What types of holidays do Japanese people celebrate? What is the educational system like in Japan? What are Japanese festivals like? What are some of the customs and traditions of the Japanese people? Professor Todd Jay Leonard, writing from the perspective of living and working in Japan, provides in this fascinating book the answers to these and many other questions. Letters Home: Musings of an American Expatriate Living in Japan delivers a firsthand account of daily Japanese life through the eyes and personal experiences of Professor Leonard who has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with Japan and the Japanese people for nearly twenty-five years. This anecdotal book of essays, written in the style of personal letters, offers commentary on a wide range of topics and issues including culture, history, education, language, society, and religion of modern Japan from the point-of-view of an American expatriate who has made Japan his home. The author's friendly, down-to-earth, yet authoritative, style of writing will transport you to modern Japan, where you will learn about the customs and traditions of this most fascinating country. Japan and its people.

The sea life is embedded in Christian Lamb's DNA. In this delightful memoir she takes her readers on board with her, chronicling her adventures as she cruises the world, to every continent and across every sea, spanning a lifetime. As a passionate plantswoman, an inquisitive historian, and an insatiable traveller, Christian follows the routes of her heroes, the seafarers, botanists and explorers of old, and rediscovers their stories in person, setting them in the context of the modern world. And all along the way, from New York to Patagonia, New Zealand to Moscow, the shipboard characters accompanying the author round out this wry and witty narrative, a charming account of sailing the ocean and exploring the furthest corners of the earth in eighty years.

'An absolute gem of a book' Alastair Humphreys First published in 1926, The Gentle Art of Tramping is as relevant now as then. Tramping is an approach: to nature, to humankind, to nations, to beauty, to life itself. This lost classic is a breath of fresh air for world-weary souls. It is a gentle art; know how to tramp and you know how to live. Know how to meet your fellow wanderer, how to be passive to the beauty of nature and how to be active to its wildness and its rigour. The adventure is not the getting there, it's the 'on-the-way'. It is not the expected, it is the surprise.

Shortly after his death in 1957, "The New York Times" obituary of Peter Freuchen noted that "except for Richard E. Byrd, and despite his foreign beginnings, Freuchen was perhaps better known to more people in the United States than any other explorer of our time." During his lifetime, Freuchen's remarkable adventures related in his books, magazine articles, and films, made him a legend. In 1910, Freuchen, along with his friend and business partner, Knud Rasmussen, the renowned polar explorer, founded Thule-a Greenland Inuit trading post and village only 800 miles from the North Pole.

Freuchen lived in Thule for fifteen years, adopting the ways of the natives. He married an Inuit woman, and together they had two children. Freuchen went on many expeditions, quite a few of which he barely survived, suffering frostbite, snow blindness, and starvation. Near the North Pole there is no such thing as an easy and safe outing.

In "Arctic Adventure" Freuchen writes of polar bear hunts, of meeting Eskimos who had resorted to cannibalism during a severe famine, and of the thrill of seeing the sun after three months of winter darkness. Trained as a journalist before he headed north, Freuchen is a fine writer and great storyteller (he won an Oscar for his feature film script of Eskimo). He writes about the Inuit with genuine respect and affection, describing their stoicism amidst hardship, their spiritual beliefs, their ingenious methods of surviving in a harsh environment, their humor and joy in the face of danger and difficulties, and the social politics behind such customs as "wife-trading." While his experiences make this book a page-turner, Freuchen's warmth, self-deprecating wit, writing skill and anthropological observations make this book a literary stand out.

In 1926 Barry Dierks, a young American architect, arrived in Paris and fell in love with France... With his partner, an ex-officer in the British Army, he built a white, flat-roofed Modernist masterpiece that rested on the rocks below the Esterel, with views across the Mediterranean. They called it Le Trident. From the moment it was built, it captivated the Riviera. As commissions for more villas flooded in, Barry Dierks and Eric Sawyer, 'those two charmers', flourished at the heart of Riviera society. Over the years, Dierks would design and build over 70 of the Riviera's most recognisable villas for clients ranging from Somerset Maugham's Villa Mauresque and Jack Warner's Villa Aujourd'hui to the Marquess of Cholmondeley's Villa Le Roc, and Maxine Elliott's Chateau de l'Horizon, later the home of Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth. Riviera Dreaming tells the dazzling story of the lives, loves and adventures that played out behind the walls of these glamorous houses and provides an unparalleled portrait of life on the Cote d'Azur at the height of the Jazz Age.

