Here's a page from Longitude, the specialty bookseller for travelers. To order online, and to see the latest, most comprehensive selection of books and maps, go to http://reading.longitudebooks.com/LO11445. You may also call 800-342-2164 to order or request a catalog.

These 5 items are available for $71, including U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXJPN81)

Insight Guide Japan  •  Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 395 PAGES A comprehensive, illustrated guide to the culture, history and attractions of Japan for the traveler, featuring excellent full color maps. It includes sections on arts and crafts, performing arts, etiquette, and other topics of interest. Half the book is devoted to a survey of attractions throughout the archipelago. (JPN74, $23.95)
In Praise of Shadows  •  Junichiro Tanizaki  •  Thomas J. Harper  •  Edward G. Seidensticker ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1980 •  PAPER  • 56 PAGES This essay by the great Japanese novelist, first published in 1933, offers tremendous insight into Japanese aesthetics. It's an earthy meditation on traditional Japanese art, architecture and design. Most illuminating. (JPN19, $9.95)
The Art and Culture of Japan  •  Nelly Delay ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES An illustrated historical survey of the art, architecture and culture of Japan in a compact 5" x 7" format. It's a portable encyclopedia featuring 165 archival and modern illustrations and a section of original documents, surprisingly thorough in its coverage of all Japanese arts considering the size. (JPN51, $12.95)
Travelers' Tales Japan  •  Donald W. George  •  Amy G. Carlson ANTHOLOGY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 411 PAGES A collection of stories and essays by famous writers that capture experiences traveling through Japan. With a range of styles and topics, this book is a great travel companion. (JPN48, $18.95)
Japan Map  •  Periplus Maps 2002 •  MAP Handsome, accurate and updated annually, this convenient map covers the island nation with insets of the major cities. It has a variety of scales, with the majority at 1:2,000,000. (JPN06, $8.95)

