In print

Well, I’m practically a published author now! My one and only copy of Five Thousand Miles arrived in the post on Monday and it looks absolutely beautiful.

But I’m not just talking about my design or photography skills – although they are fairly decent – as the overall finish of the book is amazing. It did cost me more than a few quid though, so I expected the quality to be good but perhaps not quite so good (check out Blurb books). It has been so nicely printed, keeping the colours bright and crisp, and uses such high quality paper (although, again, I paid for it!). The cover alone is excellent to behold, nevermind the inside of the book…

I took the book into work for everyone to have a look at (if they wanted to!) yesterday and received some great feedback. I mean, I’ve received positive feedback regarding the web-journal and digital book versions too but there’s something more rewarding about having this travel journal as a real printed book. Plus, I love books.

I haven’t taken too many photos as it is either best looked at in person or, if you’re perhaps on the other side of the world and we’ve never met, viewed the digitally.

I’ve photographed the book with a green tea Kit Kat. Partly for scale – the book is huge! – and partly because I have resisted eating this remaining treat from Japan for a whole year.

Five Thousand Miles: The Book

I am absolutely over the moon to say that I sent Five Thousand Miles to print last night!

Conveniently, today is a year to the day that I left for my adventure of a lifetime in Japan, all by myself. And so, today I have published the 200-page book of my trip online – in digital form. I’ve been beavering away designing the book since Christmas and I can’t wait, not only for the world to see it but, to have the physical book in my hands.

Big thanks to Kat, my friend and colleague, for doing an excellent job of proofing the whole thing for me – picking up on my silly grammatical mistakes. I will be taking her out for [Japanese!] dinner on Friday to say thank you.

And now, without further ado, I present to you… Five Thousand Miles: The Book.

Japan: 2014 and 2016

Last Sunday, I finished laying out the final pages of my ‘Five Thousand Miles’ Japan 2014 travel journal – the book version (of this). I am now in the process of checking over a full PDF and marking up any amends/additions to the text, plus any photos that require a little tweaking in Photoshop – mostly making images lighter.

This process looks a little like this…

Please note: I’m not doing a proper job of the mark-up (like we do at work!), just doing what is quick for me.

I started work on the book version of Five Thousand Miles just after Christmas and have spent many Sunday afternoons on it since then. It hasn’t been a quick process – there are more than 1000 photos in the book and it spans 196 pages – but I’m pleased that I will soon have a printed copy in my mits. I intend to get these text and image tweaks done in the next week or so. Then hand a new PDF over to my wonderful friend and colleague Kat (editorial and production pro) to have a look over it, as well. I wouldn’t want anything to slip past me – because I’ve looked at it so much and may be blind to the obvious!

When I’m content that the book is finished, I will be sending it off to Blurb to be printed. All hopefully before the 11th April – a year on from when I set off on my trip to Japan. Although, if it ends up being any date after that but before the 27th (when I finished my trip last year) that’ll be okay too. I also intend to eat my remaining green tea kit kat that I’ve been reserving for the anniversary, as I look through the book!

As well as my original travel journal, featured on the website version, I have written a little something extra for the past few pages of the book. I figured I may as well share it here, ahead of finishing the book.

What next?

In the process of designing and laying out the pages of this book I have, unsurprisingly, begun to think about my next trip to Japan. Although, as you’ve seen in the pages of this book, I did pack a lot into my April 2014 first-time trip to Japan, there is so much more that I want to see and do in Japan!

I would really like to visit Hiroshima next time around, including the Miyajima shrine – as recommended by the member of staff at my ryokan in Hakone – and the peace park. Plus, the peace pagoda at Mt Futaba-yama, commemorating peace since the atomic bombs of World War II. Peace pagodas, in particular, interest me as my hometown of Milton Keynes is home to the first peace pagoda in the Western world. I have yet to see my first peace pagoda in the East, but hopefully it will be in Hiroshima.

I’d also like to visit Nagasaki, for similar reasons. But also because many of the books I have read (historical fiction) feature Nagasaki – as it is the port that many Dutch, Portuguese and English trading ships first docked at upon ‘discovering’ Japan. However, I realise that Nagasaki is quite a bit further west than some of the other place in Japan that I would be likely to visit – it’s actually on another island (Kyushu, rather than Honshu). This means that it may prove a bit more difficult, and certainly take a bit longer, to get to.

As I discovered on my first trip to Japan, I have a huge love for Japanese castles. I was lucky to be able to visit five in a single trip – well, three actual castles (Matsumoto, Osaka and Odawara), one set of castle remains (Kanazawa) and one castle that wasn’t really much of a castle (Nijo in Kyoto). Himeji castle is reputedly the most magnificent of all of Japan’s castles. Conveniently, it has been undergoing a lot of renovation work over the past few years, with the work coming to an end in March 2015. So, although it wouldn’t have been viewable in it’s full glory for my 2014 trip to Japan, it will be for my next trip.

