Will Ferguson's Hitching Rides with Buddha (1)

Will Ferguson's Hitching Rides with Buddha is my favourite book on Japan. It tells the story of his hitch-hiking trip from the most southern tip all the way to Hokkaido; and there's some parts I thought I'd quote for you:

"The ferry crossed a black sea to Shikoku. I stood on the deck watching dark shapes slide by in the night: islands and ships, clusters of lights, fishing boats like fireflies. ...
Just before the ferry was about to leave, a tax had roared up to the dock and an elderly couple had scrambled out. The taxi driver hurried to get their bags out of his trunk. The gorund crew, meanwhite, wer already tossing the ropes free. The drawbridge was about to be raised. The couple could have made - would have made it - but they stopped to bow to the taxi driver. He bowed back. They returned the bow ... and at that moment they were lost. It was too late. The gate was closed, the dock workers waved them away, and they stood watching helplessly as the ship sailed without them. In the time it took to bow they had missed their ferry and were stranded on the wrong side of the strait, a husband and wife marooned by good manners."

Later in another town, Ferguson falls in with a group of salarymen.

"My circle of Akita businessmen was also concerned, in a pornographic sort of way, with violence in America. They all had their pet theories about the matter, several of which were real eyebrow-raisers. In wit and insight, this group was not quite on a par with the Algonquin Round Table. One man declared that the problem was that all white people were, oh, what's the word, racist - a statement that was ludicrously self-contradictory I didn't know how to respond. Whites were racist against blacks, but Japanese were not. Why? And here I quote, for it was such a memorable statement: because "our skins are slightly darker, so we can understand both white people and black people."
Another man immediately chimed in: "That's why blacks in America always riot at night. It makes them harder to see. It's very clever, don't you think?"

It's a funny book, but thoughtful too; and when I get time I'll copy out some other favourite bits.