Abroad in Japan does the Yamanote Line

[N-Osoi]

Not sure how many here follow this guy on Youtube, some stuff he does is good, not much train-related, but here he visits every Yamanote Line station:

 

 

[bc6]

I actually watched that the other day and thought it was pretty cool. There is so much that I didn't know about Japan after watching that video.

[Kamome]

I was recently sent his book, Abroad in Japan. I find his videos can be a little patronising at times. I guess if it wasn’t sensationalist then he wouldn’t have the following. 

 

Visiting Japan and living and working in Japan are certainly 2 very different experiences and his book does touch on the challenges and nuances of Japanese culture that tourists will never see. I sort of got the impression the first draft of the book was probably 

“Why Japan, why? and he was asked to go back, edit and tone down some of the ranting. 

 

Edited June 4 by Kamome

[N-Osoi]

Yes he does go for the 'blokey' patronising tone, and I really only like the videos where he does a good job of showing you a particular area, but there are some interesting insights and underlying love for Japan beneath it all. My partner has his book so I may read it soon. Just this video really shows how much time you can spend exploring just Tokyo! 

[Kamome]

Yeah it can be overwhelming at first. When I lived in Kanto, the first thing I discovered was how to start thinking of addresses in a 3 dimensions, rather than on 2 planes like most other places in the world. 

 

"We're meeting at this bar, which is on the 7th floor of the north side building of this group of buildings, of which the building you need seems to have no accessible ground floor entrance from your current trajectory, and of which has interconnecting bridges only on floors 14 and B2."

 

Many of his experiences in the book echo mine so I found the book quite a chuckle. First week heading out with unsuspecting work colleagues in Shinjuku and being shepherded by some Nigerian touts into a bar in Kabukicho. Thankfully none of us were drunk enough not to realise we really shouldn't be there and managed to escape without either getting into trouble or running up a large tab.