A review by lavendermarch
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad

3.0

This was an entertaining enough read about the author's life in Japan over the course of the last decade. I'd never heard of him before reading this book, but I might check out some of his videos now. YouTube aside, as a book, this was decent but nothing groundbreaking.

It contained some information that you only really learn from living in another country and experiencing life there firsthand, which was definitely interesting to read about. It was also quite funny. However, the chapters occasionally repeated information and there were multiple small grammar errors that were mildly irritating (ex: some the instead of some of the or changing the transliteration of a Japanese word or place name within a sentence, such as Chokai vs. Choukai). It also felt slightly tonally off in places, perhaps because while some sections of chapters felt cohesive, others felt more tacked on or less genuine.

With that being said, I would recommend this as a light library read, but not necessarily as something to buy. 3.5 stars.