I would very much like to visit Hakone again, perhaps for a couple of days rather than just one. I would really like to see Mt Fuji with my own eyes, too! I intend to spend several days each in both Tokyo and Kyoto again, as both cities have so, so much more to see. There’s more of the modern and technology-fueled side of Tokyo to explore and I must make it to the bamboo forest of Arashiyama, just outside Kyoto this time!

Lastly, I hope that for Japan trip two I won’t be travelling alone. My potential Japan travel buddy is well aware of this, and as long as he gets to see the giant Godzilla outside a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, he seems pretty open to seeing all of the above and more!

I really can’t wait for March/April 2016 for Japan trip number two!!

Goodreads and the Kindle Voyage

I love reading, although I could definitely love reading more. I don’t read as many books per year as I’d perhaps like to. I go through stages of rapidly reading book after book, but after that I could easily go for a month or two without reading another. Which I’m not happy about. I’d certainly like to make an effort to read more this year – that’s not a New Year’s Resolution, just a note to myself. At least, I’d like to try to be consistently reading books without big breaks in between.

Something that really does enable me to read more efficiently and quickly (and therefore gives me the potential to read more books overall!), however, is my Kindle. Now I know e-readers and e-books are a controversial subject among most readers, but although I do love physical books – particularly well designed books or books with especially nice covers – what I really love is the actual act of reading. Whether it’s on paper that gives of a nostalgic scent or on a well-lit e-reader screen, it’s the words and the content that count. And it just so happens that I have been using a Kindle e-reader for 4 years and I love it. That’s not to say in that time I haven’t read physical paper books as well, I certainly have, but I’ve probably read more on my Kindle than I have on paper.

Now, my Kindle Keyboard was starting to look a bit dated. So, although it functioned perfectly well, after Christmas this year (last year technically, but saying last year sounds like it was ages ago), I decided to treat myself to a new Kindle. The Kindle Voyage. It arrived in the post on Friday last week and, my god, I don’t regret splashing out a little on it because it is awesome.

That video sums it up pretty well. One feature the reviewer doesn’t mention there, which within less than a week, I absolutely love is…

• Squeeze In that last Chapter – See at a glance how long it will take to finish a chapter or book. Time to Read is personalised based on your reading speed and is constantly updated as your speed and habits change. (Perfect when deciding if you can squeeze in another chapter before bedtime.)

My other favourite features, that weren’t applicable to my Kindle Keyboard are…

• Read comfortably in one hand – Lighter than most paperback books, hold Kindle Voyage comfortably in one hand for long reading sessions. (Didn’t realise how much of a brick my Keyboard was until I held the Voyage!)
• Adaptive light – When reading in the dark, the adaptive front light slowly lowers the display’s brightness over time to match the way the eye responds to darkness. (I haven’t done too much night-time reading yet but my old Kindle didn’t even have a light.)
• Sleek yet durable design – With a magnesium back and a chemically-reinforced glass front, Kindle Voyage is both durable and sleek. (Good to know as I broke my KK by accidentally leaning on it, thankfully it was still within warranty at the time.)

New #Kindle Voyage arrived today. A definite improvement on my old Kindle Keyboard, that looks ancient alongside. pic.twitter.com/02wljHVaaf
— Emma Prew (@emmaprew) January 9, 2015

Right, now we come to the other part mentioned in the title of this post. Goodreads. Goodreads is a ‘social cataloguing’ website for book readers all around the world. You create an account and list books that you’ve read, want to read and are currently reading. You can link with Facebook, Twitter etc. and add your friends to share book lists and see what others are reading. You can browse books by genre and receive recommendations for other books that you might enjoy, based on what you’ve already read and rated.

I signed up last night and stayed up well past my average bedtime inputting books that I’ve read. Obviously, there’s plenty of other books that I’ve read (a lot in childhood or my teenage-years) that haven’t made their way onto my account. They probably never will. BUT I will try to up date it as and when I read books from now on!

It’s a similar idea to Shelfari. Although Shelfari is at first glance more visually appealing, it is quite a clunky website and lacks in features. Goodreads, however, has far more useful features – recommendations, for example. Most importantly, it has a mobile app! I had a Shelfari account previously but I wasn’t very good at updating it as I finished a book. But with the mobile app version of Goodreads, this shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Now all I need is syncability with Kindle…

Emma’s bookshelf: read recently 

Emma's favorite books »

Did anyone notice how I tried to make the title of this blog sounds like the title to a book? Liveship Traders, much? No? Okay…

Robin Hobb

I’m going to go out there and say it… Robin Hobb is my favourite author. (Although Lian Hearn, with her fantasy-come-feudal-Japan-themed books, is hard to beat.) I’ve just finished reading my ninth book of Hobb’s, Ship of Destiny – which was the last in the Liveship Traders trilogy and it was, of course, awesome. Pirates and dragons – what’s not to like?

