Looking for the Lost: Journeys
Through a Vanishing Japan
(Kodansha Globe) by Alan Booth
A Look At Japan, A Look At Alan Booth
A VIBRANT, MEDITATIVE MALK IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL OF JAPAN
Traveling by foot through mountains and villages, Alan Booth found a
Japan far removed from the stereotypes familiar to Westerners. Whether
retracing the footsteps of ancient warriors or detailing the encroachments
of suburban sprawl, he unerringly finds the telling detail, the unexpected
transformation, the everyday drama that brings this remote world to life on
the page. Looking for the Lost is full of personalities, from friendly
gangsters to mischievous children to the author himself, an expatriate who
found in Japan both his true home and dogged exile. Wry, witty,
sometimes angry, always eloquent, Booth is a uniquely perceptive guide.

Looking for the Lost is a technicolor journey into the heart of a nation.
Perhaps even more significant, it is the self-portrait of one man, Alan
Booth, exquisitely painted in the twilight of his own life.
Personal Review: Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a
Vanishing Japan (Kodansha Globe) by Alan Booth
Looking for the Lost chronicles three independent walking trips the author
made through the Japanese countryside, each inspired by a famous
historical journey. The first trip retraces novelist Osamu Dazai's journey
through his childhood homeland in his autobiographical work, "Tsugaru."
The second trip recounts Alan Booth's efforts to follow the trail of the
celebrated rebel general Saigo Takamori as he struggled to escape the
Emperor's armies at the end of the failed Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. The
third trip is of Booth's own devising, a walk from Nagoya to Taira through
Gifu province, along one of many paths that legend claims the remnants of
the imperial Heike clan followed after their defeat by the Genji clan in the
12th century.
Booth was a British expatriate writer who moved to Japan to study Noh
drama, became disillusioned with it, and ended up a permanent resident of
Japan despite that. Looking for the Lost's central theme is the dissonance
Booth experiences in his journeys when he attempts to reconcile the Japan
of his dreams with the nation he travels through. His portrayals of the
people he encounters are sometimes cynical, often humorous, and always
insightful. When Japan fails to live up to his expectations, he does not
hesitate to poke fun, and the reader is often left with the sense that he
feels personally let down by the nation. But allegations that Booth did not
like the Japanese ignore that he is as quick to turn his pen on himself as
on a passerby. Several particularly memorable segments of the book focus
on Booth embarrassing himself! Moreover, Booth balances his cynicism
with sympathy: when the author meets a person or place that contains the
pieces of Japan he seeks, or a human being he can relate to, his heartfelt
joy shines through in his writing. It is in these moments that Alan Booth
reveals the most about Japan, and about himself.
The book begins with the "Tsugaru" section. Despite Booth's affection for
the region he is traveling through, he never really warms up to the subject
matter. He represents the novelist Dazai as an unlikeable fellow, and
characterizes the region's connections to Dazai as touristy and lacking
authenticity. While the descriptions and people are interesting, the reader
is left wondering why Booth felt it necessary to reenact the journey of
someone he spends so much time sneering at. The second and third
sections of the book are much stronger. "Saigo's Last March" interweaves
Booth's thorough knowledge of the general's history with a journey that
sometimes daunts even the veteran walker. Here, and in the final section,
"Looking for the Lost," Booth finds more signs of the Japan of his dreams.
This was Alan Booth's last book, published posthumously in 1994, the year
after his death.

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