Will sets out from Cape Sata--what he calls "the end of Japan" to follow the cherry blossom blooms all the way to the northern tip, Cape Soya. He hitches rides from a whole cast of characters and together they travel the back roads of Japan, going to places no American (whoops, sorry, Canadian) ever goes or even knows about. I went back a second time with a yellow highlighter. The mini trip I have planned to Tokyo and Kyoto has just lengthened to include Shodo and Sado Islands, the Bridge of Heaven and "an entire stone coast, a miniature mountainside, really, that has been carved into the shapes of Buddist deities and saints."
After teaching in Japan for five years, he could speak Japanese--a big advantage. He was able to get to know the people in a way few travelers can, and of course, everyone had a story to tell. He gained entrance into homes, back alley bars and hard to find hostels. He was often asked, "Can you eat Japanese food?" In return, the one question he wanted answered was, "Are the Japanese arrogant or insecure?"
We travel writers love to condense a culture into a brilliantly written piece of prose, but in the end, people are just people. Everywhere. There is no one nation of "ors", only nations of "ands". The people that make up any country are savory and unsavory, genteel and crass, generous and selfish, good and evil.
However, the one thing Japan does have that other countries don't are those thousands and thousands of cherry trees. Will Ferguson had me hooked from the very beginning with those darn trees.
"Nowhere on earth does spring arrive as dramatically as it does in Japan. When the cherry blossoms hit, they hit like a hurricane. Gnarled cherry trees, ignored for most of the year, burst into bloom like fountains turned suddenly on."
And, of course, I'll be going in April.
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