An Alaskan alone—and lonely—in Japan, she begins to pay attention.My Year of Dirt and Water is a record of that journey. Allowed only occasional and formal visits to see her cloistered husband, Tracy teaches English, studies Japanese, and devotes herself to making pottery. Her teacher instructs her to turn cup after cup—creating one failure after another. Past and present, East and West intertwine as Tracy is twice compelled to return home to Alaska to confront her mother’s newly diagnosed cancer and the ghosts of a devastating childhood. Revolving through the days, My Year of Dirt and Water circles hard questions: What is love? What is art? What is practice? What do we do with the burden of suffering? The answers are formed and then unformed—a ceramic bowl born on the wheel and then returned again and again to dirt and water.

    Whether it’s the cutting edge of film-making, revolutionizing the whisky market or competing with parents on lunchboxes, you’ll be all the better for some time spent with How to Live Japanese. With nearly 60 per cent of us living in cities, the mega-city of Tokyo, through centuries of raze and rebuild, is surely the guiding light for how we can live together amicably in an ever-urbanising world.   Not only is Japan the mother of all metropolis’ but with two thirds of the country covered in forest, there is still much respect and celebration of the natural world, with people perfectly placed to make the most of the green space around them. From the art of making tea, to going for a hike, or celebrating imperfections, there are ceremonies the Japanese have been honing for centuries that thrive alongside modern traditions and practices of well-being.   From Japanese writer, Yutaka Yazawa, this is the ultimate insider’s guide to the country of Japan, full of inspiration and insight to help you experience the very best of Japanese design, cookery, philosophy, and culture. So get outdoors, be gracious to your neighbour and start harmonizing your all too busy life. From the How To Live... series of insightful guides to some of the most intriguing cultures and locations on the planet, other books available include How To Live Icelandic, How To Live Korean and How to Live North.

    With little money and even even less nautical experience they leave their small-town home in Arkansas to embark on an adventure they hope will last for a year or two but which evolves into a quarter-century voyage of discovery spanning half the world. Come along with Randy and Cheryl as they cruise their small boat to intriguing destinations that you won’t find in any tourist brochure. Along the way they discover the best and worst the sailing life has to offer as they visit twenty-nine countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America and the South Pacific. Their adventures and misadventures include encounters with hurricanes, thieves, drug smugglers and a disastrous tsunami as well as lasting new friendships formed with local people and fellow sailors all along their route. Cruising under sail is a lifestyle like no other and though there are sometimes hardships, those who take the plunge will be rewarded with a life of adventure and freedom that may be impossible to find any other way in the modern world.

    Travelling over 20,000 kilometres on trains across Europe and Asia, he sets out to reach his objective via the little used Trans-Manchurian route across Siberia to Beijing, and from there to the Qinghai–Tibet railway across the Tibetan Plateau – the highest railway in the world. Unprepared for what he is to experience in Lhasa, he discovers a city in modern-day China, but a place still largely living in the traditions of a truly mythical past. Those that know Woodward’s writing will appreciate his honest and humorous reflections of life on the rails, and his efforts – sometimes successful – to decode cultural misunderstandings. He tells his story with thoughtfulness and introspection you’d expect of a solo traveller, and gives you the detail that makes an incredible journey like this feel possible for you, too.

    With warmth and candor, Bruce Feiler recounts the year he spent as a teacher in a small rural town. Beginning with a ritual outdoor bath and culminating in an all-night trek to the top of Mt. Fuji, Feiler teaches his students about American culture, while they teach him everything from how to properly address an envelope to how to date a Japanese girl.

    And then he met Sachiko.Vivacious, attractive, thoroughly educated, speaking English enthusiastically if eccentrically, the wife of a Japanese "salaryman" who seldom left the office before 10 P.M., Sachiko was as conversant with tea ceremony and classical Japanese literature as with rock music, Goethe, and Vivaldi. With the lightness of touch that made Video Night in Kathmandu so captivating, Pico Iyer fashions from their relationship a marvelously ironic yet heartfelt book that is at once a portrait of cross-cultural infatuation -- and misunderstanding -- and a delightfully fresh way of seeing both the old Japan and the very new.

    She imagined posh flights and swanky hotels. Then I said the three words every girl longs to hear: Volkswagen camper van.’This frank and funny true story of a 'family gap year' like no other shows how the passing comment of a bored 9-year-old can snowball into an absurd expedition into strange lands, financial peril and some distinctly unsavoury living arrangements. With Strawberry Fields New York in their sights, the Beatnik Beatles inadvertently gatecrash an Italian wedding, suffer brutal torture at the hands of a Turkish masseur, appear in a Bollywood film and trust their entire journey across Australia to the whim of an army of online-blog followers - and all to a Lennon & McCartney soundtrack, played badly on instruments bought on eBay.Got a taste for adventurous travel? Ever felt the peril of performing in public? Tried to entertain children on a very, very long car journey? Great! Do you want to join a band?‘It’s a dirty story of a dirty man.’Paul McCartney‘Please stop calling us.’The Times Literary Supplement‘We do not condone absenteeism on this scale.’Oxfordshire Education Authority(From Amazon.co.uk)

    Sick of the weather, perennial colds and their increasingly routine lifestyle, they’d all been getting restless. Finally, Guy and Juliet broke in spectacular style – they re-mortgaged their house and bought a yacht. Her name was Forever.The plan? To pick up Forever from her mooring in the Leeward Antilles off the coast of Venezuela, and sail around the West Indies before crossing the Atlantic back to Scotland. This was despite the fact that Guy, skipper of the expedition, had almost no sailing experience.Travelling around the lush tropical islands of the Caribbean and up the waterways of America, the family had countless sublime moments as they discovered the freedoms of sailing – anchoring in deserted bays, night passages under star-studded skies, and entering New York by water, greeted by the Statue of Liberty. But there were also testing times as they grappled with seasickness and bad weather, coping with young children at sea and learning to run a large, complex boat. Far from being the idyllic escape they’d envisaged, the journey forced Guy and Juliet to draw on reserves of courage and endurance they never knew they had.Wry, funny and buccaneering, this is a compelling tale of bravery and endeavour, out on the open sea.

