Perhaps there's something about coming to Japan that brings out the writer in a person -- the peculiarities of the culture, the rarity of the experience, the seemingly unending appeal, on the "outside," of an "insider's" view of this inscrutable place. The Japan memoir -- often a young Westerner's first experience of living overseas -- has become its own genre: my year in Japan, me as a JET, me as an OL, me and Zen. Here it takes the form of a compilation of vignettes from the author's three years working at an English language school. Hesitation is the reader's first reaction. In such well-tilled ground, is there really anything new to say?
In this case, delightfully, yes.
While the premise and the setting, down to the thinly veiled English-teacher mill where he works (the "Star Institute"), may be familiar, Geraghty's perspective is fresh. Weeks after he arrives, his wife, a fellow New Zealander, joins him, finding work as a chef. Through their budding friendship with a local Japanese man (the "Nobby" of the title) and his family, they gain a valuable window on Japan. The two families, and sometimes just the two guys, travel regularly into the countryside.