Monday 14 March 2011

Stephen Pern in Japan - an old video

While transferring some old tv shows from dvd to the PC's hard drive, I came across one of my all-time favourite programmes, Stephen Pern's film about walking the length of Japan. This has some wonderful moments - his experiences in traditional Japanese inn's - Ryochan? - some great campsites on the many ridges he walked along, an amazing view of Mount Fuji in the early morning, some amazing koto music. A truly great programme.



Stephen Pern at one of his high mountain campsites

I was also reminded of a couple of other programmes on similar themes - for instance, Lesley Downer's retracement of the "narrow road to the deep north". And some books on the same theme - for instance, Alan Booth's The Roads to Sata. What a shame Pern didn't write a book about his trip. His US book, The Continental Divide, is really good. He suggests in the film that he has pretty much lived his whole life as a traveller. Now that is truly something to have achieved

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Saw this show as a kid and it certainly didn't turn me off from either going to Japan or travel in general. Would love to see it again.

If you haven't found it by now, a Japanese inn is a Ryokan.

Anonymous said...

hello,

i saw this show as a kind too and i would like to see it again. do u know where i can get a copy of the dvd?
thank u in advance.

peter

Anonymous said...

sorry for typo:

kind = kid

peter