Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

"Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" was written by Isabella L. Bird, one of the most famous British travelers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her destinations included Canada, the United States (the Rocky Mountains), Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Persia, Kurdistan, China, and Morocco. She is particularly known for her intrepidness and lively writing style. Written in the form of letters to her sister, "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" is viewed as a classic of travel writing and a valuable account of little documented areas of Japan in that era. Rather than stay in the Tokyo region or travel south to Kyoto, the mecca of Japanese civilization, she chose to travel north through the most arduously mountainous areas and eventually visit the island of Hokkaido, where lived the indigenous Ainu. "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" provides a fascinating firsthand account of the Japanese countryside and its inhabitants, detailed descriptions of nature, and interesting observations about the customs and characteristics of both the Japanese and Ainu people. Isabella Bird deliberately chose to avoid the main routes as she traveled northward, and for the villagers she meets along the way, she is the first foreigner that they have ever laid their eyes upon. The reaction that she provokes is enough to make you laugh as Isabella does a good job of describing the scene before her eyes while travelling the "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan."