Contemporary Japan   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Essential Books These 6 items are available for $91, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXJPN98)		  
Eyewitness Guide Japan  •  Eyewitness Guides
GUIDEBOOK •  2011 •  PAPER  • 408 PAGES
This superb guide to all of Japan features color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a region-by-region synopsis of the country's attractions. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, the volume is an excllent overview of the country. For more detailed practical information, especially for an independent traveler, consider Gateway to Japan. (JPN130, $28.00)		   Eyewitness Guide Japan
The Inland Sea  •  Donald Richie
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 255 PAGES • FAVORITE
Richie's book, on its surface a travel account, is a beautiful reflection on all things Japanese by one of the country's most acute observers. Anyone with an interest in Japan would enjoy this book, those on a voyage through the inland sea even more so. Written after many decades in Japan, The Inland Sea is among the best of the master's many books. Arturo Silva, who edited the Donald Richie Reader, calls it his masterpiece (and a work of fiction). (JPN13, $16.95)		   The Inland Sea
Japan, A Traveler's Literary Companion  •  Jeffrey Angles
ANTHOLOGY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES
This marvelous anthology, organized geographically, is both an introduction to Japan and to its contemporary writers. Donald Richie underscores Japan as a small place of great diversity in his appreciative foreword. (JPN187, $14.95)		   Japan, A Traveler's Literary Companion
In Praise of Shadows  •  Junichiro Tanizaki
ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2010 •  PAPER  • 73 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, $16.00)		   In Praise of Shadows
The Art and Culture of Japan  •  Nelly Delay
ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES
Lavishly illustrated, this handy pocket encyclopedia in the Discoveries series introduces the art, architecture and culture of Japan. With 165 archival and modern illustrations and a section of original documents. (JPN51, $12.95)		   The Art and Culture of Japan
Japan Map  •  Periplus Maps
2009 •  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



Also Recommended

South Korea Map  •  ITMB    •  A convenient folded map of South Korea at the very good scale of 1:550,000. (KOR09, $12.95)
 		  
Fodor's Tokyo's 25 Best  •  Fodor's Guides   • GUIDEBOOK • COMING IN JUNE  •  A shirt-pocket map and practical guide. (JPN05, $11.99)
 		  
Insight Guide South Korea  •  Insight Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  With stunning, color photography on every page, hundreds of maps and indepth essays on history, culture and attractions. (KOR37, $23.99)
 		  
Japan Bilingual Map  •  Kodansha International   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This full-color double-sided map includes the entirety of Japan at a scale of 1:500,000, as well as individual maps of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya and Fuji-Hakone. (JPN209, $14.95)
 		  
Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook  •  Yoshi Abe   • LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS  •  A handy palm-sized guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (JPN136, $8.99)
 		  
Old Kyoto, A Guide to Traditional Shops and Inns  •  Diane Durston   • GUIDEBOOK  •  Wonderful, elegant essays on carefully chosen shops, often in out-of-the-way neighborhoods. (JPN24, $22.00)
 		  
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)
 		  
Everyday Life in Traditional Japan  •  Charles J. Dunn   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  This detailed evocation of traditional Edo Japan portrays all walks of life -- samurai, farmers, courtiers, priests, outcasts and merchants -- with hundreds of marvelous black and white illustrations. (JPN331, $16.95)
 		  
Getting Wet, Adventures in the Japanese Bath  •  Eric Talmadge   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE  •  Tokyo-based Talmadge journeys from seaside resorts to mountain retreats and megaplexes in this cultural history of Japan through the tradition of the bath. (JPN197, $22.00)
 		  
Hiroshima  •  John Hersey   • HISTORY  •  Never sensational, this 1946 classic by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hersey puts a human face on the unthinkable. Hersey explores the tragedy through interviews with residents, scientists and politicians. (JPN20, $7.95)
 		  
Inventing Japan, 1853-1964  •  Ian Buruma   • HISTORY  •  A favorite writer with keen insight about Japan, Buruma offers an 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)
 		  
The Rules of Play, National Identity and the Shaping of Japanese Leisure  •  David Leheny   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A cultural and political portrait of contemporary Japan by a Princeton professor of East Asian studies. (JPN376, $36.95)
 		  
Think Global, Fear Local: Sex, Violence, and Anxiety in Contemporary Japan  •  David Leheny   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A cultural and political portrait of contemporary Japan by a Princeton professor of East Asian studies. (JPN375, $21.00)
 		  
Zen and Japanese Culture  •  Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  Suzuki describes Zen, its ideas, origins and practice in simple, poetic language, conveying how the Zen emphasis on simplicity has shaped a Japanese aesthetic. A classic by the hugely influential Zen master, first published in 1959. (JPN338, $29.95)
 		  
Japanese Architecture, A Short History  •  A. L. Sadler   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  Sadler's classic study, first published in 1941, is a lucid introduction to Japanese architecture from prehistory to the modern Edo period. With black and white illustrations. (JPN363, $19.95)
 		  
Japanese Gardens  •  Gunter Nitschke   • ART & ARCHITECTURE • COMING IN  •  In keeping with the aesthetics of a Japanese garden, Gunter Nitschke has produced a simple but elegant tribute with this collection of photographs. (JPN270, $14.99)
 		  
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)
 		  
Black Arrow  •  I. J. Parker   • MYSTERY  •  Detective Akitada must solve a series of brutal slayings in the northern city of Echigo. (JPN201, $15.00)
 		  
Japan, Through Writer's Eyes  •  Elizabeth Ingrams   • ANTHOLOGY  •  These tales by both Japanese writers and visitors, including Pico Iyer, Junichiro Tanizaki and Jan Morris, illuminate the history and culture of Japan. (JPN351, $33.95)
 		  
Memoirs of a Geisha, A Novel  •  Arthur Golden   • LITERATURE  •  The runaway best-selling novel about a geisha in the celebrated Gion district of Kyoto. A major feat of literary impersonation, the novel is rich in period detail and ceremony. (JPN45, $15.95)
 		  
South of the Border, West of the Sun  •  Haruki Murakami   • LITERATURE  •  Murakami stirs jazz, neon-lit streets, out of the way shrines, hustle and bustle and wonder into this lyrical tale of love in contemporary Tokyo. (JPN213, $14.95)
 		  
The Hell Screen  •  I. J. Parker   • MYSTERY  •  Suguwara Akitada returns in another mystery of 11th-century Japan, with rich ambiance and superb historical detail. This time, a murder in a temple catches Akitada unprepared. (JPN327, $14.00)
 		  
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. A Roman Catholic, Endo 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, a story of love, grief and redemption. Kawabata's prose is as economical as the tea ceremony itself, and very beautiful. (JPN34, $13.95)
 		  
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 East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia  •  Mark Brazil   • FIELD GUIDE  •  Brazil's comprehensive guide, featuring 234 color plates, includes Japan, Taiwan and the islands along with the adjacent areas of Asia from Kamchatka to Korea. (JPN332, $39.95)
 		  
 
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