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

by Alan Booth

Release Date: June, 1997

Edition: Paperback

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Brilliant!!!!

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!

best first-hand insight into the real japan I've ever read

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.