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Will Ferguson

Hokkaido Highway Blues Paperback – June 1, 2001

by Will Ferguson (Author)

4.2 151 ratings

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Traces the length of Japan from south to north as it was experienced by the author on his hitchhiking tour, during which he made provocative and whimsical observations about the region, its people, and its culture. Reprint.

Print length

448 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Soho Press
Publication date

June 1, 2001
Dimensions

6 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1569472343
ISBN-13

978-1569472347
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Delightful . . . well-researched history and well-considered sociological observations are finely blended and balanced with tales of the road." -- The Boston Globe

"If Douglas Adams and P. J. O'Rourke ever had an extraterrestrial Satanic lovechild, it would probably write like Will Ferguson . . ." -- Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Will Ferguson is the author of several books, including Why I Hate Canadians.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Soho Press; Reprint edition (June 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1569472343
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1569472347
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.2 151 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

151 global ratings

5 star		61%
4 star		17%
3 star		11%
2 star		6%
1 star		6%

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Anne S Wagner

LOL Funny at moments, Hollow at others, Hard to Finish in the end.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2022

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It would be hard not to like this author. Although his sense of humor is quite different from mine, I laughed aloud & often through the first half. But something happened at almost exactly halfway that the author himself figured out and shared about three-quarters through the trip. He had chosen an undertaking that gave him (mostly) superficial connections with a variety of Japanese people, but which left him lonely, anxious to be done, & mostly spent by the end. Three places in the book, I tagged insights that provided better context (i.e., Ainu indigenous peoples), or personal musings on what this was about, that I wanted to go back & read again. This author has that capacity. But it was underutilized on this story.

Helpful

Hitchin In Japan

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2017

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There are some seminal travel books about Japan that are important in the incisive observations the authors make about Japan and its inhabitants. Perhaps, the best example of this is Donald Richie's To The Inland Sea. That being said, I would rank Alan Booth's The Roads to Sata right up there with Richie's masterpiece. In fact, it was this book that inspired a later day classic, Will Ferguson's Hokkaido Highway Blues (1998). Booth walked from Hokkaido's Cape Soya to Cape Sata in Kyushu, and Ferguson has hitch hiked from Sata to Soya during the hanami (cherry blossoming viewing) season chasing the cherry blossoms as they spread north. I'm impressed he did around the time I first came to Japan in the late 90s and I'm glad that I waited to read his account because I am now more familiar with the country and have visited many of the places that he has-however not all and some of his descriptions have identified places that I want to visit (Sado Island in Niigata and Hirosaki in Aomori, and Hakodate among others). Ferguson's tone and style are much lighter than that of Richie and Booth, but he can also make astute observations about Japan and its people. Perhaps the biggest dichotomy he analyzes is whether or not the Japanese are arrogant or insecure, a topic he brings up with some of his driving companions and to which one of drivers responds that they are both. There are many memorable passages for insights or humor and I wish I had taken note of a few more of them to illustrate what i mean. However, there many other interesting stray observations he makes like the fact that the Ainu people (indigenous to Hokkaido) were not officially Japanese citizens until 1992, he also muses on the head-scratching "Engrish" that one encounters in Japan-"Let's Coke!", and gives background on famous areas sights and traditions like bull fighting in Uwajima in Shikoku, Himeji castle in Okayama among many others. It was an entertaining and insightful book and can be considered a classic and required reading for anyone interested in Japan.

4 people found this helpful

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Christopher Fryer

One Of The Funniest Books I Have Ever Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 3, 2004

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I have lived in Japan about 8 years and have read several books about Japan. I enjoyed Booth's "The Road To Sata" but he chose to walk the whole way so he did not have as many encounters with Japanese people as Will Ferguson did (Will hitchhiked most of the way). I really enjoyed Will's witty writing style and he mentioned so many things that foreigners experience while living in Japan. Some reviewers commented that the author often makes fun of the Japanese and does not show enough respect for their culture. But I think anyone who has lived here a while has to develop a sense of humor and laugh at certain things or they will go crazy. Will pokes fun at himself quite a lot too and there are some very touching moments like when a Japanese man talks about his experience as a POW. I also recommend Dave Berry Does Japan, Learning To Bow, and The Road To Sata.

