Travel Books

Wrong About Japan – Peter Carey

March 20, 2023 by penny Leave a Comment

My review of the book Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey – please see the end of this post for a full disclaimer.

I realised recently that that last time I left the UK was, I think, late 2019. When I look back at how much I travelled between 2017 and then it seems unimaginable that my passport would have laid in a drawer for all that time. But then again, I suppose none of us expected a global pandemic to change so much. What is clear though is that I have a huge need to dust off said passport and get my little family back out on the road (or rails!) before I go stir crazy. That need has also been influencing where I’ve been looking in bookshops lately.

I’m suddenly finding myself in the travel section and in particular cursing the way that Waterstones seem to have decided to mix together travel guides with travel writing so that if you look for a country (arranged alphabetically rather than by region!) you then find both books about that country and all the regular guide books next to each other. Fine if you are planning a trip somewhere specific, but as frustrating as anything if you just want to be inspired in general. And don’t even get me started about what it means for all those travel writers who write books that cover more than one country. It also stops you from thinking “oh I really liked that writer, I wonder where else they’ve been” unless you have your phone to hand to look them up online instead. Talking to the booksellers in Waterstones it seems I’m not the only one annoyed by this, but sadly nothing seems to have been done to rectify the situation yet.

Japan

What this change in Waterstones policy did mean though was that I had to narrow down where I wanted some travel inspiration for. Based on my eldest’s sudden love of Japanese manga and anime (and the fact that I still regret not going 20 years ago when I had the chance) I picked the Japan section and found myself picking up a copy of Peter Carey’s Wrong About Japan.

The blurb on the back cover made this sound the perfect choice. Carey took a trip to Japan with his twelve year old son, but his son insisted that they were only there to look at manga, anime and other “cool stuff”. Exactly the sort of thing that my twelve year old would say right now and I had visions of being able to share the book with her and plan an imaginary trip with all the cool things that she’d like to see out there as a result. Unfortunately that’s not quite how it all turned out.

The bit that wasn’t apparent to me from the blurb on the back of this book is that Peter Carey has been to Japan before. It turns out that he’s reasonably knowledgable about Japanese culture and has a network of contacts across Japan that allowed him to make a series of appointments to meet what I believe are key players in the manga and anime worlds. In contrast I’ve read quite a few books about Japan, but know virtually nothing about manga and anime other than them originating in Japan and being massive there.

Lacking previous knowledge

Wrong About Japan would probably read better if you knew something about anime and manga. If you understood, and appreciated, who it was Peter and his son went to meet. Some of the general points he has to make about what has influenced anime and manga in Japan’s history is useful and interesting, but at points the book really felt like I was just scratching the surface and not understanding what was really going on as I didn’t have enough background knowledge. There were also some strange sections where Carey launched into quoting other books that he’d read about things like the history of Samurai and disappearing down rabbit holes as a result. He’d then say that he needed to move on whilst on a visit as his son was getting bored and I could completely see why!

Travel is enhanced by meeting people

To me one of the most fascinating parts of the book was the boy that his son made friends with over the internet before arriving in Japan (this was set in 2002 so before social media exploded) and what it was like meeting him in person. What an amazing opportunity for his son to see how a boy of a similar age lived in Tokyo and how they consumed manga and anime. Yet it seemed like Carey didn’t want his son to have these opportunities at all. If anything they were downright rude to Takashi and passed up on most of what he wanted to show the boy in Tokyo. It left me feeling sad and frustrated on his behalf. Travel is so enhanced by the people that you meet and interact with and for a twelve year old boy I feel he would have got so much more out of really getting to know Takashi, rather than being bored following his father’s itinerary.

What to read next about Japan?

I’m left feeling frustrated in my efforts to scratch my Japanese travel itch right now. Friends have recommended A Beginners Guide to Japan and Hokkaido Highway Blues and I think these may be a good starting point to dip my toe back into Japan. Years ago I remember enjoying Culture Shock Japan and whilst it was written before the internet changed everything and hence it’s no longer in print, I might see if I can try to find a copy secondhand so I can remember why I first wanted to visit.

