she married into a traditional family in Tokyo. It kind of just happened. His and hers weddings - a lavish Imperial Hotel Shinto ceremony for his side of the family, a modest Jewish ceremony for hers - set the stage for a fragile union between clashing Jewish and Japanese values. At its heart, this is the story of the couples' valiant attempts to forge their own middle way with one God, two temples, and two Chabad Houses that bring Jewish Orthodoxy, unlike anything Liane Wakabayashi knew before, to awaken her to a Torah way of life.