Robin Hobb is a US fantasy writer, best known for her trilogies set in The Realm of the Elderlings. Readers were first introduced to that world with the publication of Assassin’s Apprentice, the first volume of The Farseer Trilogy, in 1995. […] The Farseer Trilogy was followed by The Liveship Traders trilogy, a tale set in the same world, but in Bingtown, a trading city far to the south. Chronologically, these stories occur after the events of The Farseer Trilogy and are influenced by the events Fitz has set in motion. Ship of Magic (1998), Mad Ship (1999) and Ship of Destiny (2000) comprise that trilogy.
– Fantasy Book Review

I don’t think I’ve ever been so hooked on a book, series or author as I have been with both this trilogy, and the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies I’d read prior to this one. Incidentally, it’s only when reading this last book that I realised it was set between the other two trilogies and that I probably should have read it before Tawny Man. Because although each trilogy follows its own characters (with couple appearing in more than one series) and storylines, they all take place in the land of the Elderlings – did I mention these are fantasy books?

This is also one of the only series[es] that I’ve read entirely on Kindle. I bought the first Farseer book when it was a bargain price of £1.99, not long after I’d ventured into the world of ebooks. And I’ve never looked back. It would be nice to own physical copies of the books but the versions I’ve seen don’t have amazing book cover designs. Certainly not as awesome as the covers at the top of this blog post – read about those cover[s] in someone else’s blogpost here.

This is my next series to read. Four books this time!

And when I’m done with that, there’s another Farseer/Fool book and it is brand new!

p.s. Yes, it has been almost a month since I last wrote a blog post. That’s because I’ve been too busy reading to even touch my computer!

Tiny Tokyo

‘Anyone who has ever set foot in Tokyo or dreamed of seeing its kaleidoscopic wonders will fall in love with this totally unique tour of the beautiful megalopolis. Here are all the spectacular sights of the great big Japanese capital, made tiny enough to fit in a pocket! This teeny tome collects incredible bird’s-eye views of the bustling cityscape, all shot using a distinctive photographic technique known as “tilt-shift” that has the effect of seeming to shrink its subjects— making one of the vastest cities in the world look like a miniature model. Epic skyscrapers, crowded city streets, and even sumo wrestling matches resemble tiny plastic toys in this one-of-a-kind little book.’ – Chronicle Books, on Tiny Tokyo by photographer Ben Thomas.

TINY TOKYO – THE BIG CITY MADE MINI – BEN THOMAS//CHRONICLE BOOKS
from Ben Thomas on Vimeo.

Ben Thomas is an Australia-based photographer whose award-winning tilt-shift photographs of cities around the world – Cityshrinker – have been exhibited internationally.

Also see: Take a Tour of Tokyo in Miniature by Jordan G. Teicher on Slate.com

Too organised?

It isn’t possible to be too organised for a trip, is it? My bulging notebook would suggest that I am well-prepared for my Japan trip, which commences on Friday – although there’s plenty of blank pages left in it! Here’s what it was like before I’d filled it, and here is what it’s looking like now:

The notebook is filled with; maps, notes that I’ve written myself of things to do – as well as general things, for example, info about money and etiquette, scans from various Japan travel books and a lot of bits cut out /photocopied from my Inside Japan information pack.

Inside Japan are the travel specialists who have organised and booked my holiday for me. It’s not a typical tour package as such, as I am just going by myself. But they have taken into account what I am interested in seeing in Japan and the places I want to go. Basically they’ve organised accommodation, most of my transport and some special things like attending a tea ceremony/trying on a kimono. Plus they’ve organised two guided tour days – one in Tokyo and one in Kyoto.

They sent a massive information pack, a few weeks ago, with basically everything I need to know about my trip. As well as a general overview booklet with where I’ll be on each day and how to get between destinations, they also provided individual booklets for each of the places I will be visiting. Of course, I wasn’t interested in everything in all of the booklets so I have selected certain bits and compiled it in my own notebook.

My own personal guide book. With plenty of room to add to it whilst I’m in Japan.

Scans with highlighting.

I wrote this brief day-by-day plan today.

Hiroshige ukiyo-e print images used for the opening page of each ‘chapter’.
(Sadly not actually representative of the exact place they’re paired with.)

Some basic info provided by Inside Japan paperclipped in the back.