{"product_id":"hokkaido-highway-blues-hitchhiking-japan-9781841952888","title":"Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt had never been done before. Not in 4000 years of Japanese recorded history had anyone followed the Cherry Blossom Front from one end of the country to the other. Nor had anyone hitchhiked the length of Japan. But, heady on sakura and sake, Will Ferguson bet he could do both.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe resulting travelogue is one of the funniest and most illuminating books ever written about Japan. And, as Ferguson learns, it illustrates that to travel is better than to arrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWill Ferguson\u003c\/b\u003e was born and raised in the former fur-trapping settlement of Fort Vermilion in the backwoods of northern Canada. Fortunately, he managed to escape, and he has since travelled throughout Latin America and East Asia. Indeed, he prides himself on having gotten utterly and hopelessly lost in more than a dozen exotic locales, including Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Korea, and Japan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'How I ever became a travel writer is beyond me, ' he confesses. 'I have absolutely no sense of direction.'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFerguson has a BFA in screenwriting from York University, Toronto. His first three books were plucked from the slush pile: he is the author of the satirical bestseller \u003ci\u003eWhy I Hate Canadians\u003c\/i\u003e, which was all but banned from export (though it can be ordered online at chapters.ca, he advises), and his other works include a nuts-and-bolts traveller's bible, \u003ci\u003eThe Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as a humorous expos� about his experience in a misguided drunken government youth program, entitled \u003ci\u003eI Was a Teenage Katima-victim!\u003c\/i\u003e He has also written an insightful and highly scientific political analysis: \u003ci\u003eBastards \u0026amp; Boneheads\u003c\/i\u003e (it was a study of our leaders).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Canongate Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50650101383442,"sku":"9781841952888","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8f4f94d7-f19b-4885-9960-ef63b4af05b5.jpg?v=1733282958","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/hokkaido-highway-blues-hitchhiking-japan-9781841952888","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}