Same Sky Magazine

Hamish Beaton Was Under the Osakan Sun, Too

If I ever wrote a book about my time in Japan, I hope it could come across as beautifully as Hamish Beaton’s experiences in Under the Osakan Sun: A Funny, Intimate, Wonderful Account of Three Years in Japan.

Like me, Hamish Beaton - “Mr Hamish” to his students - went to Osaka to teach English. Unlike me, he already spoke good Japanese, and was hired in the JET programme which puts native speakers in Japanese schools to assist local English teachers. He ended up in a junior high school in Kanan town, south-east Osaka. With a great attitude and a willingness to try new things and meet new people, Beaton had three years of joy in Japan, and reading his account of it really took me back to my Osakan days too.

Describing life in Japan from the point of view of a foreigner is a tricky business. There are all manner of what seem like unusual rituals and habits there, but to describe them without making any judgement takes a special art, and Beaton does this well. The contrast to what I call a “bad foreigner” is evident when Beaton mentions another teacher who arrives from England and refuses to try any of the local food or indeed make any effort to fit in. Beaton, on the other hand, is ready to embrace all things Japanese and as a result makes countless friends and is taken on plenty of special excursions, dinner outings and even camping trips.

Above all, what I noticed in Beaton’s book is the same eagerness to help the foreigner that the Japanese people I met always showed. A Japanese person doesn’t just point out the direction you need to go if you ask where the bank is - they take you there and introduce you to the manager. They don’t buy you a bunch of flowers for your birthday - they find out which major electrical appliance you don’t have and order one for you. There’s a generosity of spirit that is hard to match.

For those who haven’t spent time in Japan, Beaton’s book will be both interesting and hilarious - take, for example, an uncomfortable dinner with his student’s family when the father demands to know more about Beaton’s tastes in pornography. And there are the usual foreigners’ antics with late nights in downtown Osaka, too much alcohol and ending up asleep on a train that ends up the other side of the city.

With thousands and thousands of native English speakers heading to Japan every year to teach English, this isn’t the first book I’ve read on the subject - but it’s the one that’s captured the experience most accurately.