Old review, I read while inJapan in 2006:
As a statement to how busy I've been lately, it took me nearly two weeks to read this book, shocking considering if a book takes me that long it's usually not worth it and this one was.

While I was glad for the insight this book gave me into a non-city JHS in the 90s and the glimpse into the student's mindset before they're utterly brainwarped by the time I get them at 8-9 PM, it also made me doubly glad I opted not to do JET either time. I couldn't cope! I did enjoy how it was a mix of "Mr. Bruce"'s views as well as those of his colleagues and students.

Living English may be alive in the hearts of government officials in Tokyo, but it has no life in Sano.
Nor does it have much life even ten years later. While it's true that I don't generally enjoy JHS and HS students, I have gotten some interesting views on English from them. Also make me consider my motives for studying Japanese and its uses in my world.

It, like Alex Kerr's Lost Japan, is one of those books that makes me really stop and think about the Japan I know v. Japan out of the cities. It's also one that's prone to making me stop and think and realise "I'm in Japan" a fact that I must admit escapes me more often than I'd have thought possible.

His chapter on juku, and I like how he layed out the book according to his own experiences--and tied extra stuff in, like the juku around entrance exam time, as appropriate--got me thinking a lot on the business of English. For all the criticism about the Big4, they fill a demand in the Japanese market. Having had some JH and HS English teachers in my classes, it no longer surprises me about the state of English in this country. Still kudos for the effort.

But what I thought as his central tenet came so late...Everybody says that our students have to learn to live in a world that is larger than just Japan. But first, our teachers have to learn that this world exists. 100% agreed, part of the cycle here as elsewhere in the world is that until the circle of 'how it's been done' is broken, it's hard to teach the unknown.