Japan: A Working Holiday Guide – Book Review

Lately I’ve been interested in people who teach English in Japan. Since the early 90′s, teaching English was one of the sure-fire to get work in Japan. In many cases you didn’t even need to have any previous teaching experience, you just had to look like you knew what you were doing.

While things have changed somewhat in the last few years – with several big name English schools going out of business – teaching English is still a big draw for anyone who wants to make their living in Japan. So I thought I do a little research on the experiences of people finding work as teachers or other professions in Japan.

Here’s my review of the book Japan: A Working Holiday Guide.

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Point-And-Speak Japanese Phrasebook

During our recent road trip we were able to meet with a wonderful Japanese girl from Shizuoka (near Tokyo). I even had a chance to try out my limited Japanese words. She said I came across very polite, so I guess that’s good :)

While we we’re visiting she brought out a Japanese point-and-speak phrasebook and gave it to us a gift. The book is a great reference and it covers a lot of situations a first time traveler may run into.

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Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan – Book Review

Ever since I read the James Clavell novel Shogun and subsequently watched the TV mini-series, I’ve had a strong interest in the real man these works were based on. And while fiction takes a lot of license with the true-life story, there are plenty of interesting similarities between William Adams and the man known as Anjin-san in Clavell’s book.

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Japanese Demystified: Book Review

I recently picked up a copy of Japanese Demystified from my local library. I had been holding off from ordering the book because the cover looked like it was going to be dummy’s guide to the Japanese language.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

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Japanese Step by Step: Book Review

When I first started learning Japanese I decided to put together a core collection of books that I thought would cover me pretty well. One of the first books I picked up was Japanese Step by Step: An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese.

The book came highly recommended from Amazon, so I was pretty sure it would be a winner. When the book arrived I started into it immediately. Since then I’ve started and restarted the book several times, never making it past 92.

Here’s why…

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The Roads to Sata

I often think that some first time travelers to Japan suffer from a condition of Japan-can-do-no-wrong. When I came back from Japan the first time all doe-eyed and with wonderlust, I certainly felt that Japan was as close to perfection as I could find. For months after I was constantly comparing everything in Canada to the way things went down in Japan. “That worker in Wendy’s didn’t say hello when I entered the store…hmmm.” “These people are not queuing up orderly AT ALL!” “Why is this toilet not shooting water at my bum?”

I had become a Japanophile.

Since I could see the signs of Japanophilia developing, I tried to find more books that covered the other side of the coin. That’s not to say that I went looking for the dark underbelly of Japan, I just wanted a more balanced look at the Japanese culture and people.

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