Tochi gets and invitation to play in a building that is 100 stories tall! But it is so tall! Can he climb 100 stories? This unique book is read up from the ground floor.

    Known to carry large wicker baskets filled with tea utensils through the streets and surrounding hills of Japan's capital, Baisao set up shop wherever he ended up and brewed tea for those who came to enjoy the scenery with him. Establishing a quiet, simple life, Baisao spent his final years composing poetry, brewing tea, and teaching Zen, in the process becoming a well-loved figure. These poems, memoirs, and letters tell us more about this endearing person and trace his long life's profound spiritual journey. This comprehensive translation includes nearly all of Baisao's writings, giving us a deep look at this remarkable man.

    

    Over seven gruelling months, Canadian Jeff Fuchs took on the challenge of following traditional muleteers along this twelve-hundred-year-old route. Documenting his travels in rich and eloquent detail, with stunning photography, Fuchs brings to life a path that has been an escape route, trade highway, and an adventure destination, battling frostbite, snow blindness, and hunger along the way.

    Marc Peter Keane describes the history, design, and aesthetics of tea gardens, from T’ang China to the present day, with over one hundred stunning photographs, floor plans, and illustrations. The most extensive book on this genre ever published in English, The Japanese Tea Garden is a rich resource for garden lovers, landscape designers, and architects—and anyone who admires the striking aesthetic of the Japanese garden.Marc Peter Keane lived in Japan for 20 years, designing gardens for individuals, companies, and temples. He has written 3 other books on Japanese garden design. He is affiliated with the Research Center for Japanese Garden Art at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, the East Asian Program at Cornell University, and the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies at Columbia University.

    Arresting color photographs of a wide variety of trees and close-ups of many of their remarkable features provide an enormous amount of information in a highly accessible format. The volume illustrates how trees grow and function, looks at their astounding diversity and adaptations, documents the key role they play in ecosystems, and explores the multitude of uses to which we put trees—from timber and pharmaceuticals to shade and shelter. A highly absorbing read cover to cover or dipped into at random, Trees: A Visual Guide delves into many specific topics: the details of flowers, bark, and roots; profiles of favorite trees; how animals and insects interact with trees; trees in urban landscapes; the role trees play in our changing climate; deforestation and reforestation; and much more. With clear diagrams, illustrations, and intriguing sidebars on many featured topics, this unique volume is a complete visual guide to the magnificence of the arboreal world.

    Written by one of the country’s leading tea professionals, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea is an illuminating resource for tea drinkers interested in developing and refining their palate as well as their understanding of the complex agricultural, historical, and cultural significance of tea. Drawing on his singular experience, Michael Harney masterly explores the full range of teas, revealing how each tea is distinctive, with a taste that derives from a precise combination of cultivation and production techniques, and influenced by the geography as well as its history. These lively profiles of diverse tea varieties—from delicate white tea to aged black puerh tea—include brewing instructions and vivid descriptions of the beverage scent, taste, and appearance; everything you need to become a connoisseur. Tea has long been popular in the United States, but only recently have Americans treated this nuanced beverage with a deeper curiosity, more refined approach, and wider appetite. The Wall Street Journal reports that total U.S. tea sales are nearly four times what they were in 1990, and this growing population of discriminate consumers will celebrate the new vocabulary provided in The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea. Unique in scope, candor, and accessibility, The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea will quickly become the classic reference and staple in the library of every serious tea drinker.

    Great Ancient China Projects covers topics from porcelain pottery, paper, gunpowder, and dynasties, to martial arts, medicinal healers, jade carvers, and terracotta warriors. With step-by-step activities, kids will learn how to construct a house with proper feng shui and create a simple Chinese hanging compass. Historical facts and anecdotes, biographies, and fascinating trivia support the fun projects and teach kids about this innovative society and its continued influence on modern culture.