This book did not make me want to walk the Camino or go to Shikoku (I gave up before his third pilgrimage to Uman). It did not make me want to meet the author. There are some flashes of good writing, and some passages about history and philosophy that appeal to my geeky/wanna-learn-something side. A bit like a college undergrad trying to write like Alain de Botton.

But mostly I felt like I myself was plodding along a trail for no apparent reason. I wanted to tell the author to calm down, get some perspective, and grow up. Then I wanted to wish him "Buen Camino" and move on.

Major nit: the author talked with lots of people who spoke English as a second (or third, or fourth) language. For every European, the English conversations were written up without grammatical errors. For every Japanese (except one), the grammatical errors were left in. If you're going to correct the dialogue, do it for everyone.

Minor nit: why not use the Japanese word for "rice balls"--onigiri? The Shikoku section is full of Japanese vocabulary (osamefuda, osettai,ryokan, sakura). But every page had to have the English "rice balls" on it for some reason.