MOUNTAIN TRAVEL-SOBEK
Hiking in Northern Japan   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

Essential Books These 5 items are available for $71, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXJPN81)
E-mail this reading guide
Printer-friendly version
E-mail
Print
For Kids
Select
Item
Insight Guide Japan  •   Insight Guides
GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 400 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, $23.99)
  Insight Guide Japan
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)
  In Praise of Shadows
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)
  The Art and Culture of Japan
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)
  Travelers' Tales Japan
Japan Map  •   Periplus Maps
MAP
Handsome, accurate and regularly updated, 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. Two Sides. 20x38 inches. (JPN06, $8.95)
  Japan Map
 

Related Categories
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. (JPN05, $11.95)
 
 
The Birds of Japan  •  Mark Brazil   • REFERENCE • OUT OF PRINT  •  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, $19.95)
 
 
Inventing Japan, 1853-1964  •  Ian Buruma   • HISTORY  •  Buruma offers admirably succinct, dramatic history of Japan's transformation from feudal state to host of the 1964 Olympics, with a 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, $24.00)
 
 
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, $13.99)
 
 
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  •  A marvelous, geographically organized anthology, introducing both Japan and 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 • OUT OF PRINT  •  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 and text by contributors including Mark Brazil, the book covers the diverse plants, animals and landscapes across Asia, from the Himalayas to 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  •  Featuring 800 color photographs, up-to-date range maps and notes on identification. (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)
 
 


Related Categories
Here are some other groups of books that might interest you. Click to view a listing:

More Books
For Kids