Tokyo Map  •  Borch Maps    •  A folded, laminated map of Tokyo at a scale of 1:17,000. (JPN102, $7.95)
Fodor's Tokyo's 25 Best  •  Citypack   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A shirt-pocket map and practical guide to Tokyo, including an excellent map of the city center and essential information on its highlights. (JPN05, $11.95)
The Birds of Japan  •  Mark Brazil   • REFERENCE  •  Brazil's landmark guide, based on a decade of field work and with illustrations by Masayuki Yabuuchi, covers 583 species of birds in Japan, their status and distribution in detail. (JPN214, $99.95)
Tokyo, A View of the City  •  Donald Richie   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A literate essay on the culture, history and fabric of Tokyo, where the author has lived for 50 years. Structured as a geographic tour, starting at the Imperial palace and branching out. With black-and-white photography. (JPN90, $25.00)
A Traveller's History of Japan  •  Richard Tames   • HISTORY  •  A lively and concise narrative history of Japan and its transformation from Shinto, Shogun and Samurai traditions to 20th-century powerhouse. (JPN09, $14.95)
Embracing Defeat, Japan in the Wake of WWII  •  John W. Dower   • HISTORY  •  A social and political history of the postwar years in Japan. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, it's an eye-opening account by a leading scholar of Japanese-American relations at MIT. (JPN54, $18.95)
Inventing Japan, 1853-1964  •  Ian Buruma   • HISTORY  •  Buruma, a favorite writer who has written widely on Japan, here offers an admirably succinct, tightly constructed history of Japan's transformation from feudal state to host of the 1964 Olympics, with special focus on World War II. (JPN139, $12.95)
Japan, Its History and Culture  •  W. Scott Morton   • HISTORY  •  An introduction to Japanese history, people and culture from ancient origins to contemporary society. With selections from Japanese literature and arts, anecdotes and illustrations. (JPN03, $18.95)
Japanese Culture  •  Paul Varley   • HISTORY  •  A popular introduction to Japanese history and culture for undergraduates. In this admirably succinct book, Valery traces cultural trends from the emergence of Japanese civilization through the present age. (JPN84, $22.00)
The Book of Tea  •  Kakuzo Okakura   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A graceful, witty meditation on Japanese aesthetics and culture as reflected through the tea ceremony. A celebrity and cultural ambassador, Okakura was a curator at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. (JPN21, $9.95)
Japanese Art  •  Joan Stanley-Baker   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  Concise, thoroughly illustrated and comprehensive, this handsome book in the "World of Art" series is a fine survey of Japanese art from the prehistoric period to modern Japan. With 167 illustrations. (JPN08, $18.95)
The Art of the Japanese Garden  •  Michiko Kimura Young  •  David Young   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  An illustrated profile of aristocratic gardens, graveled courtyards, Zen and other Japanese gardens, featuring 250 color photos. (JPN181, $55.00)
The Gardens of Japan  •  Teiji Itoh   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  This beautifully illustrated overview of the history and tradition of gardens features 75 color photographs and astute essays. With a guide to 50 popular and representative gardens. (JPN38, $60.00)
Learning to Bow, Inside the Heart of Japan  •  Bruce Feiler   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  As surprising, helpful and informative as it is funny, this is an insightful account of travels and teaching in Japan. Feiler presents anecdotes on the rituals, personality traits and cultural peccadilloes of the Japanese. (JPN111, $13.95)
The Roads to Sata, a 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan  •  Alan Booth   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  A revealing, humorous account of the author's 2,000-mile walk north to south from Hokkaido to Kyushu by a wonderfully eccentric British expatriate. (JPN11, $16.00)
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan  •  Isabella Bird   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Bird's narrative of her travels in Japan in 1878, just after the country re-opened its doors to the world. She wasted little time on the cities, heading straight out to meet the peasants in their fields. (JPN94, $12.95)
About This Life, Journeys on the Threshold of Memory  •  Barry Lopez   • ANTHOLOGY  •  A collection of essays on far-flung travels -- both actual and internal -- by the wonderful writer and traveler. Lopez includes Galapagos, Hokkaido, Bonaire and Antarctica among the thoughtful essays. (GEN42, $13.95)
Japan, A Traveler's Literary Companion  •  Jeffrey Angles  •  Thomas Rimer  •  Donald Richie   • ANTHOLOGY  •  This marvelous anthology, organized geographically, is both an introduction to Japan and to its best contemporary writers. (JPN187, $14.95)
Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches  •  Nobuyuki Yuasa  •  Basho Matsuo   • LITERATURE  •  These marvelous prose-and-poetry sketches by the famous poet wanderer Basho (1644-94) invoke the mysteries of the cosmos manifest in the Japanese landscape. With some of the most perfect 17-syllable haiku ever composed. (JPN91, $13.00)
The Samurai  •  Shusaku Endo   • LITERATURE  •  This historical novel by one of Japan's best-known modern writers is set in the world of the 17th-century Samurai. Endo, a Roman Catholic, explored Christianity and morals in his many novels and stories. (JPN157, $14.95)
Thousand Cranes  •  Yasunari Kawabata  •  Edward G. Seidensticker   • LITERATURE  •  This novella by the great Kawabata may be Japan's best-known literary work. It's a story of love, grief, and redemption. Kawabata's prose is as economical as the tea ceremony itself, and very beautiful. (JPN34, $12.95)
The Art of Setting Stones & Other Writings from the Japanese Garden  •  Marc P. Keane   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  In these lyrical essays Kyoto-resident and landscape architect Marc Peter Keane takes eight gardens of his adopted home as a point of departure for reflections on nature, religion and aesthetics. (JPN124, $16.95)
The Lost Wolves of Japan  •  Brett L. Walker   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  Drawing on Japanese history, literature, folklore and biology, Walker looks at the forces that caused the extinction of the wolves in Japan. (JPN215, $35.00)
Volcanoes, Fire From the Earth  •  Maurice Krafft   • NATURAL HISTORY • COMING IN  •  This illustrated pocket encyclopedia in the Discoveries series, featuring hundreds of full color paintings, traces the study of volcanoes from early myth and legend to modern science. By the great French volcanologist (who died on the job on Mount Unzen in Japan in 1992). (GEO06, $12.95)
Wild Asia, Spirit of a Continent  •  Mark Brazil  •  Art Wolfe   • NATURAL HISTORY  •  A lavishly illustrated survey of the wildlife and habitats of Asia, organized by bioregion. With 180 color photographs by Art Wolfe, Mitsuaki Iwago and others, it covers the diverse plants, animals and landscapes of the Himalayas, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East. (ASA33, $49.95)
A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia  •  Shimba Tadao   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This comprehensive guide, featuring 800 color photo-graphs, up-to-date range maps and identification, covers the birds of not only Japan but also neighboring mainland Korea, Northeast China and Eastern Siberia. (JPN264, $40.00)
Birds of Europe, Russia, China, and Japan: Passerines: Tyrant Flycatchers to Buntings  •  Norman Arlott   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This Princeton Illustrated Checklist, the first of two planned books, features 80 color plates with range maps and succinct descriptions. (EUR276, $29.95)