The Japanese Chronicles

By Nicolas Bouvier

Book Overview

In The Japanese Chronicles, Swiss travel writer and photographer Nicolas Bouvier shares his intimate experience of Japan. Based on three decades of travel throughout the islands, his reports, recollections, and reflections take the reader beyond the commonplace and into an unexpected landscape. Whether describing village festivals or the suburbs of Kyoto, retelling Japanese myth and history, composing poems, reflecting on Noh performances, or sketching memorable portraits in a few deft words, Bouvier takes the reader with him into the heart of his experience of the land of the rising sun.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1906011044
• ISBN13: 9781906011048
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Eland Publishing
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Impressions of Japan by a Swiss-French writer

Excellent writer, however sometimes specially at the end of the book he sort of loose focus and ramble a little bit. He explored Japan at a time when Japan was affordable, mid-fifties, and sixties and the Japanese people in general were less cosmopolitan, so there is great charm in that, as for today I am sure some of that charm is lost, of course this is not a travel guide, but reminiscences of his stays there, and his impressions as an educated Swiss-French writer.

Excellent!

I read this book one month into a year-stay in Japan. The country which was becoming increasingly unattractive to me became fascinating again. I love this book. Like Alan Booth, the author presents Japan and its people in a unsentimental, yet loving way. Highly recommended.