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Abroad in Japan

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Abroad in Japan

By: Chris Broad
Narrated by: Chris Broad
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

When Englishman Chris Broad landed in a rural village in northern Japan he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. With no knowledge of the language and zero teaching experience, was he was about to be the most quickly fired English teacher in Japan's history?

Abroad in Japan charts a decade of living in a foreign land and the chaos and culture clash that comes with it. Packed with hilarious and fascinating stories, this book seeks out to unravel one the world's most mysterious and impenetrable cultures.

Spanning 10 years and 47 prefectures, Chris takes us from the chilling summit of Mount Fuji to the chaotic neon-lit streets of Tokyo. With blockbuster moments such as a terrifying North Korean missile incident, a Japanese national TV experience gone horribly wrong and a week spent with Japan's biggest movie star, Ken Watanabe, Abroad in Japan is an extraordinary and informative journey through the Land of the Rising Sun.

©2023 Chris Broad (P)2023 Penguin Audio Asia Travel Writing & Commentary Funny Witty Feel-Good Inspiring Thought-Provoking Heartfelt Village Imperial Japan China

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Critic reviews

From wide-eyed exchange teacher to seasoned youtuber, Chris Broad explores Japan in all its quirky glory, surviving earthquakes, North Korean missile alerts, cat cafe allergies and Love Hotel evictions. Endlessly fascinating! (Will Ferguson, author of Hokkaido Highway Blues)
Fascinating, fact-packed and very funny. Broad's wry humour, in-depth knowledge and adept storytelling make him an engaging guide to the bewildering Japanese experience. Accurately captures the excitement and dream-like disorientation of a foreigner discovering Japan. An excellent and enjoyable read for the Japan-curious. I loved it and learned a lot. (Sam Baldwin, author of For Fukui's Sake: Two years in rural Japan)
Chris Broad's wry, self-deprecating memoir carves a unique path across Japan bringing him into contact with far too many cats, heartening renewal in Tohoku, and even pizza with Ken Watanabe. This is a thoroughly contemporary book, a memoir of life in Japan that couldn't have been written at any other point in history. (Iain Maloney, author of The Only Gaijin in the Village)
All stars
Most relevant
Big fan of his youtube and started this in the morning and had it finished by the time i was going to bed. Very enjoyable

Very good

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This is great! Chris’s self-deprecating humour is very infectious – and you feel like you are shooting the breeze with a friend. Having travelled to Japan regularly for the last three decades I can totally recommend this!

Inspiring

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It has been a great joy to listen to the account of Chris’s life in Japan. Chris’s knowledge of Japan is exceptional and his honesty makes this book unmissable. The book helped me refresh my fondest memories of a few months I’d spent working in Osaka many years ago. It also reignited the desire to visit Japan again.

Fabulous!

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Fabulous story well told with some dripping sarcasm thrown in for good measure. Enjoy a tail and travels around Japan and the people met along the way. Oh and fried chicken

What a voice

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I throughly enjoyed Abroad in Japan. Its deep dive into the cultural uniqueness of Japan was made all the more entertaining by Chris' humour, fish-out-of-water perspective and great narration. Would reccomend it to anyone fascinated by Japan or far flung locations generally.

Such an entertaining listen!

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