Genre:
Travel Memoir
Description:
“From
the crowds of Tokyo to the bears of the far North, from the jungle of
the tropical islands to the blooming cherry trees in Kyoto,
eventually arriving at the big emptiness left by the devastating 2011
tsunami and nuclear disaster. Patrick Colgan, journalist and
traveler, immerses himself in Japanese culture, nature and cuisine
and writes about his discovery of a seemingly incomprehensible
country. A place, Japan, where feeling a little lost can be
fascinating, and trips never really end.”
Author:
“Patrick
Colgan was born in Bologna, Italy, in 1978, of an Italian mother and
British father. He began traveling fifteen years ago with an
InterRail pass and never stopped since. He has been in almost forty
countries and all five continents but he loves going back to Japan,
where he has been (so far) seven times. When he is not travelling
around the world he is a Journalist at the daily newspaper Il
Resto del Carlino. He has
been writing his travel blog Orizzonti
for years, in Italian. He has recently started a blog in English
too.”
For
more, visit Mr Colgan's blog.
Appraisal:
Early
on in Horizon Japan
the author set the stage with this paragraph:
Panic.
It’s what I feel while the half-empty Alitalia plane I’m on is
descending over Tokyo, on a crisp, clear January morning. Exhausted
by twelve hours squeezed into an economy class seat, I suddenly find
myself surrounded by people speaking a language I don’t understand,
while we are moving towards the unknown.
This
resonated with me. From my limited foreign travels, I remembered this
feeling. I'm not sure I'd call it panic, but a strange, contradictory
combination of bone-weariness, adrenaline rush, apprehension, and
excitement, all rolled into one. It's a feeling anyone might get when
they're on the cusp of a new experience or adventure. As a traveler,
I felt a more mild version of this on my first trip to New York (just
before the first time a cab driver took me the long way to run up the
meter). It was a stronger feeling on trips to Europe and South
America. The more you expect the culture and language to differ from
past experiences, the stronger the feeling.
However,
the rest of the book didn't live up to the setup. The author made it
clear, both explicitly and from various clues throughout the book,
that the experiences chronicled were an amalgamation of several
different trips. I found his experiences interesting and, having no
firsthand knowledge to compare, they seemed credible. But too often
they lacked the sense of discovery I was hoping to find based on the
setup. I'd still recommend Horizon
Japan as a worthwhile
read. Just not as much as I'd hoped.
FYI:
Uses
UK spelling conventions.
The
book includes some photos which are much better viewed on a tablet or
other color capable device.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating:
**** Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count:
20-25,000 words
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