Would you believe this is one that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for the bones of ten years unloved and unread until, like Sunday night homework, I read it in the last 2 weeks before I actually travelled to Japan for the first time.

You need to bear a couple of things in mind – it’s originally written in 1998 when the author was working as a teacher in Japan and very, very personal thus don’t come expecting a travel guide. It’s an incredibly personal account of his hike from the very south to the very north hitching pretty much every last step of the way and thus is more about the people he meets rather than the scenery.

Slow at times, fascinating in others, illuminating about the Japanese people before I actually went there, possibly very, very hard to find in shops if you are so inclined.