Review: For Fukui’s Sake: Two years in rural Japan
I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.
A big thank you to the author for allowing me to read this one! I am a BIG BIG fan of travelogues, and then especially when people go to Japan!
In this book we follow Sam Baldwin as he takes the daring step to become a teacher in Japan. From a boring job as lab technician (which indeed doesn’t sound that interesting) to a whole new country with a new language is a big step and I loved seeing Sam take that step. It was a lot of fun seeing him discover Japan in summer (burning hot), prepare a speech, and then it is time to start with teaching. We read all about the things that happen in the school, from sports day during a typhoon, to walking the school dog (Shiro and I would love a photograph of the puppers), to strange toilets, to how good everyone can speak/converse in English (not that well, which leads to some interesting cough situations), to snakes in the school and how to solve that problem, and a lot more. It was a lot of fun to read.
Of course, next to that there is various foods (good and yummy food and strange ones), lots and lots of snow, discovering his surroundings, showing us the inaka (aka the Japanese countryside), we see him discover a fun place where he drinks and meets friends and of course also practices his Japanese. I also loved that he found the time to discover Japan, climb Fuji, go kayaking, take a roadtrip with other JETs/friends, and there is so much more.
Just like in all other books from people not from Japan we see how Japanese people react to foreigners. Some find it totally awesome, others are neutral, and then there are the ones that act like a foreigner is a bad person or not to be trusted.
I really enjoyed reading this one, Sam really has a fab writing style, really engaging.
All in all, I am super happy that I had the chance to read this one and I would recommend it to all. This is one book that I will be reading again, so it will stay on my shelves~