Rating: 
Summary: funny and informative look at Japan
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I won't lie to you the reader of this review and say it was the ultimate book one should get on Japan, that it answered every question I had about that nation, but I did learn a lot and it was very funny at times. It is not as one might guess a serious scholarly account of the nation, but it is a fun travelogue. The author, Will Ferguson, was an English teacher living in southern Japan and gets the idea one (drunken) evening at a hanami (cherry blossom party) to follow the Sakura Zensen (the "Cherry Blossom Front") as it advanced from south to north through the country with the approaching spring. Further, he had the idea to hitchhike the entire time, avoiding trains, planes, and buses (though in a few cases he had to take a public ferry to get from one island to another). Beginning at Cape Sata in southernmost Kyushu, he made it all the way to Cape Soya in Hokkaido (and then afterwards to nearby Rishiri Island). Though having lived in the country for several years and having become fairly proficient in Japanese, Ferguson is still cleary the outsider, the gaijin, and writes in his travels that he will always be the outsider, perhaps welcomed, even liked, but never truly excepted (and in some instances very unwelcome). Though he may develop friendships and even romantic interests with Japanese people, he will always be clearly not Japanese in their eyes. Ferguson shows that in some cases in the book this prevented him from really either understanding or participating in some things, while in other instances it allowed him access to people's thoughts, emotions, and homes, access that a native Japanese person would not have had. The author writes of many fascinating, informative, and sometimes hilarious stories and ancedotes on a variety of topics, such as the size, structure, and decoration of Japanese homes, Godzilla and his fandom (with one city begging to be demolished in the next movie), sumo wrestling, Japanese attempts at making coffee, the yamabushi (strange mystic mountain men), Shintoism and shinto shrines, the famous Bridge of Heaven (a tourist attraction best viewed he writes by turning around, bending over, and looking at from between your legs according to tradition), Japanese monkeys, and love hotels. This book was a lot of fun, one I would recommend to anyone interested in Japan or just nicely done, humorous travel writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of Tune
Review: I think I would have liked this book better had I read it before I lived in Japan for 7 1/2 years. Then I wouldn't have nitpicked it so much. However since I did, I must say that it is the little things about this book that bothered me. I appreciated his humorous explanation of his fluency and how he dealt with it in the book, but then later in the book, it really seemed as if he believed his own bull...er...PR. I don't know Mr. Ferguson's fluency, but from his description it is close to my own, and based upon that I highly doubt that everything that he insists was said actually was. The author tries very hard to pass himself off as the consummate Japan expert. That's fine, if it's true, but if it's not, it is merely annoying and distracting to catch him in an error. Just as an example, he mistakenly claims that the Northern Japan Alps are located in Tohoku. During the 4 1/2 years I lived in Nagano, I saw the Northern Japan Alps every day, and they are not anywhere near Tohoku. This would have been easier to take had Mr. Ferguson showed a bit more humility and not come across as such a know-it-all. Finally, the author's dealings with women really angered and disgusted me. He laments his inability to find love, but he never really considers that he might be part of the problem. He is so in love with himself that there is no room in his heart for anyone else. Having said all that, the book is better than a lot of other books that I have read in this genre. It's not Learning to Bow, but it is also not as bad as every book with "Fuji" in the title either.
Rating:
Summary: Immensely enjoyable read
Review: I'm still in the middle of this book at the moment, but I'm having such a wonderful time reading it that I felt like I had to jump in with a comment. Ferguson is frank and blunt, but has a wonderful sense of humor. He's far from easy on the Japanese in his assessment of them, yet every observation is so personal and thoughtful that you're convinced his thoughts are motivated by only the most wholesome love and concern for the country. This is a light read and moves quickly -- chapters are short and to the point, so it is easy to pick up and put down. Well, putting it down is sometimes tough...
Rating: 
Summary: A book of two halves
Review: In a moment of drunken inspiration author Will Ferguson decides that he is going to hitchhike the length of Japan following the cherry blossom front because, well he doesn't know because, alcohol does that to you sometimes. But from this moment of inspiration comes this funny and thoughtful book. A resident in Japan, teaching English, Ferguson illuminates the nuances of Japanese custom and culture in a manner reminiscent of the great humourist PJ O'Rourke such that he has the reader (or this one at least) laughing out loud at frequent intervals. This is in the first half of the book however. As the author's journey progresses the humour does thin out to be replaced by more serious observations and reflections. It is most definitely a book of two halves and whilst each facet is good on it's own I found myself wishing that the book was either one or the other kind of travelogue. That aside the book is well worth reading and I will definitely keep my eye open for more by this author. If you like travelogues of Japan then people who enjoyed this may enjoy "A Ride in the Neon Sun" by Josie Dew and if you like travelogues caused by moments of mad inspiration then Tony Hawks' "Round Ireland With a Fridge" (which is exactly what it says) will definitely fit the bill.
