Riding the Trains in Japan

by Patrick Holland

Arriving late in Kyoto Patrick Holland cannot find a room for the night. Homeless and disorientated and in a place where loitering is not encouraged his only solution is to ride the trains. The train journey becomes a thread in book that journeys on rivers in Saigon, mountains in the Chinese Himalaya, lost cities of the Silk Road, mist-swathed cemeteries in Japan and the flat plains of Australia, and subtly questions the nature of travel and identity through reflections on place, mortality and the changing Asian landscape.

Genres: Japan, Travel, Nonfiction, Asia, Essays, China

230 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

Patrick Holland grew up in outback Queensland, Australia. He worked as a stockman until taking up literary studies at Griffith University. He has studied Chinese and Vietnamese at universities in Beijing, Qingdao and Saigon.

His work attempts a strict minimalism inspired by Arvo Pärt and takes up geographical and theological themes, focussing on life’s simplest elements: light and dark; noise, sound and silence; wind and water.

Reviews

[Katrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't say I enjoyed reading this book - as you can tell by the single star I gave it.

Firstly the title suggests travel stories of Japan. But it was 95% about China. The first story was he didn't have a hotel in Japan and so he caught the trains. then it was china, china, china. then the last story again was a super brief one set in Japan, but not even really about being in Japan. There was a lot of Chinese history in here rather then travelling around.

Secondly, why do people that write these books feel like we care about random poems or obscure writers that was all 'profound' . I want to hear about where you went and what you did. Not poetry.

And lastly - I was bored reading this. First travel book that made me feel like I didn't want to do anymore travel.

This is why I prefer to watch YouTube videos on peoples travel and life in japan.

[Maggie Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Updated:

Having reflected, there's just too much that's good about this book to justify my previous 3 star review.

There are few writers who can make a place, a scene, a landscape come to life like Holland. And he can tell a mighty good story to boot. 'The Kingdom of Women' where he travels in southwestern China along with a National Geographic Producer, occasionally alongside Michael Palin, and, very reluctantly, with an aging German sex tourist in search of a Sino-Tibetan nation whose women never marry but admit men to the bedrooms as they see fit, is a piece as good as travel writing gets. And his prose, as always, is both hard and lyrical.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riding The Trains in Japan is a great book to be dipping into as I work my way through the longlist for the 2011 Shadow Man Asian Literary Award because it is an enriching work, not just adding to my understanding about Asia in a variety of contexts but also encouraging reflection about travel, identity, memory and the absurdities of modern life.

The piece that gives the book its title is about the time Holland arrived in Kyoto in the middle of the national holiday called O-Bon, the Japanese All Souls, when he had not made a hotel reservation and there was not a bed to be had. So,’ comically homeless’, he ended up spending the night riding the trains. There was not anywhere else in the city for him to go:


Here in Kyoto it seemed the homeless either did not exist or they had been expertly removed. I did not yet appreciate the art of being homeless in Japan, an art almost as subtle and refined as the ancient art of the geisha. (p11)

To read the rest of my review, please visit
http://anzlitlovers.com/2011/11/20/ri...

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Patrick Holland went to Japan during a festival time and could not find accommodation. In frustration he decided that the simplest solution would be to purchase a train ticket and remain on the train until the following morning, so solving his accommodation dilemma. Had he written more about how he interacted with this alternative accommodation,coping with washing and showering and his laundry to name a few examples of what such transit travel would challenge the author, it may have been more interesting to me. Instead the prose seemed to become one of history and other anecdotes about Japan. This is not why I wanted to read about and felt that I had been misled by the title. 50 pages was more than enough for me.

[Pam Ela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting in patches.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful chapter on cemeteries comparing australian and a renowned Kyoto cemetery, philosophy and treatment of the dead.

[Sarah loves books 😻😻😻 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure if it's the book or me.. some of the chapters were really interesting (the chapter about the Japanese cemetery was beautiful for example). The title is false advertising though as only 2 chapters are about Japan, the rest is about China and Vietnam (at least in the 73% before I decided to quit). The travelogue chapters were interesting, the chapter philosophising about "Paradise" was terrible, generally his philosophising was terrible. I also found little value in his chapter about the Odyssey and the Iliad (and I LOVE the Odyssey and the Iliad!). Overall it was a collection of random essays bound by the fact that they all set in Asia. Meh!

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t actually finish this book. I couldn’t. I picked it up due to the title which was extremely misleading. I absolutely adored the first chapter, the visually intriguing descriptions of riding the trains in Japan. But from there I was lost. The subtitle “travels in the sacred and supermodern east” would be a more appropriate main title. If I had wanted to read about Vietnam and China I would have picked up a book dedicated to that. Riding the trains in Japan is a topic I would be super keen to read about but this book, unfortunately, did not deliver on that.

[Scarlet Nabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il libro è una raccolta di esperienze dell'autore (Australiano) in diversi Paesi asiatici (Giappone, Cina, Vietnam). Non ci sono collegamenti tra un capitolo e l'altro e la parte riguardante il Giappone è davvero troppo scarna. Non si può negare però che le storie raccontate siano interessati e che lo stile di scrittura sia di alto livello, anche se non ho apprezzato molto le digressioni filosofiche troppo lunghe e complicate.
Bella e curata l'edizione.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was travelling in Japan when I read most of this book. It was mostly about China experiences but each situation was an interesting insight into the local and not so local (westerners) culture. I found I sympathised with the perspective, partly maybe because I was also Australian and liked to get ‘off the well trodden path’. Easy to read.

