hokkaido highway blues hitchhiking japan

Needless to say, this method of travel provides personal insight into the lives of the many different people Ferguson travels with: fishermen, businessmen, mothers, fathers, families, retirees, other teachers, and womanizers. Taking this number into consideration, Ferguson had close to 50 unique drivers during the course of his adventure, with “ cars. Near the middle of his journey, he remarks that he had already been able to hitchhike with 27 drivers (Ferguson 254).

Though the Japanese are very polite with, if not afraid of, foreigners, he has little trouble finding a ride for a significant portion of the book. Hitchhiking allows Ferguson to interact with the Japanese people in a very intimate and unique fashion, giving him glimpses of their culture and language, though he often reverts to generalizations when attempting to understand the heart of the nation.įerguson enjoys the adventure inherent in relying on others to get one to a destination. What makes the difference for Ferguson is his mode of travel. The following extensive trip encompassing both the heavily populated urban centers of Japan and the small villages in between is enthralling and descriptive. Will Ferguson begins his journey through Japan in Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan with a drunken promise to hitchhike from the southern to the northern tips of Japan, following the cherry blossoms in the spring. His first three books were plucked from the slush pile: he is the author of the satirical bestseller Why I Hate Canadians, which was all but banned from export (though it can be ordered online at chapters.ca, he advises), and his other works include a nuts-and-bolts traveller’s bible, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Japan, as well as a humorous exposé about his experience in a misguided drunken government youth program, entitled I Was a Teenage Katima-victim! He has also written an insightful and highly scientific political analysis: Bastards & Boneheads (it was a study of our leaders).Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan by Will Ferguson 448 pp. ‘I have absolutely no sense of direction.’įerguson has a BFA in screenwriting from York University, Toronto. ‘How I ever became a travel writer is beyond me,’ he confesses. Indeed, he prides himself on having gotten utterly and hopelessly lost in more than a dozen exotic locales, including Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Korea, and Japan.

Fortunately, he managed to escape, and he has since travelled throughout Latin America and East Asia. Will Ferguson was born and raised in the former fur-trapping settlement of Fort Vermilion in the backwoods of northern Canada.

Hokkaido highway blues hitchhiking japan