The author finds himself at the cross roads of life, when, employed at several part time jobs and in his late twenties, he decides to go to Japan and teach English. He is accepted by a large Japanese school, with whom he interviewed ahead of time in the U.S., and starts his adventure. This book is definitely a travel memoir, as many of the pages are spent observing and reflecting on the Japanese culture. Anderson notices a lot of contradictions: anything from a shy and quiet student body that is corrupted by a their new provocative classmate, to a diner who looks like a beautiful geisha but soon turns into a hyenna-laughing "nut job" who talks to herself, to a city obsessed with Hello Kitty cuteness--whose popularity only rivals that of risque comic books and seedy underground bars (or maybe that was just Anderson's choice of entertainment). This culture of contrast is what makes anderson's travel memoir particularly interesting, along with his hilarious stories and commentary on anything from dealing with a crazy American roomate (the funniest part of the book), to singing in a Japanese rock band, to dealing with his fellow expats whose reasons for coming to Japan differed greatly from his own (let's just say that teaching, for which half of Anderson's fellow "teachers" were hilariously underqualified for, wasn't the main goal). If you're planning to visit Japan or just like to read humorous travel memoirs, than you might enjoy this.
