Book Review: Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet

This unique presentation of one foreigner’s exploration of the world’s largest city over six months was never intended to be a guidebook: no star ratings for luxe hotels or interviews with celebrity chefs here - and wasn’t supposed to be a social commentary: don’t look here for studies on gender roles or the Occupy Movement. But a guidebook (of sorts) is what this simple artist’s sketchbook has become; one filled with the (usually humorous) views and comments about everyday life and ordinary buildings around the various districts of central Tokyo.

Florent’s district maps may be easier to use than the ones in the Frommer’s guidebook - and clearly show the most important places for family travelers, like good supermarkets and convenience stores and coffee shops; the photogenic spots and nice parks and walking-path shortcuts. 

Tokyo is not called a beautiful city (except perhaps at night, from a high building, when you can soak in the lights) - but Florent’s colored-pencil sketches give individual personality to even the most ordinary row house or storefront. And his cartoon drawings of shopkeepers, commuters, students, and local police - while, well, simple cartoons, still move past stereotypes and cliches to reveal humanity and show you details you might not ordinarily notice from the tour bus or running through the airport. (Mr. Chavouet’s blog - in French - continues his studies.)

When our family travels we like to use public transport and walk around, eat simply and try to experience parts of everyday life in the cities we visit. The flowers poking up in an alleyway are no less beautiful than the ones in the Imperial gardens, after all. This book brings back nostalgia we have for our time in Japan - and gives us ideas for our next trip.

Whether you’ve been to Tokyo already or are looking for ideas for a future stopover trip, this book lovingly shows the real side of the city, and is great entertainment.




For more media, product, and service reviews about traveling through and learning about Asian culture, please visit http://www.weninchina.com/Reviews/Reviews/Reviews.html

Our Tokyo article links:

• Narita Airport Guide: http://www.weninchina.com/Airports/Tokyo_NRT.html
• Tokyo Stopover: http://www.weninchina.com/Travel/Tokyo_Stopover.html

Book Review: Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy

Mike Levy was a language-arts teacher from Philadelphia suffering from a crisis of faith post-9/11. Wanting to use his talents toward a Big Global Purpose, he found himself in the Peace Corps in 2005 assigned to rural Guizhou Province teaching English at the university in Guiyang, getting paid the same subsistence wage and living in similar apartments as the local professors, and figuring out everything on his own with no outside support, for a two-year tour.

The 29 chapters go by quickly in a conversational and often funny tone, similar to a Bill Bryson or Sarah Vowell travelogue. Outside of a few weeks' training in Chengdu, Mike doesn't get to travel outside Guizhou, but that gives us readers the chance to really settle in and view an area that will never see a Hollywood film crew or breathless Travel Channel documentary.

As Mike gets to know his fellow teachers, his students, and other local kids, we get to hear the personal stories and decisions from real-life people with real-life ambitions, problems, and responsibilities. Should a professor put substantial money into buying an apartment, and can she find a mate when she makes more than most men? Will a talented and dedicated masters-student from Guiyang, knowing she has no career future in her home province, be able to find a future in the costal cities? What will the fates be of twin sisters, bright and hopeful and thirsty to learn, but born as ethnic minorities and living with their grandmother because their parents have migrated to the coast to find work?

Guanxi and party politics, ethnic contrasts and Chinese stereotypes of Westerners are all shown matter-of-fact, but the people are never shown as villains, just everyday folks doing what they've been taught or repeating something they've heard. It's a refreshing contrast to sensationalized mass-media China reports that never take time to have an authentic conversation with citizens, or who never leave Shanghai / Beijing / Hong Kong.

For those of us with children from China, this book strikes a powerful nerve as we can easily see our daughters and sons in the situations Mike relates. Would my daughter have faced a childhood of having to collect plastic bottles for the recycling money, or working in a back-alley kitchen, sleeping on a cot because home is too far to walk and she couldn't afford bus fare?

My little girl has an unbounded future. Reading this book reminded me of how much of an honor it is to be her father, and how much I owe it to the kids left behind to make sure she has the ability to pursue any dream.

Kosher Chinese is a 2011 release, available in softcover at a retail of US$15. Well worth a read for adoptive parents, for travelers heading inland, and anyone wanting a better understanding of everyday life in modern China.