Maciamo
Decommissioned ex-admin
Registered: July 2002
Location: Austrasia
Posts: 6652
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Review Date: December 2, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Beautifully written, detailed observations of both the people and the environment, feels like being there
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Cons:
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Better enjoyed if you already know a bit about Japan
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In this book, Alan Booth walks in 3 distinct areas of Japan to discover what tourists rarely and tells us anecdotes about the history, folk takes and culture of the places he visits.
In the first part of the book, Booth tramps aroud the Tsugaru peninsula in Aomori prefecture and tells us about writer Osamu Dazai who was born there.
In the second part, he retraces the way sanurai and statesman Saigo Takamori took from the North of Miyazaki prefecture to his home town of Kagoshima at the end of his ill-fated rebellion against the new Meiji government.
In the last part, Booth travels from Nagoya to the small village of Taira in Toyama prefecture and passes through the pitoresque towns of Inuyama, Seki, Gujo Hachiman, Shirakawa-go and Ogimachi in Gifu prefecture. His quest is to find a connection between the village of Taira and the descendants of the powerful 11-12th century family of the same name whose demise is described in the famous novel "The Tale of Heike" and are said to have settled in th region after the battle of Dannoura (1185).
Booth's comments are so vivid and painstakingly accurate that it really feels like we are there with him in his various journeys around Japan.
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