Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan

I discovered this work through someone else's blog- they quoted a passage and I found it intriguing, so I took a screen shot of the quote and forgot about it. Several months later (now), I was going through various photos and found it again. Faced with a shortage of reading material (can you tell?) I decided to borrow it from my local library. One problem: my library didn't have it. Okay, so I borrow it from a slightly less local library. No. Not available. In the end, this book came to me from Kansas. So, thank you Kansas.

I began reading Will Ferguson's travel memoir with the vague idea that he probably taught English in Japan via JET. I was right, as I discovered several hundred pages into the book. With that in mind, I understood a bit of which foreigner's culture he came from.

Ferguson had drunkenly proclaimed during one hanami party (that's a sakura, or cherry blossom viewing party...often involves lots of alcohol) that he would like to hitchhike Japan from the southern tip to the northern-most point, following the Cherry Blossom Front. Having successfully managed to avoid making good on this for some years, he is finally encouraged? coerced? into it. He begins.

Ferguson clearly knows and loves Japan with the semi-unrequited love that only a "gaijin", or foreigner, truly understands. One is in Japan, but one can never really be a part of it, not being Japanese. Being white, especially, marks one as an outsider. It's a flag that shouts "Hey! American here!", even though one may be, say, Canadian (which Ferguson is). Ferguson mostly makes the best of his situation, and peppers his travel dialogue with sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, sometimes a mixture of both, anecdotes.

It was excellent. I laughed out loud frequently, which meant I then had to re-read portions and passages for a now-interested audience. Ferguson handled his journey with some tenderness and taste. He copes with his feelings as he does with the feelings of others. When I reached the end of his account, I wanted more- it leaves him stranded! How did he get back? What did his supervisors say? Dangit, Will, you've left me wanting. (Ohhhh, is that a statement?)

I do not hesitate to recommend this book. That being said, due to complexity of themes and whatnot, I recommend it for those aged 14+, or those of exceptional maturity. One does not need to be familiar with Japan or the JET program. One only needs an interest in travel and humanity.

Blue

First Test

Alanna of Trebond had to disguise herself as a boy to become a knight. Once Jonathan took the throne, a proclamation was decreed allowing women to become knights. It's been ten years, and now a young woman has stepped forth. Keladry of Mindelan. Except she's being put on probation for a year to prove she can keep up with the boys. How's that fair?

Yet, Keladrey (Kel) accepts those terms. A young woman, with no magical gift, will prove to the kingdom, that any woman who wants to be a knight can. This book is in the same flavor as the Alanna series.

Brown

Jurassic Park

I've been going through my books, trying to pair them down to my favorites, anticipating much movement in my future. So that means rereading everything I have. And let me say this to start, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is staying with my collection.

Crichton opens us to the world of genetics through the cloning of dinosaurs. (Oh, come on, like the word Jurassic didn't give that away?). If you've seen the movie, you've gotten the gist of the story. A group of people go to an island to look a future park over. All hell breaks loose. But in the book, closer to what would happen in reality, they kept trying to put things back together. So, you see them continually facing new problems head on and for the most part fixing them.

And through it all, no one seemed to loose the wonderment that dinosaurs gave them. In fact, the scientists kept wanting to know more. That seemed to be a theme of the book. That scientists want to keep gaining knowledge, no matter the cost, to the point that they aren't rational or moral creatures thinking about whether they should or not go further.