‘To Japan With Love’ Haikyo book

Mike GristGuides, Haikyo, Haikyo in the Media, Japan 18 Comments

to-japan-with-loveAbout 2 years ago my friend JC put me in touch with a publishing company called Things Asian Press who were looking for contributors for a new guide book to Japan. I went ahead and contacted them, offering some of my haikyo adventures from my website. Soon after I received word from the editor that they were interested in publishing one of the stories- my overnight stay at Sports World– plus they were interested in the story of my cycle trip up Mt. Mitake.

Well, I was very pleased, and said sure, go right ahead. Now, 2 years later, the book has gone to press and will be released to sale in the next few weeks. I received my 6 contributors copies today, and would like to offer one of them as a prize in a competition!

I was moderately surprised by just how gorgeous this book is- the production value is excellent, with gorgeous photos, crisp text, easily read panels, and a seriously high level of craftsmanship. I’m proud to have two articles in the ‘Into the Wild’ section.

The ‘To Somewhere With Love’ guide book range bill themselves as ‘travel guides for the connoisseur’. They are somewhat similar to the range lonely planet does filled with anecdotes and short stories of travel adventures, though they also feature fact panels with info about how and when to go, costs, telephone numbers, etc. To Japan With Love covers a broad swathe of cultural peccadilloes and geographic range, from crawling through Buddha’s nose at Todai-ji Temple to finding peace in Hiroshima, trespassing in Shizuoka, exploring anime in Tokyo, and riding horses in Hokkaido. It’s all here, from seasoned travelers and ex-pats who know Japan like the back of their hand.

That’s the pitch. You can buy the book (pre-order at the moment) here, OR….

You can win one of my copies. I’ll open it up and sign it if you like, or just leave it packaged in plastic and send it to you pristine.

TO WIN A COPY

To win a copy here’s what you’ll have to do: STUMBLE ME. If you know what stumbling is, awesome, skip ahead to next paragraph. If you don’t here it is: Stumble Upon is a social networking service that sends web-surfers (stumblers) semi-randomly to sites they might be interested in when they click a Stumble button in their web browser. You too can get this button, and surf in this way. Stumblers can also discover fresh content and submit it to the site’s algorithm, which will send other stumblers to check it out. If they like it too, they stumble it, and the content gets more visitors and more chances to receive ratings. It’s one way for content to go viral. On my site, there’s an SU Stumble Upon button at the top right of each article. Click it, jump through a few hoops to join Stumble Upon, then start Stumbling and Discovering content!

OK, so, what to Stumble. Basically, your choice. If you’ve found some content on this site you’ve liked, go back and discover it on Stumble Upon, leaving a brief comment/review. It’s a few clicks max, and you’ll be supporting this site, plus sharing content you liked with other people. If you want to Stumble more than one page you can, and that will count as multiple entries to the competition, increasing your chance to win.

The final step- comment below telling me which page you Stumbled so I can confirm you did. All entries will go into a hat (remember you can multiple enter by multiple Stumbling pages) and a winner will be drawn at random after about a week or so.

OK. Hope people take the time to do this- the book is a great reward for a fairly small effort.

to-japan-with-love-mike

Mike wields his contributor’s copies like a shield of steel.

Comments 18

  1. Pingback: JapanSoc

  2. Congratulations on the publication success! I should be haivng my photos of panty vending machines published at some point. It must be excting to make it into the book world 🙂

  3. Hi, I would love to win the book to help me plan my family’s next trip to Japan. I haven’t tried SU before, but was happy to log in and try it out to help promote your very interesting haikyo gallery. (I’m geekmomdotca on StumbleUpon). Will poke around and stumble a few more pages for you now.

  4. Hmm, I think I might have screwed up somehow by stumbling the entire haikyo gallery; it won’t let me “like” any other pages inside the gallery now. Anyway, congratulations on getting your story in print!

  5. Yoo-hoo~ Congrats MJ! 😉
    It is a very well organised Japan guide book with tons of interesting real Japan stories including the MJ’s articles. It is definitely worth winning!
    Good Luck!! 🙂

  6. Post
    Author

    Wow, a great response already, thanks everyone, and for those who haven’t joined in yet- still all week left.

    To be ultra-transparent and fair with this I’ll film the hat-draw, maybe even film me posting the prize so you all know I really sent it.

    David- Cheers- to infinity, and beyond!

    Jill- Thanks very much, best of luck to you.

    Mike- Panties is it eh? Good for you!

    Geekmom- Thanks a lot for taking the effort to join Stumble- be sure to let me know how many pages you actually stumble, so I know how many times to enter you in the draw. I’m rooting for you!

    Scott- Cheers bud :).

    JC- Right, I thought it might be you, had half-forgotten. Changed the post so ‘friend’ is JC and links to you now. Thanks to you for this hook-up, I owe you (at least) a drink!

    Brian- Thanks a lot- use of the word ‘Rad’ very much appreciated 🙂

    SY- Kamsahamnida! I couldn’t have done it without your support.

  7. Ah link to me!? Woo-hoo, that’s totally Rad 🙂

    Not just you wait ’til I have my _real_ web site up and running.

    |¯¯|_-O

  8. Hey Mikey, this is brilliant! i shan’t be entering the competition as if your sister wins it looks a bit suspect. However I will buy a copy. Brilliant news, lots of love, Alice x

  9. Post
    Author

    Hey all, did the draw but realize now I totally forgot to state who the winner was. It was geekmom! I sent off the copy months ago- sorry that I forgot to let you all know :(…

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