I Dream of a Journey

At one point or another, don’t we all feel “a great yearning to go far, far away”? Certainly, the protagonist in I Dream of a Journey feels that longing for other places and other experiences. I Dream of a Journey is the masterful product of talented Japanese storyteller and artist Akiko Miyakoshi. In the book, the hotelkeeper at the aptly-named Solitude Hotel receives guests from around the world. He enjoys hearing their stories of faraway places. After his day’s endeavours tending to the needs of his guests, each night the unnamed hotelkeeper dreams of adventurous travels of his own.

Akiko Miyakoshi lives in Tokyo, and her book was originally published in 2018 in Japan under the title Boku no Tabi. Whilst I am in no position to evaluate the accuracy of Cathy Hirano’s English translation, her word choices are exquisite in terms of creating an evocative, somewhat melancholy written text. That text is superbly augmented by the brilliant, heavily textured illustrations. In depictions of scenes where the hotelkeeper is awake and at work, the art is grayscale. Yet, the images depicting the hotelkeeper’s dreams are full colour, albeit somewhat muted. The indefinite lines of the artwork also lend a dreamlike quality to the pictures. Having anthropomorphic animal characters inhabiting I Dream of a Journey further blurs the lines between reality and the dreamy state which helps the story protagonist navigate the challenges of his life.

I Dream of a Journey may not be a big-seller. The young target audience may not fully appreciate the melancholy and longing the hotelkeeper experiences. Children will, however, appreciate the quality of the art and a simple story well-told. This is an exceptional book that adult readers will enjoy for themselves and enjoy sharing with the young people in their lives.