The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan

Alan Booth has written probably the most beautiful excuse for every lover of Japan. He doesn't whitewash his subject - the Japanese are a severely 'exceptionable' (a word I didn't make up) people. But he sees them and hears them and has the literary gift to translate it all into seamless, pellucid prose. I took immense pleasure in taking this journey with Alan Booth through the heart of Japan. The loss of him (to cancer) can never be repaired.

I enjoyed this book very much. The writing keeps pace with the author's careful look at Japan. His British humor adds wonderful moments, my favorite of which involve rainy nights on the beach and the strangeness of Japanese pornography. Like an earlier reviewer, I find this story to be as much about Alan Booth's introspection as it is about Japan. The walk is a mere backdrop for Booth the observer to share his insights on life. And they are accurate insights. This is one of the few examples of travel writing that can be enjoyed by everybody, regardless of whether they adore the destination being explored.

I was lucky enough to receive my copy of this book from his wife. Reading the book, though, told me volumes more about the man than any person could. Yes, the book is a wonderful epic of a journey along the length of Japan. But more than that, the book (to me) was about the inner journey of man trying to find his place in culture that views outsiders as ... outsiders. It's a telling tale, similarly encountered by those who have traveled the distant corners of the world and the challenges they face trying to bind the different fabrics of world culture into one piece of harmonious tapestry. If you manage to get a hold of them, his articles for his Asahi column (That's All Folks) written in the months before his death(due to cancer) is as revealing and thought-provoking as this book.

This is a humorous and haunting book....humorous because Booth had a true observers touch for detail, personal observation and contrast. Haunting, because it was one of the last things he must have written in his short life.When I picked the book up, I had no idea the author was my old schoolfriend. We lost touch at university 30 years ago. It was the same Alan. Individual, witty and single minded. It was also Japan as I've experienced it: the real people and the cultural mix that is both familiar and alien.This is an insight into a face of Japan that is harder to find with each year. It's also a fitting memorial to a dedicated and unusual man.

I can't remeber how many times I've read this book, the first being when I was living in Japan but not yet speaking the language and I almost gave up on my classes there and then. Even though Alan Booth made his epic trip at a time when foreigners were still relatively rare in Japan, some of his experiences are still conceievable today. A must-read for anyone who's interested in Japan/travel/other cultures; my favourite episode involves the conversation with an inn keeper, in fluent Japanese, detailing the reasons why Booth can't stay there "We don't havce beds, only futon/ we don't eat meat and you foreigners can't eat raw fish/ we don't have knives and forks" etc etc, all of which are rebuffed in perfect Japanese. Finally the aged inn keeper says "But we don't speak English!" Having had many equally frustrating experiences, I could only laugh, as I did many times during this book. On a sad note, Alan Booth died several years ago while still in his 40's- I felt like I had lost a partner in crime, as well as being cheated of further insights on the country I sometimes loved... just read it!