lou_p 's review for:

Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad

2.25

adventurous funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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Content was interesting enough. Such as the Japanese taxi driving service. Didn’t care for him name dropping women he’d taken to love hotel and that he’d been plenty of times was just icky. Couldn’t stand his friend who he climbs Mount Fuji with, he sounds absolute insufferable. 

Too much hyperbole: the coldest in the world, the worlds worst throat infection, japans most eccentric man, the worst this, the worst that. Until the chapter “the worst start” I rolled my eyes because I expected more of the same until it was a sad glimpse of Japan’s bullying problem and that a student had attempted to kill themselves. He ends the chapter kind of awkwardly and then promptly goes on to the next lighthearted topic about japans tradition of KFC on Christmas.

Didn’t care for all these mentions of his YouTube channel and him telling us how successful it’s making him. And all these awards he’s won. Very much felt like typical white guy stumbling through life and being rewarded for mediocre things. Most egregious is probably the video he did during a North Korea missile launch - why is he on TV speaking about geopolitics current affairs? Surely you’d brush up on the history before making a TV appearance and try educate the West if that was the point in all this?

He only briefly mentions his more serious documentaries about Fukushima and the tsunami, like way less than his other silly videos. I feel like although he says he is proud of them and he should be, I get the feeling he’s actually more chuffed with the silly videos.