Product Description

It had never been done before. Not in 2,000 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29144 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
There are two common starting points for travelogues. One is a desire to pursue ancestral roots. The other is a drunken bet. Hokkaido Highway Blues is the latter. After too much saké, Canadian travel writer and English teacher Will Ferguson finds himself following the Cherry Blossom Front, the route Japan's celebrated pink sakura follows. It announces spring, flowering in a wave from the southern tip Cape Sata, through Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido islands, to Northern extremity Cape Soya.

Zen says that, "To travel is better than to arrive". This is something people Ferguson encounters cannot comprehend. They offer to pay his train fare. People tell him the journey is impossible, since Japanese never pick-up hitchhikers. Naturally, they're wrong. "When you are a hitchhiker, people spill their lives into your lap," Ferguson says, "because the hitchhiker is a stranger, a fleeting guest, a temporary confidant". He meets tens of fascinating characters, from priests to golf enthusiasts. Their stories are used to explore Japanese culture better than a guidebook, from Shinto to sea gods, pachinko to senpai/kohai (teacher/student roles).

Ferguson, also author of The Hitchhikers Guide To Japan, clearly has a deep knowledge and passion for the country. He's an eloquent writer and his monologue is poetic and spiritual (though with plenty of cheap jokes too). It explores the massive and mysterious country beyond Tokyo, a magical fairyland of monkey islands, wild ponies, active volcanoes, hills, golf courses, beaches and gambling towns. --Sarah Champion

From the Back Cover
The book follows Will Ferguson as he hitchhikes 1,800 miles north through Japan following the Cherry Blossom Front (Sakura Zensen). The arrival of the blossom is a national event in Japan, eagerly tracked on television bulletins, and besides marking the end of winter and the start of the business cycle it facilitates a burst of heavy drinking disguised as a communal meditation on transience.

Surveying the country from the not quite private, not quite public, position of the passenger seat, Ferguson sees the Japan not written about in guide books, but gets to the heart of this intriguing and contradictory country. This is a laugh out loud, warm-hearted account with a generous helping of satire.

About the Author
WILL FERGUSON was born and raised in the former fur-trapping settlement of Fort Vermilion in the backwoods of northern Canada. Fortunately, he managed to escape, and he has since travelled throughout Latin America and East Asia. Indeed, he prides himself on having gotten utterly and hopelessly lost in more than a dozen exotic locales.

Customer Reviews

The Real Japan
This is not some bland eulogy to Japan (which disappoints some reviewers); instead, this book is a warts-and-all travelogue that any serious expat who has lived in Japan will readily be able to identify with. The author perfectly represents (through his writing) the love/hate relationship that most people who stay in Japan for any length of time do end up having. He has a great eye for detail and his writing is both insightful and witty; his style is also highly readable and there is no shortage of 'laugh out loud' moments.

This is not a 'Frommers guide' for the well-heeled tourist, it's written by a hitchhiker! So reviewers moaning that the author has a negative attitude to Japan are completely missing the point and should re-read the preface (i.e. you are told quite clearly that it's irreverent and that this is not some dull, politically correct travel guide)! If you want something anodyne, go to a travel agent and get yourself a glossy brochure instead!

At times self-deprecating and always funny, this is a great read and will really help the reader to get 'under the skin' of Japanese society, moving beyond the usual clichés. It is also a perfect primer for would-be English teachers to read before they go out! (I wish I'd read it before I went!) And even if you don't know anything about Japan and don't plan to visit, it's a very engaging travelogue in its own right. If you liked Lost in Translation, you will also love this book!

Highly recommended.

touching, lyrical and eye-milkingly funny
The author of this book tries to disguise what is a charming journey of self discovery, in his dry wit and sharp, honest observation. To some extent he succeeds and I get the feeling that many will read the book on comical merit alone. However there is richer content than the (wholly rewarding) humour. The book goes some way to describe Japan in contrast to the way the world depicts it. Before I read this book I was under the concrete impression that all of Japan is like Tokyo - a soul-less metropolis, rife with crime etc etc, but the book reminds us that Japan is a country with a vast, diverse history - and one which clings onto its heritage with desperation and sometimes hypocrisy. I love the authors dry, appropriate (and unfinished) haikus. Anyone with a little knowledge of Japanese society will laugh on every page, at the extreme (and ridiculous) politeness and apologitic nature of the japanese strangers he encounters. I love the authors self-deridation, such as remembering the moment in a bar where a Japanese lady asks him 'how ever did you get so fat!' - a question in Japan that holds no social taboo as it does in the west. Im so glad I bought this book as it has healed my love of Japan.

Pure Bliss
Hokkaido Highway isn't your cliched romatic view of Japan or then again any other country but an honest view from a man who clearly loves Japan for it's good and it's bad.
Some people see his negative aspects of this country as "pokes" but I believe this is just the authors blatant honesty something that some people can only see as negative due to their pure adoration for Japan.
This is a perfect book for the pure lover of Japan or just someone who fancies a interesting insight into a new country with plenty of laughs, perfect holiday literature.