9 people found this helpful

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Sean Holland

Condescending and Poorly Written

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 15, 2013

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I live in Hokkaido and I have thoroughly enjoyed other travelogues of this same genre, notably Alan Booth's "The Roads to Sata" which I consider a classic. Eager to read another book in this same vein, I eagerly purchased this book and dove in. I couldn't bring myself to read beyond 20 or 30 pages. Basically, I failed to see why I should listen to the author. He completely fails to establish himself as an expert on anything Japanese, an able speaker of Japanese, or as someone who even seems to like Japan and Japanese people. Authors like Alan Booth and Paul Theroux (whose rail journeys through Japan are worth reading) are either professional writers, or bring weighty and learned observations to their travels. They also dedicate themselves to the journey, unlike Mr. Ferguson, who seemed to only have taken a few weeks off of work and then rushed himself north through the country. And these authors manage to be critical and witty without being condescending or rude, which Mr. Ferguson comes off as frequently. He admits on one page that his Japanese is only passable, yet seems very confident in everything that people are saying to him. I'm sorry, but this just doesn't ring true. This book doesn't deserve to be considered as a thoughtful travel chronicle; it offers the reader nothing but vapid pseudo-spiritualism and constant, unmitigated and unfunny sarcasm. Additionally, the title "Hokkaido Highway Blues" is misleading and should be revoked for someone who might one day actually write that book.

12 people found this helpful

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Tim

I love this book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 5, 2012

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In fact, I love this book so much that I've owned at least 6 or 7 copies of it (under its current name: Hitching Rides With Buddha). I keep giving it away to friends. Just ordered another two copies; one as a gift, and another for myself to KEEP.

After reading it for the first time in '06, just before deciding to move to Japan myself, I wrote to the author, Will Ferguson, and asked for his advice. He was so friendly and helpful, I was blown away. Helped me to realize that moving to Japan was definitely the thing to do at that stage in my life.

While this book may not be for everyone, it's certainly my style. Love it. Highest recommendations. (And thanks again, Will.)

6 people found this helpful

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Patrick Daley

Really great stories in here but I lost interest about 3/4 ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 1, 2017

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I think the book is a tad bit too long. Really great stories in here but I lost interest about 3/4 of the way through. If you are a hitchhiking, travel, or japanese culture enthusiast its definitely worth a read! I was very interested in how the author is treated by the Japanese people.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Natalia

Will Ferguson has managed a pretty special feat in the writing of this book - ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 20, 2016

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Will Ferguson has managed a pretty special feat in the writing of this book - he has managed to be funny and poetic in turns, and show the different facets of Japanese life by telling us about the people he meets and the places he goes on his travel from the South to the North of Japan, following the Sakura (Cherry Blossom).
This is not your usual travel book. For starters, Ferguson travels (mostly) by hitch-hiking, and therefore meets a wide variety of everyday Japanese people in his travels. The only museum he writes about is one that has a rather large stone vagina. He is in turns dismissive and exultant about Japanese culture. He is, in other words, typical of most of us who spend any time in Japan - he realise that he both loves and hates the place, and that the sooner you come to terms with this the better.

This is not your typical book about Japan, and is all the better for it. Some books written by Westerners about Japan end up being love stories written about a country that doesn't really exist. Some end up being rants about an evil empire, that similarly doesn't exist. Ferguson brings us Japan as he sees it, and to me it is believable.

And by the way - this is a very funny book. Insightful and humorous. What a bargain.