Rating:
Summary: The new standard for travel books on Japan...
Review: In the 80's it seemed that almost any foreigner who spent much time in Japan felt obliged to write a book about their experiences. This lead to a lot of dull, pithy, pedestrian writing in which the same standard Japan cliches and themes were raised again and again to the point where self-parody became a real danger. Many of these works amount to little more than the product of a writer's conceit in having been published. However, the best travel book I have ever read on Japan has just been published: 'Hokkaido Highway Blues' by Will Ferguson. in 1996, Ferguson hitchiked the length of Japan, hardly a feat worthy of the 'extreme' category of travel writing currently in vogue, but certainly of interest to those of us who have spent time in foreign locales of no particular touristicattractions and have admired them precisely because of their normalcy- as a microcosm of the country at large. Ferguson spends much time in such locales nominally following the cherry blossom front from the southernmost point of Kyushu, up the lesser known Japan Sea side of Japan to the northern tip of Hokkaido. Along the way Ferguson converses and interacts with drunken truck drivers, high-school aged fisherman, sporty hedonistic new people, possible gangsters, overbearing intellectuals- a piece of Japanese society at large. This is also a book that shows Ferguson to be an articulate, perceptive and very witty writer. Ferguson can paint words with the tender strokes of an impressionist only to be followed by Dave Barry-like ironies and double entendres. Ferguson is aware of the Japan cliches and stereotypes but does not ignore them. He calls a spade a spade when necessary but invariably with great wit and insight. On worn out cliches he is savvy enough to provide new perspectives that are enlightening yet not encumbering the reader with dull, indulgent academia. Ferguson displays an inner understanding of Japan that matches Alan Booth ('The Roads To Sata'-hitherto considered THE travel writer on Japan) and far outdistancing the myriad sophomoric writers of the late 80's (including Pico Iyer's highly literate but maudlin and fanciful ' The Monk and the Lady'). Ferguson seeks not only to grumble but to praise Japan, and always with both incisive anecdotes on the state of modern Japan plus humourous self-parody of the 'gaijin'. Particularly funny are the situations in which Ferguson, a Canadian, is automatically deemed to be American everywhere he goes despite protestations to the contrary. This allows Ferguson to take some lighthearted jabs at both the U.S. and Britain while acting as a kind of underhanded, tongue-in-cheek Canadian ambassador. Thankfully, unlike Booth and Iyer, Ferguson does not seem to take himself so seriously . Perhaps that which is most endearing about Ferguson to the reader, is that he is 'one of us', a run-of-the-mill expat, in his case as an language teacher at a remote Japanese high school who spent several years in Kumamoto (one who can really WRITE however). He is knowledgable enough about Japan and the language without falling into the common expat writer's trap of becoming a know-it-all pedant. I highly recommend this book to any foreigners living in Japan, to Japanese people who can read English, anyone who has lived in Japan and anyone about to come- in short, just about anybody with an interest in Japan.
Rating: 
Summary: Oi! Gaijin!
Review: Not a book I'd want to read before visiting Japan for the first time. The picture he paints of Japanese attitudes to foreigners is quite disturbing. I'd have to question its accuracy though. In six years, I haven't encountered half of what Ferguson goes through by the time he's reached Shikoku: Japan No. 1, Japan No. 1....Oi! Gaijin! Oi! No adult, drunk or sober, has ever addressed me as Gaijin-san, let alone Gaijin. A certain amount of license with the truth can be granted a writer who's playing for laughs, but the constant "they must see me as so weird" hand-wringing numbs the mind after a few chapters, some occasionally amusing writing aside. Next it's off the the temple or shrine, where the wide-eyed author seems to find inner peace and comes closest to understanding the meaning of his journey. Perhaps it is unfair to compare writing at this level with Bill Bryson (quoted on the cover of my edition), but I always appreciated the latter for his lack of spirituality and steadfast refusal to dignify his meanderings with cornflake-box psychology. Read and cringe: "That night, I dreamt I was hitching rides with Buddha. We were standing on a highway flooded with flowers. When we held out our hands, pebbles fell from our palms" "In a rush of emotion, I realized that far from being a circle, I was charting a linear, prosaic course. It dogged me the entire way, the sense that the path I was following was dishonest, or - at the very least - flawed." "an 84 year old man, a pilgrim, walked out onto the deck and, quietly, unobtrusively, slipped away. His name was Ichikawa Danzo VIII, a Kabuki actor of note, and in his death he gave his last and greatest performance, a performance that would assure him immortality."