Meanwhile…

In an attempt to find something Japanese related on television to watch with the kids we ended up finding Michael Palin’s visit there in an episode of Full Circle. This then took us to his fascinating Channel 5 two-part programme where he goes to North Korea and I’m now back in a world where I just want to sit and watch back to back travel programmes and book tickets to random places based on what I’ve watched. This week the next series of Race Across the World returns to our screens (after a Covid enforced break) and I am so excited. I’ve written about previous series over on my travel blog and I’m pretty sure I’ll be close to booking tickets to a far flung part of Canada once the series airs!

Disclaimer…

This post contains affiliate links. If you go to Amazon via them and but anything I receive a small commission. It costs you no more than if you had arrived at Amazon under your own steam. Thank you very much for any purchases you make as it is greatly appreciated.

Around the World in 80 Trains – Monisha Rajesh

February 22, 2021 by penny Leave a Comment

The idea of being able to dive into a book and so escape on a trip around the world by train sounds like my idea of heaven. Especially when we’ve been stuck at home for months and the furthest I’ve been since early December is the supermarket and to collect the kids from their Dad’s house. Monisha Rajesh’s story of her trip on 80 separate trains around the world is a lovely travel fix, but at the same time left me feeling strangely flat.

Around the World in 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh. A photograph of the book cover.

The whole train twist on Around the World in 80 days is nice but I sadly had a gripe as soon as I opened this book. No where do you get a map showing the journey taken. How is that even possible???

The kids and I have been recently enjoying MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman’s Adventures on Trains series, and when they’ve spoken about the books and the wonderful work of their illustrator Elisa Paganelli one of the things that they focus on is the value of maps at the start of each book showing the train journey. The fact that Around the World in 80 Trains misses this out seems like a major omission. I spent quite a while whilst reading looking at my big world map on the wall and trying to plot the route on it myself.

I understand that Rajesh is a journalist by background and I have to say that some of the chapters in the book did feel quite journalistic in style. They contain fantastic information, and some lovely stories, but they didn’t absorb me in the way that some travel writing does. It just didn’t quite feel like I was always there with Monisha, and her now husband Jem, which is what I need right now during lockdown.

There is no doubt that the journey undertaken was fascinating, and there are certain parts of the book that have me wanting to find out so much more about where she went, the history (both ancient and modern) of some of the places, and also to find more travel writing about them. The 10 days that they spent on an organised train tour of North Korea make me want to do similar, but I’m also intrigued to learn more about Tibet and also Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Any recommendations of follow on books gratefully received if you an leave them in the comments down below.

There were also parts of their journey that I wish more had been written about. I was hugely disappointed with their time in Russia. It was as if they didn’t really want to be there and hence hardly anything was written about Moscow in particular. One review I have read online (since finishing the book) talks about how it only really comes alive in the North Korea and Tibet chapters and I have to say that I totally agree. If there had only been the same level of detail about Russia and other places that they visited it would have been so much better. I was amazed that in some places she just wrote about how they got there and went straight to their hotel and watched a film on Netflix. I know the book was about train travel, but I just felt that saying nothing about some of their key destinations was wrong.

Around the World in 80 Trains was Rajesh’s second book after a first in which she travelled Around India in 80 Trains. With her family having previously moved from Sheffield to Madras for two years in hope of making India their home, I’m keen to learn not only about the trains of India, but also about how she describes the country and the experiences she has en route. I hope that the places she visited have the North Korea and Tibet levels of detail rather than that on Tokyo or Moscow!

Around the World in 80 Trains is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: The links in this post are affiliate links and if you use them to buy anything I will receive a small commission whilst it will cost you no more than usual. Thank you for any purchases made. Your support is very much appreciated.

