Yeah I know, I went looking at Kinokuniya yesterday, and unbelievably found NOTHING that I recognised. I'm going to trawl through my libraries next, so keep looking.
From memory, there's a pretty good book called
Japan: Profile of a Nation that I once liked very much. It's not too in depth but offers a good and diverse introduction to Japanese history and cuture. I think. Remember I'm working from memory, I can only remember my impression of the book.
Would you like some more formal histories? I read a few of those, but I have a feeling you lack the patience to trawl through them.