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Book Review: Sailing to the Heart of Japan

Mary Anne Unrau

Traversay III
Waterline 43', Cutter-rigged steel hull
September 25th, 2024
Mary Anne Unrau holds copy of Sailing to the Heart of Japan

Sailing to the Heart of Japan: A Cruising Adventure and How-to Guide. Nick Coughlan. Seaworthy Publications, Inc. 2024

Those of you in BCA who have read Nick’s other books, Adventures in Fireland and Collapse of a Country, will recognize his voice in this meticulously researched book accompanied by explanatory maps. Reaching beyond obvious cultural differences from our Western perspective, he achieves an almost amazing affinity with his subjects.

It’s a serious work, but you will still laugh a lot. Nick displays a robust sense of humour, and you will be both instructed and entertained as he and his wife/Admiral, Jenny, sail their Vancouver 27 sailboat Bosun Bird on the 10,000 NM voyage from Opua, New Zealand to Japan, and then on to Kodiak, Alaska.

In their first stop, at the islands of Vanuatu, he tells about the language, Bislama, which was adopted as the official tongue in 1980. It includes such “real, colorful and expressive terms” as bagarup, meaning broken (from buggered up), and basket blong titti, meaning bra.

Some exotic religions appear, such as the cult of Jon Frum in Tanna. J.F. followers are arranged in ‘companies’. They attend meetings which incorporate the American flag, military-style parades, and music with banjos, drums, and singing, all taking place under the enigmatic banner of a red cross. In the Solomon Island of Pohnpei, the mostly dormant religion of Mu has re-surfaced with its version of a mythical Atlantis. Meanwhile, the rivalries between Christian faiths plague some islands. Lamentably, one faith prohibits eating the most delicious local seafood: shellfish and crustaceans.

Nick explains how the Solomon Islands got their name. When the late 16th Century Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendaña got to Santa Cruz, he imagined this city to be the site of King Solomon’s mines. The name stuck, but “alas, there was no gold.”

Nick has a cautionary tale for those who’d like to cruise forever. “Every morning a group of five or six old white guys, most of them generous around the girth and florid … would install themselves at the same table at the Santa Cruz yacht club in Honoria. The topics were always the same: the place had gone to hell; the locals were thieves; the Solomons had no future; the beer was piss.”

Bosun Bird took the pair through islands known to us from the War in the Pacific. These stepping stones (from Guam and Guadalcanal) would lead the American forces through arduous fighting to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs ended the War in the Pacific, but many artifacts still remain.

Once in Japan, Nick and Jenny encountered mostly helpful and interested people. They made many friends who introduced them to the language with its scripts, to temples and religions, and to Japanese food and customs. Learning to strip and enter the steaming hot and (mostly) segregated nude Onsen and Sento baths led to several hilarious unscripted moments. Nick portrays this male-dominated culture in a few telling encounters. When asked why Japanese females are permitted into the Male side, but males cannot enter the Female side, he is told it’s because females “don’t drink” (meaning alcohol). This also explains why Jenny was offered only orange juice unless she was forward and asked for the beer and wine that was freely flowing to the men. Another friend explained the fact that mostly “Japanese man don’t cook – only sushi chef!”

Of course, the women show some resentment to their men by calling them sodai gomi. “In recycling posters, this phrase is used for items like large, broken refrigerators or sofas. Annoyed Japanese housewives use it to describe their couch potato retired husbands who lie around the house while the wives are busy vacuuming and dusting.”

Most Japanese people don’t sail away: a person who leaves the culture is thought of as a rebel. In a rare, museum-type setting, two quite small sailboats that had actually sailed offshore were proudly displayed. Nick asked the curator about it. “He took some time before replying: Yes, you see for a Japanese man (or woman) it is still not usual to break away. You know the saying ‘The nail that sticks up gets hammered down?'”

The modernization – and often Americanization – of much of the world continues in Japan. Pop bands; anime; karaoke; pachinko parlours; a two-thirds replica of Venice’s St Mark’s Cathedral as an exhibit; the airport in Kitakyushu built on artificial land; vast seaweed farms which impair boating; recycling; the giant Iron Man #28: the list goes on. The famed red Tori gate seen in many posters of Japan was difficult for Nick to photograph because of an infestation of jet skis surrounding it.

Japan is experiencing massive de-population. On the island of Shodo Shima, only the re-positioning of the local school as a tourist attraction brings any money. Tourists here are contemporary, retired Japanese folks, nostalgically revisiting their early school years with chalkboards and slates. In Kabashima, the bureaucracy has a huge problem in maintaining two schools. At the Elementary school, the Coghlans met the only student, Kenji. He and his teacher Hideki would both graduate to be the only people at the Junior High School. “Of course, it is very expensive”, Hideki admitted. “But the law says every child has the right to go to school, so we keep the schools open.”

The first Gaijin (white westerner) to appear in Japan was William Adams (1564-1620), from Britain. He was known as Anjin San to the Japanese and worked as a trader employed by the Dutch East India Company. His story is featured in James Clavell’s novel Shogun. Christianity had a start in Japan with the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in 1596. Although it was only openly permitted for a short time, Christianity survived ‘underground’ for 200 years. In contrast, the Shinto and Buddhist religions and their temples form an important part of Japan’s cultural history and this book. Nick and Jenny walked to the top of Mount Misen on the island of Shikoku. They found a small wooden temple smoke-blackened by a flame that had (apparently) been kept burning for over 1,000 years, kept up by acolytes of the monk Kobo Daishi. He formed this sect of Shingon Buddhism after a trip to China in 804. He lit the fire on his return to Japan, and it is still burning.

The intricacies of sailing Japan with its Closed and Open Ports are detailed and de-mystified in the book. You want to avoid any mistakes as retribution could follow. If you enter a Closed Port without permission, for example, a rule states that “The captain shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than two years, or by a fine of 10,000 yen”. Nick’s book contains an extensive appendix: Notes for Japan tells you all you need to know. You can avoid this fate and many potential pitfalls with the help of this book!

Comments


  1. Lynne Picard says:

    Mary Anne, Lovely to read this article and read a bit about the book. I have to say sailing in Japan and s. Korea was remarkable indeed, and fun to read a bit of his take on it. Are you still in Victoria? Would love to connect next time we are in town. We miss our Victoria GVHA community.

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