Ladybird Tuesday – Understanding Maps and Learnabout … Maps

May 19, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

I don’t usually feature two books in one Ladybird Tuesday post, but these two books (from different Ladybird series) are actually the same book. Understanding Maps was originally published by Ladybird in 1967 as part of series 671. A series that only ever contained one title and was called Understanding Maps after that title. Learnabout… Maps came later as part of series 634, the Learnabout series.

The Learnabout… series

Ladybird used to do this thing where they released a series with a book or two in it and then, as if one part of the company hadn’t been talking to another part, suddenly the same book would be published again as part of a different series. Maps wasn’t the only title that this happened to. If you look at series 633 (Hobbies / Things to Make) it seems that several titles in this series were published at the same time in the Learnabout series too. Exactly the same contents, but with a different cover.

OS Map Conventional Signs

The text inside the two books is identical. Both even give that away by having the same copyright date of 1967 in them. One way to tell them apart is that inside the front cover is a two page spread on “conventional signs” used on Ordnance Survey Maps.

Ladybird Understanding Maps Learnabout Maps OS Maps Ordnance Survey

The difference is that in Understanding Maps this refers to the One Inch Maps (Seventh Series) and is copyright 1960, yet in my copy Learnabout… Maps it instead refers to the first series of 1:50,000 maps, is copyright 1974, the year OS maps went metric. By now motorways appear in blue, rather than being lumped in with red A roads as they were before.

Inside Understanding Maps

Whichever covered version of this book you get your hands on doesn’t really matter. It is a wonderful book to teach the basics of map reading and is the perfect way to start off a love affair with maps. It covers everything from the first maps through to scales, gradients, contour lines, orientating your map, symbols, the grid system, geographical features and even the setting up of the Ordnance Survey. There are pages on road maps, rural maps, aerial photography, weather maps, physical maps, geology, population, rainfall and land-use maps and even navigation at sea. Apart from obviously not covering satellite navigation and the likes of Google maps there isn’t really anything concerning paper maps that it doesn’t cover.

Ladybird Understanding Maps Learnabout Maps

One of my favourite pages has to be the one on roads, railways, rivers and canals which clearly shows what combinations on a map might look like in real life. It’s a wonderful way of translating what is on paper into reality. It looks wonderful to me on the cover of Understanding Maps and in a way I think it a shame that the cover of Learnabout… Maps looks so dull in comparison.

Ladybird during Lockdown

During lockdown my daughter had some tasks to do for Cubs which involved maps and just handing over a copy of Ladybird’s Understanding Maps gave her everything she needed to know to read a map properly and to understand the grid system.

The key at the front of Learnabout… Maps helped her understand an OS map of our local area, and successfully find our house on it. She then followed on the map our usual route to school and she could look at all the different features we pass on the map and know what they look like in real life. An excellent spot of learning in action if I say so myself. Someone should give her current teacher a pay rise…

About Ladybird Tuesday

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads, where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and this post originally appeared on there. I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

Visitor’s London – a vintage alphabetical guide by London Transport

September 2, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

There haven’t been anywhere near enough vintage books on here recently so let me try and rectify that situation with one of my recent car boot sale finds – Visitor’s London.

Whenever I go to a car boot sale or charity shop there are certain things that I am always looking out for. Ladybird Books is one such category, but not at all the only one. B and I have numbers collecting habits so we’re just as likely to be seeking out vintage toys and games or transport related bits and pieces. The further away from London you get the less you see with the familiar London. Transport (or TfL) roundel on it, but there is still treasure to be found and Visitor’s London is one such gem.

It was the roundel under the title on the front cover that first drew my attention to Visitor’s London, and then I spotted the slightly jazzy roundel used as the background on the rest of the book.

Written by Harold F. Hutchison Visitor’s London describes itself as “an alphabetic reference book for the visitor to London who wishes to also see something of London’s countryside”. Published by London Transport it seems that the first edition of this came out in 1954, with the 13th edition that I have found being published in 1967. In fact, it seems that a new edition was brought out in every year except 1961.

The book itself is split into two sections: London and London’s Country.

The first being an alphabetic list of places in London and the second being tourist attractions further afield.

