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272nd out of 336 books
—
203 voters
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
This classic travel book details Isabella Bird's 1878 trip, where she set out alone to explore the interior of Japan - a rarity not only because of Bird's sex but because the country was virtually unknown to Westerners. The Japan she describes is not the sentimental world of Madame Butterfly but a vibrant land of real people with a complex culture and hardscrabble lives.
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
October 11th 2000
by Travelers' Tales
(first published 1881)
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What a coincidence, I just realized that all three explorers in my list of books were born in Yorkshire. James Cook, Douglas Mawson, and now Isabella L. Bird.
This is an extraordinary book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Bird's letters describing her journey through Tohoku and Hokkaido in 1878. I like the way she engaged totally with her surroundings, asking lots of questions, visiting houses, hospitals, people and writing detailed descriptions of everything. The Japan she describes is not the one...more
This is an extraordinary book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Bird's letters describing her journey through Tohoku and Hokkaido in 1878. I like the way she engaged totally with her surroundings, asking lots of questions, visiting houses, hospitals, people and writing detailed descriptions of everything. The Japan she describes is not the one...more
One of my favorite travel books by this intrepid Englishwoman, traveling through the "backwoods" of Japan in 1878. Though she was an invalid when at home, she rode horseback through wild country, was out in the elements during downpours that led to landslides and washed-out roads, slept on the floor, clawed her way up mountains, and generally put any one of us to shame with her ambition and her tenacity. She was not politically correct, yet she had a deep concern for the people among whom she tr...more
Isabella L. Bird rocks my world. I am continually in awe at her strength, persistence, and ability to rough it anywhere in the world. To top it off, she's a fabulous writer!
This book (like her others) is a collection of the letters she wrote home to her sister in England while she traveled the world in the 1870s "for her health". In this book, she reports on her observations of Japan, including her adventures on truly unbeaten tracks, interactions with the natives, continual suffering from fleas...more
This book (like her others) is a collection of the letters she wrote home to her sister in England while she traveled the world in the 1870s "for her health". In this book, she reports on her observations of Japan, including her adventures on truly unbeaten tracks, interactions with the natives, continual suffering from fleas...more
Isabella Brid gives us a view that the history books leave out of Japan in early Meiji. It's fascinating to see what aspects of Japanese culture have stayed constant, and which have changed radically. At the same time, what a piece of imperialist writing this is! What kind of "explorer" needs to be carried by "natives"? This book says as much about British assumptions of power and propriety as it does about the Japanese.
Ms Bird was an intrepid traveler in the late 1800s, early 1900s.... Memory dim on that. Not certain the Japanese would be so thrilled with her depictions of them. She makes them seem rather primitive. She likes them, they like her, and she sometimes helps - removes a fish bone from a baby's throat - and they help her with her difficulties in traveling in the remote areas.
Nice snapshots of old Japan.
Nice snapshots of old Japan.
Think Samantha Brown from the Travel Channel's Passport series or Justine Shapiro from PBS's Globe Trekker. Then go back 130 years.
This solo traveller from England explored Japan in an era where Japan was virtually unknown to most of theworld. The ictures she paints with her words are a fascinating look at real people. Except for the language we consider formal andstilted today,
This solo traveller from England explored Japan in an era where Japan was virtually unknown to most of theworld. The ictures she paints with her words are a fascinating look at real people. Except for the language we consider formal andstilted today,
Very readable and entertaining but any anthropological or political observations should be taken with a large does of salt. Like many travelers of those days she has a bias through which she views the world.
This tells us more about 19th century British attitudes than about Japanese culture but it's a good read and a classic of the "uncomfortable Brits abroad" genre.
I have never been to Japan, but I can imagine how things have changed since she traveled there.
Re-read this wonderful book while in Japan and loved it even more the second time.
The back cover blurb rightly lauds Bird as a feminist pioneer and astute observer of rural Japanese life in the late 19th century; however, the blurb doesn't mention Bird's embarrasing attitude towards the majority of those people (with the exception of the Ainu). She describes people in dehumanising terms (such as "creatures"), and consistently talks about how ugly and wretched and diseased they are. I suppose it's too much to expect cultural relativism from her era, but I found many parts of t...more
Isabella Bird is an amazing character, a very intrepid lady.
I was inspired to read this after seeing an exhibition of modern photographs of many of the places she visited and the geography she covered is awe -inspiring, especially as she was a lady of a certain age suffering from back problems.
My copy of the book is to be posted off to my Mum to read next.
I was inspired to read this after seeing an exhibition of modern photographs of many of the places she visited and the geography she covered is awe -inspiring, especially as she was a lady of a certain age suffering from back problems.
My copy of the book is to be posted off to my Mum to read next.
Sep 03, 2012
Roxanne
marked it as to-read
cannot wait to start...Isabella Bird is one of my heroines, having come through Colorado in 1876 and writing of her time here in "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" such a brave traveler
Isabella Bird's view of Japan in the early Meiji Era is a wonderful mixture of a imperialistic view of other cultures and some sheer insight and appreciation for other cultures.
Fascinating first-person account of rural Japan in the late 1800's.
A wonderful gift from Craig, a great insight into the old ways of Japan through a courageous English lady's travels.
May 20, 2013
Misty
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May 16, 2013
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Isabella Lucy Bird (October 15, 1831 – October 7, 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian.
Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victori...more
More about Isabella L. Bird...
Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victori...more
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“Truly a good horse, good ground to gallop on, and sunshine, make up the sum of enjoyable travelling.”
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