Kenneth and Lora Fenter, High school and elementary teachers respectively and their children Phil and Janelle 12 and 9 journey to a village in Kyushu, Japan about 15 miles from Nagasaki to teach English in a highschool/junior college. The children enter the local junior high school and elementary schools of Isahaya, Japan. Life begins for the family in the town of Isahaya. The town of roughly the same size as their hometown of Springfield, Oregon, 50,000 is similar in some respects. Springfield is near Eugene a larger University city with more cultural activities. Isahaya is near Nagasaki with a world history as the site of the second city in the world bombed by an atomic weapon and as the only city in Japan open to European influence during medieval Japan times.
The family has answered the call to go to Japan to teach English issued by a visitor to their home, an English teacher from Nagasaki. She had told them they didn't need to speak Japanese because all Japanese learned English from junior high school age on. They needed English speakers to hear the spoken language.
The family is shocked to learn when they arrive that this isn't necessarily true. But rise to the challenge of learning to cope with their own sudden illiteracy while left to their own devices in teaching in their new assignments.
The children begin to assimilate the language, culture, and are suddenly in high demand as guests in the homes of the neighborhood. Families welcome the entire family and introduce the Fenters to the local culture and to the culture of Japan.
Through a set of journals kept at the time, Fenter recreated many of the daily situations and encounters in three books about the two year experience and a following three years of doing business with the community. Gaijin! Gaijin! which means Foreigner! Foreigner! chronicles the first year. MoIchido; Once More covered the second year, Suteindo Gurasu: Stained Glass, covered the three following years. This Kindle edition is the first time Gaijin! Gaijin! appears in e-edition. Gaijin! Gaijin! was originally released in print in 1985, a second edition was released in 1987 and a third print edition will be released shortly after the new year. This Kindle edition is the text of the 2010 edition.
Kenneth Fenter
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