Possibly the most exciting part for me is the How to Get There booklet that is inside the back cover – again in perfect condition.

Dated clearly on the cover as 1967 (and priced at 1/-) this little booklet contains the addresses, opening hours, prices of admission and routes for all the destinations featured in the main book. At the back is a fold out colour version of Beck’s Underground map showing the network as it was at the time.

The Victoria line, Hammersmith and City line and Jubilee line obviously didn’t exist back in 1967. Although you can see the second branch of the Bakerloo line, which went on to become the northern section of the Jubilee line and also the Baker Street to Hammersmith section of the Metropolitan line. Also marked as a branch of the Northern line is the section from Moorgate to Finsbury Park, that is now sometimes known as the Northern City Line and no longer part of Transport for London’s infrastructure.

The book as a whole is a gorgeous slice of London Transport history. There is reference to an earlier edition of such a book on the London Transport Museum website where there is a catalogue entry for a poster called Visitor’s London and the text there talks about an alphabetical guide which I am guessing is an earlier version of the same book.

It might have been the only bit of London Underground treasure that I found at this particular car boot, but bearing in mind that it, and a pile of six vintage cook books cost me only £3 I’m pretty damn pleased with my find!

Ladybird: Flight Four: India

March 8, 2018 by penny 1 Comment

The weather here in the UK is freezing cold at the moment, so I’m letting myself think about things further afield and taking a trip with the Ladybird Travel Adventure series to India. I originally came across series 587 when I found Book Three which takes the reader to the USA, and since then I’ve also managed to add Flight Two: Canada to my collection. Flight Four: India jumped out at me from a charity shop shelf recently and I was delighted to pick it up and add to my Ladybird travel collection.

Originally published in 1960, Flight Four sees Alison and John again accompany their father on a business trip, but this time to India. Their father has business in Bombay to start with, so that is where they head on a luxurious Air India flight, stopping in Rome on their way. Once again there is no mention in the book of Alison and John’s mother, or any other family members that they might be leaving back home.

Not only do Alison and John start to experience Indian hospitality on the Air India flight over, but they are also charmed to be welcomed at the airport by the Chand family (Mr Rand Chand being a business contact of their father’s) who greet them with traditional garlands of flowers which their father placed around their necks.

They spend a week in Bombay where they stay with the Chand family and in this time were shown around the city as well as the surrounding countryside. They also became familiar with the size of India and the feel of the country. Once their week in Bombay was up they bid farewell to the Chand family and boarded a second flight to the smaller city of Aurangabad where their father has some time sightseeing with them. They then take the train to their father’s next place of business – Agra. However, it is obvious that the children and their father are travelling in luxury on this business trip as it’s not a traditional hot and dusty Indian train, but instead a sleek new one with air conditioned carriages and a separate dining car.

As well as Agra’s old fort Alison and John were also taken to see the Taj Mahal, before heading on to the Indian capital Dehli, where they father had to spend another week on business. This isn’t the end of their trip though as Dehli is followed by Jaipur, Chandigarh, Kashmir and the Himalayas, Benares, Darjeeling, the Ganges, Jorhat, Calcutta, Madras and Trivandrum. At one point the children ask their father to draw a map of India showing all the places that they have been to, and when he does so you realise just how much of the country they have covered. They were exposed to a huge amount of Indian culture and as well as visiting historic sights also got to see everything from tigers and elephants through to tea plantations.

Like in Book Three, the journey felt a little bit contrived. Whilst I fully appreciate how much Alison and John must have learnt whilst on their travels with their father, I am also left wondering just how realistic a trip like this would have been. Would a father have taken his two children on such a long business trip with him back in 1960? Was this because their mother was no longer on the scene for some reason, or was she left at home with other children? Maybe I need to go away and do some more reading up on Alison and John and just why they travelled so much with their father.

If you want to read about other books in my Ladybird collection then please make yourself a cuppa and head over here.

This post originally appeared on Ladybird Tuesday on Being Mrs C.