In this episode, we once again sit down with Iain Maloney, author of the critically acclaimed memoir, The Only Gaijin in the Village, to talk about his new book, The Japan Lights.

In 2017, holed up in a hotel room, feverish, despondent, and aimless, Iain Maloney chances upon an article about Richard Henry Brunton, a Victorian civil engineer unknown in his Scottish homeland but considered ‘The Father of Japanese Lighthouses’ in Japan. With more than twenty of his lighthouses still in use today, Maloney sets out with a newfound purpose to visit them all.

Part travel memoir, part history, The Japan Lights visits isolated regions of rural Japan, discovering compelling stories from its past. Maloney witnesses the lingering trauma of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, and comes to a new understanding of the precariousness of life on a planet that is 71 percent water. Along the way, he explores the paradox of Brunton, a flawed human being whose work saved hundreds of thousands of lives and made the seas around Japan safer for all.

LINKS!

• The Japan Lights
• The Only Gaijin in the Village
• In Search of Piper Alpha  
• Red Flag Waltz (Iain's band)
• No Sympthy (outro) 
• 喜びも悲しみも幾歳月 若山彰さん (outro)
• But We're Speaking Japanese (YouTube clip) 
• Do you speak English? (Big Train, BBC) 

Got something to say? You can reach me at the following: [email protected]

And don't forget to give some love to Awich, the female Japanese rapper who produced the outro, Queendom. 

Thanks for listening!