LAURENCE MACKINreviews Lost Japanby Alex Kerr and the Rough Guide to Japan
Lost Japan
Alex Kerr
Lonely Planet, £7.99
Alex Kerr has lived in Japan for more than 30 years, and this is his tribute to the country he calls home. Originally written in Japanese, this book takes readers into areas scarcely accessible to foreigners: backstage in the ritualised kabuki theatres, deep into the lost valleys and near-mythic regions of Iya, and below the surface of everyday Japanese life. If Kerr is in love with Japan, he is certainly not blind to her faults. The country’s drive towards progress at any cost is faithfully documented, and much of this is a lament for a landscape and culture that are being destroyed (he writes, for example, that of Japan’s 30,000 rivers and streams only three remain undammed, and more than 30 per cent of the coastline is encased in concrete). If there is a fault with this book, it is perhaps a little elitist: Kerr longs for a time when the traditional literati were the dominant players in Japanese society, there is little here on contemporary Japanese art and development is painted in harsh colours. However, this vastly illuminating book should widen perceptions of a country cloaked in mystery.
Japan
Rough Guide, £16.99
This guidebook is a little more sanguine about Japan’s existing heritage and traditional attractions. The sections on Kyoto and Nara are particularly good, and don’t forget the essential pages on etiquette. While Alex Kerr bemoans the encroaching ski lifts in the mountains, this guide is quick to point out that this mountainous country offers some of the best skiing in Asia, and tradition means many locals are unwilling to go between the trees, living acres of off-piste for the unbelievers.