Hokkaido Highway Blues

Author : Will Ferguson
Publisher : Canongate Books
ISBN 13 : 1841952885
Total Pages : 9 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hokkaido Highway Blues written by Will Ferguson and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Alan Booth
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141992859
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Roads to Sata written by Alan Booth and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A memorable, oddly beautiful book' Wall Street Journal 'A marvellous glimpse of the Japan that rarely peeks through the country's public image' Washington Post One sunny spring morning in the 1970s, an unlikely Englishman set out on a pilgrimage that would take him across the entire length of Japan. Travelling only along small back roads, Alan Booth travelled on foot from Soya, the country's northernmost tip, to Sata in the extreme south, traversing three islands and some 2,000 miles of rural Japan. His mission: 'to come to grips with the business of living here,' after having spent most of his adult life in Tokyo. The Roads to Sata is a wry, witty, inimitable account of that prodigious trek, vividly revealing the reality of life in off-the-tourist-track Japan. Journeying alongside Booth, we encounter the wide variety of people who inhabit the Japanese countryside - from fishermen and soldiers, to bar hostesses and school teachers, to hermits, drunks and the homeless. We glimpse vast stretches of coastline and rambling townscapes, mountains and motorways; watch baseball games and sunrises; sample trout and Kilamanjaro beer, hear folklore, poems and smutty jokes. Throughout, we enjoy the wit and insight of a uniquely perceptive guide, and more importantly, discover a new face of an often-misunderstood nation.

Author : Will Ferguson
Publisher : Boston : C.E. Tuttle
ISBN 13 : 9780804820684
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan written by Will Ferguson and published by Boston : C.E. Tuttle. This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This budget-oriented travel guide intoduces hitching as the way to travel cheaply in Japan. The author gives advice on etiquette and strategies, provides hitchiking itineraries, and cross-references the itineraries with an English-language Japanese road atlas.

Author : Will Ferguson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781569472347
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hokkaido Highway Blues written by Will Ferguson and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hitchhiking may be an ancient mode of travel but in Japan it is considered folly. Which is precisely its attraction to henna gaijin ("weird foreigner") Will Ferguson, who is determined to thumb the entire length of the country following sakura - the surge of cherry blossoms that each year ignites the landscape. Starting out from tropical Cape Sata, the small southernmost metropolis where gardeners dust volcanic ash from their flowers, he heads north for distant Hokkaido, still snow laden. It is a journey full of hilarious misadventures and revelations. Whether Ferguson is doing the forbidden and not knowing it, or holding "conversations by non sequitur," he experiences Japan in unusual and even profound ways.

Author : Sam Baldwin
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781467924146
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book For Fukui's Sake written by Sam Baldwin and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-11-19 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Witty and highly entertaining; a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary Japanese people' - Helen Arnold, 1001 Escapes 'Jocular and candid; essential reading for backpackers and Japanophiles' - Ginny Light, former online editor, The Times 'Really evokes that excitement of 'discovering' Japan for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it'- Jan Dodd, Rough Guide To Japan 'A fascinating journey and call to action' - Mark Hodson, writer, Sunday Times Far from the high-tech, high-rise of the super-cities, there lies another Japan. A Japan where snakes slither down school corridors, where bears prowl dark forests and where Westerners are still regarded as curious creatures. Welcome to the world of the inaka - the Japanese countryside. Unhappily employed in the UK, Sam Baldwin decides to make a big change. Saying sayonara to laboratory life, he takes a job as an English teacher on the JET Programme in a small, rural Japanese town that no one - the Japanese included - has ever heard of. Arriving in Fukui, where there's 'little reason to linger' according to the guidebook, at first he wonders why he left England. But as he slowly settles in to his unfamiliar new home, Sam befriends a colourful cast of locals and begins to discover the secrets of this little known region. Helped by headmasters, housewives and Himalayan mountain climbers, he immerses himself in a Japan still clutching its pastoral past and uncovers a landscape of lonely lakes, rice fields and lush mountain forests. Joining a master drummer's taiko class, skiing over paddies and learning how to sharpen samurai swords, along the way Sam encounters farmers, fishermen and foreigners behaving badly. Exploring Japan's culture and cuisine, as well as its wild places and wildlife, For Fukui's Sake is an adventurous, humorous and sometimes poignant insight into the frustrations and fascinations that face an outsider living in small town, backcountry Japan. For more info see: ForFukuisSake.com

Author : Bruce Feiler
Publisher : Zondervan
ISBN 13 : 0061863599
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Learning to Bow written by Bruce Feiler and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learning to Bow has been heralded as one of the funniest, liveliest, and most insightful books ever written about the clash of cultures between America and Japan. With warmth and candor, Bruce Feiler recounts the year he spent as a teacher in a small rural town. Beginning with a ritual outdoor bath and culminating in an all-night trek to the top of Mt. Fuji, Feiler teaches his students about American culture, while they teach him everything from how to properly address an envelope to how to date a Japanese girl.

