In 1889 Westerner PATRICK LAFCADIO HEARN (1850-1904)-bohemian, newspaper writer, restless traveler-arrived in Japan on a journalistic assignment, and he fell so in love with the nation and its people that he never left. This 1910 collection of essays Hearn, in his inimitable warmly intimate style, shares languid Japanese fairy tales, introduces us to his university students and their delightful writings on childhood, explores the Asian delicacy toward love and romance even in literature, and much more. Elegant and fascinating, Hearn's outsider's look at what was then and remains in many ways today a culture alien to Western minds is a classic of travel journalism and cultural study.