    What could possibly go wrong? “What was I thinking? In that moment of madness, I completely forgot that I’m a total wuss, terrified of heights. In my defense, it doesn’t come up much in my city life, although I do need to practice meditative deep breathing on freeway overpasses….” So swept along by the enthusiasm of her usually very predictable husband, a newly retired engineer, Laurel agrees to leave her overly busy life behind, let go of her worries about her grown children, and spend two months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She hopes the shared adventure will bring added intimacy to her odd-couple marriage and that time in nature will support her spiritual growth, or at least help her talk some sense into her rampaging inner critic. Despite paralyzing fear, sickness, injury, and hail, the majestic grandeur of the High Sierra did work some kind of miracle. “I picked up Waking up in a Tent, planning to spend a few minutes looking it over. Before I knew it, two hours had flown by and I was halfway through the book. Much of the book’s charm comes from Laurel’s determination to bring a spiritual perspective to hardships on the trail and friction with her husband. It’s not only a great read, but an education in how to maintain a rewarding marriage.” Carolyn Godschild Miller, Ph.D. author of Creating Miracles, A Practical Guide to Divine Intervention “I’ve never been backpacking, but I felt I was there on the trail with Laurel and John, marveling at the beauty around me. Although Laurel struggles, she never takes herself too seriously, and that’s where the humor comes in. I laughed out loud at the depictions of her inner dialogue.” Joan Bell

    Searching for uninhabited islands, blue holes, serenity, surf, and natural beauty, the author encounters all this, as well as foul weather, sharks, a near-death experience, beautiful sunsets, enchanting islands, a hermit, friendly sailors, coral reefs, whales, eels, and an old friend. The reader will feel the power of the ocean and the exhilaration of the wind in the sails, the hand on the tiller, and the spray in the face. We will travel to the bottom of the ocean in blue holes and poke our heads into caves that lead to the depths the earth. We will ride waves alone on an offshore reef. We will face beasts who are considering whether or not to eat us. We will meditate in a stone hermitage on top of the highest hill in The Bahamas. We will face our fears and reap the rewards in the currency of nature. Solo-sailing technique is occasionally discussed, and both successes and mistakes are included. Descriptions and GPS coordinates of all anchorages and islands visited are included. Islands visited include Eleuthera, Cat Island, Long Island, Water Cay, Flamingo Cay (the Jumentos Cays), Raccoon Cay, Buenavista Cay, Hog Cay (the Ragged Islands) Rum Cay, Conception Island, Georgetown, Little Galliot Cay, Bitter Guana Cay, Warderick Wells, Shroud Cay, Highbourne Cay (the Exumas), Bird Cay (the Berry Islands), New Providence, and Gun Cay. Step outside of your comfort zone and come along for the ride!

    

     Napoleon Bonaparte These prophetic words are the beginning of an adventure. When two intrepid Aussies decide to buy a house in France after living on a boat for 11 years, they get more than baguettes and stinky cheese. Wonderful neighbours, horrible drains, fabulous wine, French taxes. Boat to Baguette is a humorous rollercoaster ride as Hettie and Boomie make France their new home.

    This is the 2006 Edition of the original, acclaimed Route 66 Map Series by Mother Road historians Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross. In print continuously since 1994, the Route 66 Map Series remains the #1 choice for roadies worldwide when it comes to functionality and precise, accurate, turn-by-turn driving directions. Designed for today’s tourists, this packaged set of eight roadmaps, one for each Route 66 state, provides an easy to follow “through route” aimed at keeping you on track and maximizing your Mother Road experience. Designed with a “treasure map” theme and generously illustrated with original art, points of interest and historical text, the Route 66 Map Series is the most trusted guide material available and the only “must have” you will need as you explore America’s legendary highway, regardless of where you begin or what direction you travel.

    The Roads to Sata is his wry, witty, inimitable account of that prodigious trek.Although he was a city person--he was brought up in London and spent most of his adult life in Tokyo--Booth had an extraordinary ability to capture the feel of rural Japan in his writing. Throughout his long and arduous trek, he encountered a variety of people who inhabit the Japanese countryside--from fishermen and soldiers, to bar hostesses and school teachers, to hermits, drunks, and tramps. His wonderful and often hilarious descriptions of these encounters are the highlights of these pages, painting a multifaceted picture of Japan from the perspective of an outsider, but with the knowledge of an insider.The Roads to Sata is travel writing at its best, illuminating and disarming, poignant yet hilarious, critical but respectful. Traveling across Japan with Alan Booth, readers will enjoy the wit and insight of a uniquely perceptive guide, and more importantly, they will discover a new face of an often misunderstood nation.

    When renowned translator Hanne Schubert falls down a flight of stairs, her injury is an unusual but real condition--the loss of her native language. She is left speaking only Japanese, a language learned later in life. With her personal life at a crossroad, Hanne leaves for Japan. There, the Japanese novelist whose work she translated stunningly confronts her publicly for sabotaging his work. Reeling, Hanne struggles for meaning and seeks out the inspiration for the author's novel--a tortured, chimerical actor, once a master in the art of Noh theater. Through their passionate and intriguing relationship, Hanne begins to understand the masks she has worn in her life, just as the actor dons the masks that have made him a legend of Noh. The demons from her past and present begin to unfold and Hanne sets out to make amends in this searing and engrossing novel.