I started reading this book because of the amount of people that describe it as a 'must read' for Japan travel enthusiasts or in general, people that feel curious about the country and its people.

I have to say that whatever joy Alan Booth (the author) may have felt upon his trip, little of it got reflected in his book. Though he travels across some interesting and mostly unknown places for foreigners, he barely describes anything at all, and resorts to complaining.

He complains about his wet socks, his blistered hands, his horrible thirst, the way he gets treated like a circus monkey across the whole trip... Very few times does he refer to the beauty of whatever he is seeing, barely describes anything beyond the most basic characteristics of each place.

He does do a remarkable job at explaining certain cultural elements and History of Japan, but his interactions with people seem oddly empty and completely fueled by sake, racism and beer. An unholy amount of beer. There's beer mentioned almost in every page, in such a way that made me wonder if the man ever drank water at all.

I liked the fact that the book doesn't portray Japan as a land of rainbows and sunshine, full of wise people and deep thoughts, but focusing only in the litter, the contamination and the lack of hospitality (there are several instances in which he gets helped or shown acts of kindness but he barely bothers addressing them at all) makes it seem that he did the 2000 miles with a gun pointed to his head. He also has a weird way of talking about the young women that he encounters along this trip, which made me deeply uncomfortable.

He had a golden chance to talk about places out of reach to the average tourist, and he missed it quite spectacularly.

Al in all, the book is easy to read and entertaining, but leaves a sour aftertaste.

TL;DR: Beer, 'Gaijin! Gaijin!, 'sorry we are full', beer