Japan is in my sights as a future travel destination. Given the pandemic, my travel to Japan is solely through books for the moment. I have always enjoyed reading books about a place before and during a trip. Japan is a complex country with a deep history and rich culture. I no longer remember where I found these recommendations, since they are not your typical Japan travel books. I enjoyed them because they are very pleasurable books, which happen to offer a few small insights into a country I do not know.

The first book is Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer. Born in England, of East Indian heritage, partially raised in California while educated in England, married to a Japanese woman, he spans cultures in a way that brings perspective to his travel writing. This is his second book about Japan, and a meditation on friendships, ageing and death. Iyer gently tells stories about his in-laws, his friends at his ping pong club, going to the post office and the beauty of brilliant red maple leaves in autumn. He deeply understands and loves Japan, but recognizes that …

I never will be a true citizen here, and will always be an outsider, however long I live here and however well I speak the language. And the society around me is as comfortable with that as I am… I am not rooted in a place, I think, so much as in certain values and affiliations and friendships that I carry everywhere I go; my home is both invisible and portable.

Source – Wikipedia

Wabi Sabi was totally unexpected. I had written a note, obviously quoting my mysterious source, that it is “a philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection”. The book of that title is written by Mark Reibstein and illustrated by Ed Young. My local library categorizes it as a children’s book, but like so many in that genre, adults can also enjoy the story of a cat in Kyoto in search of the meaning of her name. She goes to Mount Hiei, and having just read Autumn Light, I knew the significance of this. That is how reading Japan travel books is slowing building a tiny bit of insight for me. It seems appropriate to include this haiku from Wabi Sabi:

a traveler

I may be called:

the first winter drizzle

A few other recommendations from my limited repertoire:

• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. His own website describes his books as mind-bending. This one explores a parallel universe in 1984, not coincidentally the year of George Orwell’s dystopic classic.
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. David Mitchell is best known for his equally mind-bending Cloud Atlas, but this novel is a magnificent story of big themes set in Japan in 1799.
• Is it fiction or not? That doesn’t matter since I sure enjoyed Giri/Haji on Netflix, which translates as Duty/Shame, a modern day gangster/cop story.
• During the pandemic, the Guardian has been publishing a literary trips series. Here is the article on Japanese novels – I have not read any of them yet, but they promise to take me there. Until the day that I can actually go.