It is a great honour to be able to feature this entry from Heather Hackett, well-known author of Restless: Memoir of an Incurable Traveller, one of my favourite travel memoirs. Heather's story So, We Bought This Car In Tokyo is extracted from a chapter of her upcoming memoir about living in Japan.
Heather Hackett
Heather is not just an author. She is also a poet, a traveller, a photographer, a musician, a free spirit, an adventurer, a thrill seeker, a gym junkie, a cycling nut, a wife and a mother. She wears all these hats with confidence and style and brings her entire self to everything she does.
She has cycled across entire countries, camped under freeways, trekked the Himalaya with a baby on her back, lived in a bamboo hut on a Thai beach, worked as a cleaner in a motel, taught English to the Japanese, and been executive assistant to a Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. There’s nothing she can’t do or won’t try – at least twice. If she doesn’t know, she makes it her mission to find out.
She has searched for meaning in our often insignificant and trivial lives across three continents, mostly in Asia, and found various forms of spiritual fulfilment, some very powerful and life-changing. She has experienced some awesome highs and some wretched lows, known scarcity and prosperity in not so equal measures, and learned how precious life really is.
Her new book is a memoir of all her experiences, hilarious and pitiful, gained while dragging herself (and her two young kids) up and down the Himalaya, through the monsoons of Asia and along the bike paths of Europe.
Heather currently lives in Newcastle, Australia with her partner, Iain, and best furry friend, Lea, where she writes, cycles and drinks far too much coffee.
Heather is not just an author. She is also a poet, a traveller, a photographer, a musician, a free spirit, an adventurer, a thrill seeker, a gym junkie, a cycling nut, a wife and a mother. She wears all these hats with confidence and style and brings her entire self to everything she does.
She has cycled across entire countries, camped under freeways, trekked the Himalaya with a baby on her back, lived in a bamboo hut on a Thai beach, worked as a cleaner in a motel, taught English to the Japanese, and been executive assistant to a Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. There’s nothing she can’t do or won’t try – at least twice. If she doesn’t know, she makes it her mission to find out.
She has searched for meaning in our often insignificant and trivial lives across three continents, mostly in Asia, and found various forms of spiritual fulfilment, some very powerful and life-changing. She has experienced some awesome highs and some wretched lows, known scarcity and prosperity in not so equal measures, and learned how precious life really is.
Her new book is a memoir of all her experiences, hilarious and pitiful, gained while dragging herself (and her two young kids) up and down the Himalaya, through the monsoons of Asia and along the bike paths of Europe.
Heather currently lives in Newcastle, Australia with her partner, Iain, and best furry friend, Lea, where she writes, cycles and drinks far too much coffee.
