Japan Diary: A year on JET

When journalist Eric Sparling and his wife Tanya accepted teaching positions with the JET program in Japan, they had no idea what they were getting into. Japan is Canada's second largest trading partner, yet citizens of the two countries know almost nothing about each other. During his second year in Japan, Eric wrote a bi-weekly column for the Peterborough Examiner, a newspaper in Ontario. Now the Japan Diary has been compiled in one volume. It's all inside: bumbling attempts at Japanese, loudmouth students, gender discrimination and animal abuse, as well as a ton of well-considered, positive stuff that isn't sensational enough to appear here. Includes previously unpublished photos not found in the original column. Want two books? Check out Sparling's novella, Treading Water, first published in Angus magazine.