Bridge to the Gods

At the far north of Asia lies Japan, the mysterious land Marco Polo called Zipangu. When Europeans first visited Japan in the early 1500s it was the large island of Kyushu where they made landfall and began meeting both ordinary fishermen and farmers as well as the samurai and their lords. Kyushu was the gateway into Japan.

Yet Kyushu was more than just an entry point for Europeans. It was the stepping stone for the prehistoric immigrants to Japan who came from the Mongolian steppes and from other parts of Asia. It was also the gateway for Chinese culture, tea, and rice cultivation.

A few years ago a foreign man settled in Kyushu alone and began to explore.

He found a host of things that elude the casual visitor — Christian samurai, Japan’s first ancient rice field, its first tea bushes, yakuza gangsters, and the island where James Bond concealed himself disguised as a Japanese fisherman.

These various tales from Kyushu are mixed with the author’s contemporary life filled with earthquakes, typhoons, and worries about North Korean missiles.

Looking after his elderly Japanese parents-in-law from week to week provides a rare glimpse into daily life in rural Japan.

Bridge to The Gods: Tales from Kyushu is the best book to come out of Japan in decades. To understand this beautiful yet puzzling country you have to understand Kyushu.