3 people found this helpful

Sarugumo

Hokkaido Highway Blues

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 11, 2010

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`Hokkaido Highway Blues' recounts one Canadian mans (Will Ferguson) journey as he hitchhikes from one end of Japan to the other as he follows the spring cherry blossoms. This starts off in the south and finishes up in the north and rather than exploring Kyoto, Tokyo and the other main cities, the route takes in more out-of-the-way destinations and a great deal of the west coast of Japan. There are some genuinely interesting anecdotes here and some good tales of the uniqueness of Japan and the Japanese, but they are all told with a certain arrogance, almost as if he looks down on the Japanese the whole time. Also to my disappointment he mentions numerous times where he was unnecessarily rude to the Japanese and whilst this may raise a cheap laugh with some readers, it didn't endear me to him at all. Examples of this are where he says he surreptitiously raises a middle finger when having his photo taken by strangers, or throwing a gift of a can of beer at a festival in the bin. There is no need for this behaviour and detracted from the book overall when I read things like this. This is fairly interesting but doesn't offer a deep insight into Japan, this is more a superficial skimming over the surface and is fine if that is what you are after. If you'd like another book of this type, but more personable and endearing overall, then I suggest Josie Dew's two Japanese travelogues which also recount a journey around the country, but without the arrogance or rudeness of Ferguson.

Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

15 people found this helpful

Hogster

Both good and bad

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 16, 2014

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I don't have much to add to what others have said. The author's relentless criticism of the japanese as insecure and arrogant seems deeply ironic as that is the impression I has of him. And it takes some talent to be so negative in the face of the wall of kindness he received from the people who gave him lifts. He can be funny and he has some interesting things to say but it was quite frustrating. His desire to be accepted by the japanese and his constant belittling of them - well, as I say, insecure and arrogant. And as a Brit I found the occasional references to my country to be snide and ill informed. Normally that would be fine - just traveller humour - but given his dismissal of the japanese as racists it did rather stick in the throat. Still, his words did seem to come from the heart. I am not sure he realised how much of his character and state of mind he was revealing when he wrote the book though. Anyway 3 stars seemed about right. He is a good writer and has some interesting things to say but he should lighten up a bit.

3 people found this helpful

H. Jones

A long wait and well worth it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 21, 2000

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I have been waiting for this book for about ten years... it was ten years ago that I first went to Japan and ever since then I have longed for someone to write about their experiences of Japan and the Japanese - not as a traveller merely passing through, but as a person who has lived and worked with the Japanese, who both can empathise with them and yet find them even more enigmatic as time goes on. This book made me laugh a lot - but knowing Will from Kumamoto days, I had expected that, but it also made me cry which shocked me to the core.
This is the first book that has articulated the feelings I have held about Japan and haven't quite been able to express as Will has: that love-hate relationship, the wabi-sabi, and for all who have lived there for any amount of time, it should strike deep chords. For those yet to go there, it is a wonderful introduction to (and preparation for) the "real" Japan, the Japan of the rice padis and red lantern restaurants, of kindness, of hypocrisy, of gaijin vs gaijin-san of the bizarre and poignant.
What I also appreciated was the background history that was entwined within the book. I certainly learnt a lot and wished I been aware of all those cultural snippets of information before I went.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to all who have had some Japan experience whole-heartedly and for those who have yet to go - take note of the konnayku reference and it will stand you in good stead for the trip!

3 people found this helpful

Clements54

Not bad

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

Don't really know what to make of this book. I'm British and go to Japan every year for around 1-3 months. I found that the author pretty much had a dig at Japanese people every moment he could in the book. I did like the little bits of history etc put in now and again. Mabey he has had alot of bad experience with the "gaijin" word but after coming here for 7 years I have never had 1 bad encounter with being foreign, yeah people stare etc and you get same American? Question but he makes it sound like a daily experience. Overall decent read, I like the way the chapters are put togther, some photos would have been good also.

One person found this helpful

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Hokkaido Highway Blues Paperback – June 1, 2001

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