So this page is just to share some of the things that inspired me to do this trip other than budget and boredom. After my first visit to Japan the bug had really bitten so once I was home I started to devour anything Japan related, food, music, films, books, you name it. A few of these things really took hold and planted the seed for this whole trip so I thought I would post a little about them here. I’ll be adding bits to this page as I go so feel free to check for updates now and then
‘It had never been done before. Not in 4000 years of Japanese recorded history had anyone followed the Cherry Blossom Front from one end of the country to the other. Nor had anyone hitchhiked the length of Japan. But, heady on sakura and sake, Will Ferguson bet he could do both. The resulting travelogue is one of the funniest and most illuminating books ever written about Japan. And, as Ferguson learns, it illustrates that to travel is better than to arrive.’ – Amazon blurb
A great book written in an informal style resembling Bill Bryson at times. The author managed to complete his trip Hitchhiking the length of Japan with some amusing stories along the way, and his descriptions of the country and the people he met en route made me want to see Japan outside of the main cities. What makes this book especially enjoyable is that he doesn’t gloss over the less enjoyable aspects of travelling, the rainy days, the occasional rude person etc.. His account of an evening with a WW2 veteran in Kanazawa was especially moving and still haunts a little to think of it.
This book mentions another book with a similar theme, which leads me to my next choice.
The Roads to Sata: A 2000-mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth
‘Although Alan Booth was a city person (he was brought up in London and spent most of his adult life in Tokyo) he had an extraordinary ability to capture the feel of rural Japan in his writing. Throughout his long and arduous trek, Booth encountered a variety of people who inhabit the Japanese countryside, from fishermen and soldiers, to bar hostesses and school teachers, to hermits, drunks and tramps. His wonderful and often hilarious descriptions of these encounters are the highlights of these pages, painting a multifaceted picture of Japan from the perspective of an outsider, but with the knowledge of an insider. The Roads to Sata is travel writing at its best: illuminating and disarming, poignant yet hilarious, critical but respectful. Travelling across Japan with Alan Booth, readers will enjoy the wit and insight of a uniquely perceptive guide, and more importantly, they will discover a new face of an often misunderstood nation.’ – Amazon Blurb
An English writer who had moved to Japan to study Noh theater, Booth sadly passed away in 1993 but left us with his fantastic books describing his walks through Japan, I am only mentioning ‘The Roads to Sata’ here but all of his books are worth reading.
In this particular book Booth has decided to walk the length of Japan from cape to cape (Cape Sōya to Sata), visiting Ryokan’s, Izakaya, dancing in Matsuri, and at one point joining a party of celebrating sumo wrestlers. Like Will Ferguson, Booths writing is at times funny, moving and always engaging, never sugar coating the trip but highlighting the negatives along with the positives as a good travel writer should.
Booth seemed in love with the more traditional Japan, with a vast knowledge of Japanese folk music (Tsugaru Shamisen seems to have been a favourite), and an almost endless source of information on great Japanese writers and history (I discovered Dazai because of Booth). I hope I can see a little of what he described in his writing on my trip.
Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon
‘Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation’s backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.” His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.’ – Amazon Blurb
Okay, okay, so I know this is the wrong country but this book is probably the most responsible for this whole thing, up until reading this the idea had been a fantasy, nothing firm. One day my Dad (always a source of good books), turned up with a copy of this and as usual his choice was perfect. This is Least Heat-Moon’s first book, describing his trip around America following the smaller roads marked in blue on his map, packing up everything into his van after separating from his wife (see the connection yet?) and going to see the country and its people.
Least Heat-Moon has a wonderfully descriptive way with words (his way of identifying quality diners by the quantity of calendars still amuses), and seems to bring you along with him on his journey, sharing the stories while quoting the great Walt Whitman along the way, this book was the one that made me feel I could actually get out there and make my own journey.
Three months in japan 