Suggested Reading List
A Traveller's History of Japan
Author: Richard Tames
Description: A lively and concise narrative history of Japan and its transformation from Shinto, Shogun and Samurai traditions to 20th-century powerhouse.
Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia
Author: Mark Brazil
Description: 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.
Eyewitness Guide Japan
Author: Eyewitness Guides
Description: Dazzling illustrations, architectural cutaways and color photographs, along with useful local maps, give this guide to Japan's many attractions a distinct edge.
Author: John Hersey
Description: 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.
In Our Image, America's Empire in the Philippines
Author: Stanley Karnow
Description: An outstanding Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Philippines by historian Stanley Karnow.
In Praise of Shadows
Author: Junichiro Tanizaki
Description: This extended essay by the great Japanese novelist, first published in 1933, offers tremendous insight into traditional Japanese art, architecture and design.
Author: Periplus Maps
Description: This convenient map covers the island nation at a scale of 1:2,000,000, with insets of the major cities.
Japan, A Traveler's Literary Companion
Author: Jeffrey Angles (Editor)
Description: This geographically-organized anthology introduces both Japan and its best contemporary writers.
Japan, Its History and Culture
Author: W. Scott Morton
Description: An introduction to Japanese history, people and culture from ancient origins to contemporary society. With selections from Japanese literature and arts, anecdotes and illustrations.
Learning to Bow, Inside the Heart of Japan
Author: Bruce Feiler
Description: 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.
Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook
Author: Yoshi Abe
Description: A handy palm-sized guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler.
Philippines Illustrated Map
Author: Odyssey Maps
Description: Featuring dozens of color photographs and a second map showing cultural and historical highlights, this excellent map and guide shows the island nation at a scale of 1:1,950,000.
Playing With Water: A Passion and Solitude on a Philippine Island
Author: James Hamilton-Paterson
Description: In this altogether wonderful memoir, Hamilton-Paterson writes with unusual warmth of his time among the villagers -- and under the water -- on a small Filipino island.
Reef Fish Identification, Tropical Pacific
Author: Paul Humann, Ned Deloach, Gerald Allen, Roger Steene
Description: This comprehensive guide to Indo-Pacific reef fishes features 2,500 color photographs.
Southeast Asia Map
Description: A clear, double-sided map of all of Southeast Asia at a scale of 1:4,500,000.
Taiwan, A New History
Author: Murray A. Rubinstein (Editor)
Description: This scholarly history of Taiwan by diverse contributors covers the economy, culture, politics and development of Taiwan from ancient time to modern nation.
The Art of Setting Stones & Other Writings from the Japanese Garden
Author: Marc P. Keane
Description: 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.
The Inland Sea
Author: Donald Richie
Description: Richie's masterpiece, more than a travel account, is a beautiful reflection on all things Japanese by one of its most acute observers.
Vanishing Treasures of the Philippine Rain Forest
Author: Jacinto Regalado, Jr., Lawrence Heaney
Description: A richly illustrated account of the diversity, wildlife and threats to the rain forest of the Philippines.