Hokkaido Highway Blues

by Will Ferguson

Hitchhiking may be an ancient mode of travel but in Japan it is considered folly. Which is precisely its attraction to henna gaijin ("weird foreigner") Will Ferguson, who is determined to thumb the entire length of the country following sakura - the surge of cherry blossoms that each year ignites the landscape. Starting out from tropical Cape Sata, the small southernmost metropolis where gardeners dust volcanic ash from their flowers, he heads north for distant Hokkaido, still snow laden. It is a journey full of hilarious misadventures and revelations. Whether Ferguson is doing the forbidden and not knowing it, or holding "conversations by non sequitur," he experiences Japan in unusual and even profound ways.