Author : David Pilling
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143126954
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bending Adversity written by David Pilling and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A]n excellent book...” —The Economist Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling's Bending Adversity captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan. Pilling’s exploration begins with the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. His deep reporting reveals both Japan’s vulnerabilities and its resilience and pushes him to understand the country’s past through cycles of crisis and reconstruction. Japan’s survivalist mentality has carried it through tremendous hardship, but is also the source of great destruction: It was the nineteenth-century struggle to ward off colonial intent that resulted in Japan’s own imperial endeavor, culminating in the devastation of World War II. Even the postwar economic miracle—the manufacturing and commerce explosion that brought unprecedented economic growth and earned Japan international clout might have been a less pure victory than it seemed. In Bending Adversity Pilling questions what was lost in the country’s blind, aborted climb to #1. With the same rigor, he revisits 1990—the year the economic bubble burst, and the beginning of Japan’s “lost decades”—to ask if the turning point might be viewed differently. While financial struggle and national debt are a reality, post-growth Japan has also successfully maintained a stable standard of living and social cohesion. And while life has become less certain, opportunities—in particular for the young and for women—have diversified. Still, Japan is in many ways a country in recovery, working to find a way forward after the events of 2011 and decades of slow growth. Bending Adversity closes with a reflection on what the 2012 reelection of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and his radical antideflation policy, might mean for Japan and its future. Informed throughout by the insights shared by Pilling’s many interview subjects, Bending Adversity rigorously engages with the social, spiritual, financial, and political life of Japan to create a more nuanced representation of the oft-misunderstood island nation and its people. The Financial Times “David Pilling quotes a visiting MP from northern England, dazzled by Tokyo’s lights and awed by its bustling prosperity: ‘If this is a recession, I want one.’ Not the least of the merits of Pilling’s hugely enjoyable and perceptive book on Japan is that he places the denunciations of two allegedly “lost decades” in the context of what the country is really like and its actual achievements.” The Telegraph (UK) “Pilling, the Asia editor of the Financial Times, is perfectly placed to be our guide, and his insights are a real rarity when very few Western journalists communicate the essence of the world’s third-largest economy in anything but the most superficial ways. Here, there is a terrific selection of interview subjects mixed with great reportage and fact selection... he does get people to say wonderful things. The novelist Haruki Murakami tells him: “When we were rich, I hated this country”... well-written... valuable.” Publishers Weekly (starred): "A probing and insightful portrait of contemporary Japan."

Author : Iain Maloney
Publisher : Birlinn Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1788852591
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Only Gaijin in the Village written by Iain Maloney and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2016 Scottish writer Iain Maloney and his Japanese wife Minori moved to a village in rural Japan. This is the story of his attempt to fit in, be accepted and fulfil his duties as a member of the community, despite being the only foreigner in the village. Even after more than a decade living in Japan and learning the language, life in the countryside was a culture shock. Due to increasing numbers of young people moving to the cities in search of work, there are fewer rural residents under the retirement age – and they have two things in abundance: time and curiosity. Iain's attempts at amateur farming, basic gardening and DIY are conducted under the watchful eye of his neighbours and wife. But curtain twitching is the least of his problems. The threat of potential missile strikes and earthquakes is nothing compared to the venomous snakes, terrifying centipedes and bees the size of small birds that stalk Iain's garden. Told with self-deprecating humour, this memoir gives a fascinating insight into a side of Japan rarely seen and affirms the positive benefits of immigration for the individual and the community. It's not always easy being the only gaijin in the village.

Author : Takaaki Nomura
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780916291570
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Grandpa's Town written by Takaaki Nomura and published by . This book was released on 1995-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young Japanese boy, worried that his grandfather is lonely, accompanies him to the public bath.

Author : Will Ferguson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470676787
Total Pages : 535 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Canadian History For Dummies written by Will Ferguson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-10-15 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wild ride through Canadian history, fully revised and updated! This new edition of Canadian History For Dummies takes readers on a thrilling ride through Canadian history, from indigenous native cultures and early French and British settlements through Paul Martin's shaky minority government. This timely update features all the latest, up-to-the-minute findings in historical and archeological research. In his trademark irreverent style, Will Ferguson celebrates Canada's double-gold in hockey at the 2002 Olympics, investigates Jean Chrétien's decision not to participate in the war in Iraq, and dissects the recent sponsorship scandal.