[.ca] The Sun in My Eyes: Two-Wheeling East (ISBN 0751530182)

Stop her before she writes another:
A buddy lent this to me to read on a trip. I had read her other Japan book and thought it was horrible. This one has improved little, although this time she did not spend page after page reporting on what the Armed Forces radio was playing. She has turned into a Japan explainer of the type we had years ago and thought we were rid of when the "revisionist school" became accepted. Well, now we have a quasi bike story and a quasi chrysanthinum club J-apologist hybrid. Overly long, nothing new or deep about Japan. Not much a a travel tale either. ...

A Cycletourist's Perspective:
Amazon seems to have several negative reviews of Josie Dew's books that I find baffling. I've just finished a second book of hers (Sun in My Eyes) and thought it was excellent. Perhaps other reviewers haven't spent days (and weeks) cycling over mountains and through rainstorms. Josie Dew seems to do this with aplomb, and her writing is interesting and full of informative detail about Japan. In fact, Ms. Dew is full of praise for rural Japan and the overwhelming generosity of the people that she encountered. She has done her homework in researching the history of Japan and interweaving it through her story in an interesting way. The best compliments are that I was sorry to see the book end, that I plan to buy others of her books, and that her book inspires me to try a cycling trip to Japan.