Hokkaido Highway Blues

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

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Hilarious insight into an enigmatic and contradictory culture - Rated
Of all the books I have read on Japan and fictional books by Japanese authors, this really seemed to best capture the people and culture. A must read!

The Whole of Japan in a Nutshell - Rated
I enjoyed this book in the same way that I have enjoyed all Bill Bryson's travel writing. A light-hearted look at the people and places with whom we share this pleasant world.
Will Ferguson is a Canadian with a very British sense of humour. He has been an English teacher in Japan for several years, when he decides it would be a good idea to follow the Cherry Blossom Front (the gradual blooming of the cherry blossom trees) from the Southernmost tip to the Northernmost tip of Japan, by hitchhiking. This feat produces some excellent and funny stories.
What I really enjoyed about this book is the way Will Ferguson describes the places he visits and the people he meets. He often includes a little history of each town, and manages to give fabulous character to all the people who pick him up (including the police!), made all the more interesting as he does speak with his 'rescuers' in Japanese.
Will Ferguson obviously loves Japan and Japanese people, with all their quirks, but at times he seems to become frustrated with feelings that Japan is a somewhat racist nation. However, he has some inevitably interesting experiences as a 'gaijin' (foreigner), something he can't get away from!
I have never been to Japan, but have known several people who have spent some years there (independently of each other), and every single one of them has loved it. I think Will Ferguson manages to convey his love for the place in his book, putting in to words the way in which people become addicted to Japan.

Funny Travel Adventure - Rated
In this travel odyssey, the author tries to hitch hike from the very bottom of main land Japan, to the very top, meeting as many people as he can.

This is a heart warming feel good story, with a true sense of adventure. The author is likable, he's not too boastful or big headed about his exploits, and it's obvious he does care a lot about Japan. Starting in the far south of Kyushu (not Okinawa...?), he follows the cherry blossoms up the entire length of the country as the flowers appear. Doing all this on the generosity of strangers, most of whom can't believe their luck to meet a foreigner! He travels to islands to study monkeys, stays with numerous families and goes on pilgrimages to temples. It paints a truly fantastic picture, I really wish I could see some photos of his journey, but there is only text, bar the map. At times it's obvious the author exaggerated, damaging the realism, and a few cringe worthy clichés occur such as when he was at Hiroshima.

Overall though it's a good read, ignore the unfinished ending, and you will find that anything is possible in Japan

A Joy.. - Rated
...extremely funny, wise & insightful.

Time after time helpful Japanese drivers advise the author that he can't hitchike across Japan as Japanese people don't stop for Hitchikers. "But you just did" fails to influence this argument.

An extensive gallery of characters and locations shed light on Japanese society & people.

As a hitchhiker might say, "Thumbs up" - Rated
What a great book. I'm only halfway through but I'm already back to order more by this witty, observant, irreverent author.

With a sharp and sometimes evil sense of humour (very Canadian, and thus very British), Ferguson documents his hitchhiking trip across Japan remarkably well. As other reviewers have pointed out, he often has a pop at the Japanese - and at his own and other nations, too. In fact, he portrays a realistic and heartfelt relationship with a country filled with contradictions, a land that has undergone such dramatic change while still retaining its identity.

This is a book I can laugh at, learn from and identify with. It's filled with thoughtful analogies, smart word-play and detailed descriptions, and suggests that all we need to be free is a backpack, a thumb and the kindheartedness of others. Read it.