| The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan (Origami Classroom) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 30 reviews)
Sales Rank: 284809
Category: Book
Author: Alan Booth
Publisher: Kodansha Globe
Studio: Kodansha Globe
Manufacturer: Kodansha Globe
Label: Kodansha Globe
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.7
ISBN: 1568361874
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9781568361871
ASIN: 1568361874
Publication Date: August 14, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
ALAN BOOTH'S CLASSIC OF MODERN TRAVEL WRITING
Traveling only along small back roads, Alan Booth traversed Japan's entire length on foot, from Soya at the country's northernmost tip, to Cape Sata in the extreme south, across three islands and some 2,000 miles of rural Japan. The Roads to Sata is his wry, witty, inimitable account of that prodigious trek.
Although he was a city person-he was brought up in London and spent most of his adult life in Tokyo - Booth had an extraordinary ability to capture the feel of rural Japan in his writing. Throughout his long and arduous trek, he encountered a variety of people who inhabit the Japanese countryside-from fishermen and soldiers, to bar hostesses and school teachers, to hermits, drunks, and tramps. His wonderful and often hilarious descriptions of these encounters are the highlights of these pages, painting a multifaceted picture of Japan from the perspective of an outsider, but with the knowledge of an insider.
The Roads to Sata is travel writing at its best, illuminating and disarming, poignant yet hilarious, critical but respectful. Traveling across Japan with Alan Booth, readers will enjoy the wit and insight of a uniquely perceptive guide, and more importantly, they will discover a new face of an often misunderstood nation.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Great look into the contradictions of Japan August 31, 2008
I really enjoyed this book and was easily able to digest it in a weekend. I never wanted to put it down as there was always something around the next bend.
The author does an incredibly good job at looking at japan from an unbiased perspective. He grumbles about kids yelling at him as he hikes, yet he write affectionately about loving obasan's at the ryokans. I enjoyed the humor within, but i admit it may not be for everyone, i mean he does have the British sense of humor.
While the book may be 20 years old i think it provides a good glimpse at the constant contradictions of japan. How polite Japanese people may be, but how they subconsciously look down on other countries (don't we all have our national pride?). Of the "foreigner in japan" books I've read this is THE best. Others may praise Japan, some may despise Japan, Booth experiences Japan.
space for nuance July 27, 2008
Although the journey was a long one (128 days) Booth's 'The Roads to Sata' has been a pleasure to read.
It wasn't a series of long easing soaks, like Booth had in the many hot spas he rested his aching limbs in; it wasn't all singing and laughing, though he sung traditional songs to strangers; or partying, although he did do this with a team of sumo wrestlers; but it had these sweet and funny moments peppered all through it.
This is an unaffected and unpretentious account of his experience and included the awkward tourist moments when he could understand what people were saying about him in Japanese, and was tired of being alienated as a 'gaijin' (foreigner); the strains and cramps he experienced physically; the satisfaction he took in drinking beer; the subtle observations of the lives and the people he encountered, mixed in with moments of self-deprecation and facts.
What perhaps did occur, but which is not present in this travel log, is the time the author spent in self-reflection and what was emotionally driving him. Little is mentioned about why Booth chose to walk the length of Japan. It is not until the end that it become transparent that it is with a view to getting to know Japan and the Japanese better, after having spent many years living in Tokyo (and having married a Japanese woman). Perhaps he wanted greater immersion in this country he felt 'at home' in; which had embraced him, and to feel less like a tourist.
'I like festivals where tourists are not important, festivals where they'd just as soon as tourists didn't come.' (p77)
'"People round here have got a passion for languages," she explained, unwrapping the beef she had rushed out to buy because no foreigner, whether Japanese-speaking or not, could possibly digest fish.' (p194)
Booth's diary of his trek across Japan is as much an insight into traditional and modern Japanese life and people and of what is deftly left unsaid until the end; what understanding is gained by experience and what might always remain slightly out of reach.
'"How do you suggest I try to understand Japan, then?" I asked him. He seemed surprised by the question, and a little hurt, and a little angry. "You can't understand Japan," he said.' (p281)
 forget it June 4, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
i was looking for a book that would help to fulfil my dream of going to live and work in Japan. But this book doesn't do the job. For one thing it's over 20 years old now. So its present day relevance is mostly irrelevant I think. Plus it is also written in a style that always seems to depict the author as a foreigner helplessly excluded from all that he could have embraced so more positively. If it was meant to be humorous or even enjoyably cynical, it wasn't.
 Outstanding January 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Even better than 'Looking For The Lost,' 'The Roads To Sata' is a profoundly honest and deeply charming look into a Japan that few people see and even fewer ever understand. Not afraid to hit where it hurts when necessary, Mr Booth's book is still relevant, even 20 years later, and remains one of the best travel books ever written about Japan. Defiantly candid and often very funny, Mr Booth reveals a Japan quite different to the one most people who've never been there probably imagine, but his insights are spot-on and his honesty is refreshing and fair. Highly recommended.
Funny, sad, touching, real... December 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Alan Booth decided to go from Cape Soya in the North to Cape Sata in the South. A journey of more than 2,000 miles. But not only did he decide to walk the whole way he also decides to stick to the back roads, the rural areas of Japan, to get in touch with the real Japan and to stay only in Japanese style inns. In some places he is treated like family and in other places like an invader. After spending seven years in Japan, having a Japanese wife and learning about Japan you would think a walk, even if it is a hard one, would not be so bad. But in some cases it is terrible.
He runs into silent tramps, barking dogs, snotty high school boys, polite high school girls, nervous inn keepers, loud businessmen and giggling maids. He makes mistakes, he founds wonderful discoveries and he founds sad scenes of life and death in 20th Century Japan. Did he learn anything? No. Did he enjoy himself? Yes. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, much of the time he was treated like a foreigner.
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