Rating:
Summary: Too clever for his own good
Review: Overall, I liked it. What others found as complaining, came across as justifiable frustration to me. I skipped over his tangents; the fifth star is subtracted for occasional pomposity.
Rating:
Summary: Explains what its like out here perfectly
Review: Simply put, this book explains what its like to be a westerner teaching English in Japan better than any book on the market right now. The entertainment value of the book varies depending on what region he's in (tohoku is a snooze), but altogether I found myself laughing out loud on almost every page. Nothing explains it all better. I disagree with the reviewers above regarding some of their criticisms. For the reviewer above to say he has never had a japanese person call him "gaijin" is for him to say that he has never dealt with a belligerent drunk here. Drunks get antagonistic and racial with less frequency out here than in many other countries, but like everywhere else it certainly happens. As to the charge that"based on his description of his japanese ability it isnt much better than mine, so I doubt these conversations could have happened"- there are people that say they speak a bit of japanese but cant really communicate much, and people that will tell you their japanese isnt so good and actually speak a great deal more. I think Ferguson is just more modest about his Japanese than anything else. I know several foreigners that build up huge vocabularies over the years -more than enough to understand the kinds of things said in this book- without gaining enough of an understanding of the grammar to speak it with fluency. I found it refreshing that he joked about his clumsiness with it in the first place rather than trying to give the impression of speaking it perfectly, which i suspect some other travel writers do. The only weakness I can think of is that my friends that haven't been out here never find it anywhere near as classic as those that have. Also, while Ferguson usually writes straight humor, this book is filled with a lot of very personal introspections about being on the road alone in a strange country. Many people don't mind, but If you havent done this kind of thing yourself, these parts of the book might bore you or strike you as over-emotional.
Rating:
Summary: Explains what its like out here perfectly
Review: Simply put, this book explains what its like to be a westerner teaching English in Japan better than any book on the market right now. The entertainment value of the book varies depending on what region he's in (tohoku is a snooze), but altogether I found myself laughing out loud on almost every page. Nothing explains it all better. I disagree with the reviewers above regarding some of their criticisms. For the reviewer above to say he has never had a japanese person call him "gaijin" is for him to say that he has never dealt with a belligerent drunk here. Drunks get antagonistic and racial with less frequency out here than in many other countries, but like everywhere else it certainly happens. As to the charge that"based on his description of his japanese ability it isnt much better than mine, so I doubt these conversations could have happened"- there are people that say they speak a bit of japanese but cant really communicate much, and people that will tell you their japanese isnt so good and actually speak a great deal more. I think Ferguson is just more modest about his Japanese than anything else. I know several foreigners that build up huge vocabularies over the years -more than enough to understand the kinds of things said in this book- without gaining enough of an understanding of the grammar to speak it with fluency. I found it refreshing that he joked about his clumsiness with it in the first place rather than trying to give the impression of speaking it perfectly, which i suspect some other travel writers do. The only weakness I can think of is that my friends that haven't been out here never find it anywhere near as classic as those that have. Also, while Ferguson usually writes straight humor, this book is filled with a lot of very personal introspections about being on the road alone in a strange country. Many people don't mind, but If you havent done this kind of thing yourself, these parts of the book might bore you or strike you as over-emotional.
Rating:
Summary: funny, touching, an all around great read
Review: Since applying to the JET program, I've been reading quite a few books about Japan. Will Ferguson's "Hokkaido Highway Blues" is definitely my favorite narrative. Ferguson doesn't take himself (or the people he meets) too seriously. Much of the book is very amusing and there were points where I found myself laughing out loud. It isn't all fun and games though - Ferguson reflects on feeling like an outsider and knowing that he can never truly belong in Japan. For those of us considering living in Japan, I think this book presents both the fun and celebrity of being a westerner in Japan and the harsh reality of being on display.
| 
