Full name: Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan

Author: Will Ferguson Year: 1998 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Travel, Non Fiction, Humor Cultures: Japan, Asia, Canada Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads OpenLibrary Amazon Google Books LibraryThing ISBNs: 9781841952888 1841952885

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. Similar books: Looking for the Lost by Alan Booth The Roads to Sata by Alan Booth The Inland Sea by Donald Richie Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird Lost Japan by Alex Kerr The Lady and the Monk by Pico Iyer On the Narrow Road by Lesley Downer A Ride in the Neon Sun by Josie Dew A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson Japanland by Karin Muller Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey Learning to Bow by Bruce Feiler Road Fever by Tim Cahill No Touch Monkey! by Ayun Halliday Pictures from the Water Trade by John David Morley Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw by Will Ferguson Free Country by George Mahood Diary of a Pilgrimage by Jerome K. Jerome Stuff Parisians Like by Olivier Magny