[Parvati Rotherham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a travel book focused on Japan as the title suggests but it's more of a musing of the author living in Asia and his thoughts on history and politics. Whilst it was not what I expected I enjoyed it anyway as the stories were interesting and well written

[k.]

a wonderful if inconsistent book. demonstrates to me a cobalt standard for what travel writing can be. certainly some good technique on style i can try to develop a grain of for myself.
rator 74

[Patrick Colgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il titolo, anche nell’originale Riding the Trains in Japan, è un po’ fuorviante. Perché i racconti del libro sono ambientati non solo in Giappone, ma anche in Vietnam e Cina. Holland, che in questi Paesi ha vissuto, ha uno stile originale e meditativo, erudito, attento ai dettagli, ai momenti, alle storie delle persone. E’ uno scrittore di viaggio di spessore, insomma. I treni, e Kyoto, sono però solo nel primo racconto, ben scritto, con numerose citazioni letterarie — Basho, Kawabata, Murasaki — e con passi molto belli sul viaggio in treno. Ma ci sono anche errori incomprensibili (Shoji dori al posto di Shijo dori, una delle vie principali della città per esempio) e alcune situazioni poco credibili. Ne propongo una per dare un’idea, ma non è l’unica: Holland racconta di arrivare a Kyoto durante le festività dell’Obon e di non trovare posto in albergo (più che possibile). Per questo racconta di passare le notti viaggiando sui treni proiettile Shinkansen avanti e indietro fra Tokyo e Kyoto. Un’idea di grande fascino, certo. Ma quanto mi risulta anche dieci anni fa (quando è ambientato il libro) i treni Shinkansen non correvano di notte. Forse qualcosa mi sfugge, forse Holland si riferisce a treni locali pur scrivendo chiaramente Shinkansen, ma anche così il racconto non starebbe in piedi. Un po’ perplesso ho continuato a leggere e trovato un bel racconto sul monte Koya e sul cimitero Oku-no-in, e altri interessanti e acute pagine su angoli remoti di Vietnam e Cina. Un libro di valore, denso e ricco di spunti, ma che lascia un po’ di interrogativi: la precisione è importante, per me.
Recensione da Orizzonti blog

[Knut H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly superb ground-level study of the Far East, the geopolitics, the arts, the religion and philosophy and, especially, aesthetics, and at the same time a travel narrative that delights in the details as much as the big picture. One misguided review said something about the author secretly espousing a condescending 'Western Enlightenment' view point. It would be difficult to be more perfectly wrong. Holland doesn't seem to have a lot of time for Western philosophy, but if there's one strand of it he has absolutely no truck with at all it's the Enlightment. Hardly a page goes by without the author valorising Eastern Esotericism over Western rationalism. If anything, that may be the books one consistent flaw, it's very easy - or should I say fashionable - to dismiss 'Western thought' these days without knowing a thing about it, let alone plumbed the very great depths of Western thought. (Though I see Holland's new book treats the Medieval Irish Immram, so I can only assume he has is on friendly terms with Medieval Western thought at least). Not every essay is as strong as the best of them - 'Suburban Chinese Ghost Story' and 'The Kingdom of Women' are masterpieces. But this is a superb book.

[David Winger · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange sleeper this book is. I've left my old review here for evidence of what I previously thought. But tonight over a few beers I read the last three essays again. Wow. I misjudged it. A solid four stars for the best of it.


I had half finished this book a while back. Reading Holland's brilliant new novel The Darkest Little Room got me re-interested. I returned to the book with as Seinfeld has it 'unbridled enthusiasm', but, and it may be due to coming straight down from the heights of the aforementioned novel, the book left me just a little bit flat. Some of the articles/essays are five star pieces, like 'Race for the Kingdom of Women' and the mediation on Japanese airports - Holland is a master of transcribing action and laconic dialogue, and where he gives himself opportunity to exercise these gifts, the result is unmatched. But just once or twice two often I got tired of diving off into long philosophical tracts.

Don't get me wrong. I think this bloke is Australia's finest living writer. But for me, if he focused a little more on the things he does best, this book might have been better.

[Patrick Colgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is misleading to say the least, as this book is about China and Vietnam as well as Japan. And you also notice that Japan is not the primary focus of Holland from a couple of (minor) mistakes here and there. And I am still not sure it’s possible to go back and forth on bullet trains between Kyoto and Tokyo all night long too (it seems more an expedient, a macguffin). So why am I including this book in the post? Because I love the way Holland writes, the way he interweaves his travelogue with literature, the way he brings the places and the characters to life. Moreover, his few stories set in Japan are set in some of the places I love the most, as Kyoto, Uji, mount Koya.

from my blog - Six travel books about Japan

[David Haberlah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not much of a travel literature fan but this author from Brisbane skillfully mixes descriptions of ghost cities in China, spiritual Japanese cemeteries and gardens, non-places such as transit lounges, with deep reflections on space, time, and aesthetics. Thank you Josie for this excellent suggestion!

[Cori Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Holland's fiction more. There are some very insightful moments that made it worthwhile.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories told with real insight...

[Umbertoservillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un bellissimo studio d'Oriente lontano

[Nerissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good stories but generally pretty dull.