A review of “Abroad In Japan” by Chris Broad
To be honest, this is not really a biography, instead it is part memoir and part travelogue. I read it while travelling in Japan and found it a very accessible and useful introduction to this wonderful but strange country. It is written in a casual, even conversational, style and it is often quite funny.
Broad – note how he incorporates his surname into the title of the book – went to Japan as a young man straight after graduation when he took part in a scheme to locate native English speakers in schools to assist with the teaching of English. He was assigned to a relatively remote corner of the north-west of the main island, a town called Sakata, where he spent his first three years in this country, painfully managing to learn Japanese.
Increasingly, he made videos for YouTube about the cultural curiosities of Japan and, as a result, moved to the north-east of the main island, a town called Sendai. More and more, he travelled around the country: he writes particularly about Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Mount Fuji (each of which I have visited) and he has now been to all 47 prefectures that make up the country.
In short, amusing chapters, he explores the complicated language with three writing systems, the rarity of swearing, the long periods of silence, the formality of the education process, the forbidden-footwear culture, the attraction of hot springs, the experience of an earthquake, a missile from North Korea, the thriving drinking culture, the varied and often odd foods, the role of hostess bars, the commitment to service, the prevalence of cleanliness, the wearing of face masks, the shortage of living space, the introduction of capsule hotels, the efficiency of the railways, the ubiquity of road tunnels (an estimated 10,000), the preference for presentism over productivity, the superiority of group conformity over individualism, the low obesity rate, the extensive longevity, the explosion in tourism, the antipathy to foreign residents, and the obsession with cats – and more.
Towards the end of the book, the tone becomes more serious as he makes videos about the consequences of the devastating tsunami of 2011. The book covers the decade January 2012 to March 2022, but the story continues on YouTube where Broad has now posted over 250 videos.