A fun travelogue about an Englishman going to Japan to teach English but ends up doing much more!

After reading For Fukui’s Sake by Sam Baldwin (see review here) I was in the need for more travelogues in Japan. I just LOVE those and my mood definitely demanded more of them. Thanks to a blog I found out about this one and I just had to get it immediately. Yup. This was an impulse buy, haha. And I am happy I did that!

First I want to say that I haven’t ever watched Chris’ Youtube channel, I think I may have heard of it, but never watched it. I didn’t even know about the channel until it was mentioned in the book itself.

Secondly, this was such a fun and good book. We follow Chris as he goes to Japan to be an English teacher. It sounds like an absolute dream, I would also love to do that, but haha, allergies + the fact I just cannot up and go to another country for years. But I can dream. And I can read books like this to still experience it in a way. I had so much fun reading this book and seeing Chris adapt to Japan, to country-side Japan at that because he is sent to a small village. We read about those first weeks, trying to make sense of Japan, trying to figure out classes + school, see how he struggles, but he is trying his hardest and I love that he kept going and had fun. And as the seasons continue we see him discover more of Japan but also try his hardest to be able to converse in Japan + read the language. Thankfully, there is much fucking snow, and he gets snowed in a lot, which means plenty of time to get ready and study. I just loved when he was able to read more and more, discover new kanji. Even to the point that he was able to do a whole speech!

We read all about Japan from Chris’ eyes. From the drinking culture, to yummy foods (and some weirder foods), to culture and gorgeous sights, to Fuji, and much more. It was very interesting (and very fun) to see him explore Japan and fall in love with it more and more.

We also see him want to share Japan with others and thus starts Abroad in Japan channel. We read how it grows, the videos he makes, and more surrounding it.

However I struggled through the last part. When Chris’ other plans started to take more flight, I don’t know, I just lost interest in the story. I definitely struggled through that last part of the story. Maybe because I don’t know about his channel/am not a fan of the channel? There were still some fun parts so it wasn’t all bad.

All in all, I really had fun reading this one and I am glad I found out about this book. I just love books about people travelling to Japan!