Amelia Dalton, fresh from touring the Scottish islands, takes on the world and sets up exclusive holidays in remote places for a new cruise ship. As she scopes out her itineraries, she explores inaccessible islands and survives a hotel fire, a bomb in a palace, being stung by a scorpion and thrown into jail. Meanwhile, she’s being wooed from afar by a mysterious stranger who turns up in the most unexpected places.

In the summer of 2012, the author returned to his native Cuba to retrieve his birth certificate after an absence of 50 years, 24 of which he lived in the United States. This memoir of his journey of personal and political discovery illuminates how the two countries-90 miles apart yet opposites on the political spectrum-have both lost their way in the misguided pursuit of their divergent ideologies. The author presents a candid view of the revolution and U.S.-Cuban relations through conversations with everyday Havanans.

This book concerns the significance of the English Channel in British and French literature from the 1780s onwards: a timely subject given the intense debates in progress about the actual and desired relationships between Britain and mainland Europe. The book addresses contemporary authors who use the Channel as a focus for cultural comment, comparing their approaches to those of earlier writers, from Charlotte Smith and Chateaubriand through Hugo and Dickens to historians and travel writers of the 1950s and 1980s.

'A book worth reading' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times The Debatable Land was an independent territory which used to exist between Scotland and England. At the height of its notoriety, it was the bloodiest region in Great Britain, fought over by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James V. After the Union of the Crowns, most of its population was slaughtered or deported and it became the last part of the country to be brought under the control of the state. Today, its history has been forgotten or ignored. When Graham Robb moved to a lonely house on the very edge of England, he discovered that the river which almost surrounded his new home had once marked the Debatable Land's southern boundary. Under the powerful spell of curiosity, Robb began a journey - on foot, by bicycle and into the past - that would uncover lost towns and roads, reveal the truth about this maligned patch of land and result in more than one discovery of major historical significance. Rich in detail and epic in scope, The Debatable Land takes us from a time when neither England nor Scotland could be imagined to the present day, when contemporary nationalism and political turmoil threaten to unsettle the cross-border community once more. Writing with his customary charm, wit and literary grace, Graham Robb proves the Debatable Land to be a crucial, missing piece in the puzzle of British history. Includes a 16-page colour plate section.

Among the Believers is V. S. Naipaul's classic account of his journeys through Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia; 'the believers' are the Muslims he met on those journeys, young men and women battling to regain the original purity of their faith in the hope of restoring order to a chaotic world. It is a uniquely valuable insight into modern Islam and the comforting simplifications of religious fanaticism. 'This book investigates the Islamic revolution and tries to understand the fundamentalist zeal that has gripped the young in Iran and other Muslim countries . . . He is a modern master.' - Sunday Times 'His level of perception is of the highest, and his prose has become the perfect instrument for realizing those perceptions on the page. His travel writing is perhaps the most important body of work of its kind in the second half of the century.' - Martin Amis, author of Time's Arrow.

Alexander von Humboldt, sometimes called 'the last man who knew everything', was an extraordinary polymath of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1798 he received unprecedented permission from the Spanish Crown to explore its American and Caribbean colonies, which he did from 1799-1804. This is the journal of those explorations, in which he extensively covers the region's topography, geology, fauna and flora, anthropology and comparative linguistics. Volume I covers his preparations, stop at Tenerife, landfall at Cuman and journeys inland in what is now Venezuela.

"Looking East" explores early modern English attitudes toward the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. To a nation just arriving on the international scene, the Ottoman Empire was at once the great enemy and scourge of Christendom, and at the same time the fabulously wealthy and magnificent court from which the sultan ruled over three continents with his great and powerful army. By taking the imaginative, literary and poetic writing about the Ottoman Turks and putting it alongside contemporary historical documents, the book shows that fascination with the Ottoman Empire shaped how the English thought about and represented their own place within the world as a nation with increasing imperial ambitions of its own.

Shortlisted for the 2019 Edward Stanford Award 'My goodness, it is brilliant. Searingly honest, warm, bursting with humanity. Such brave and inspiring writing.' Kate Humble '[Simon] begins to fill in the gaps in his life story that until recently he has never publicly revealed.' Telegraph PRAISE FOR SIMON REEVE 'TV's most interesting globetrotter' Independent 'The craziest (or bravest) man on TV' Mail on Sunday 'Like all the best travellers, Reeve carries out his investigations with infectious relish, and in the realisation that trying to understand the country you're in is not just fascinating, but also hugely enjoyable' Daily Telegraph 'Simon might just be the best tour guide in the world' The Sun * * * * * * * * * In TV adventurer Simon Reeve's bestselling memoir he describes how he has journeyed across epic landscapes, dodged bullets on frontlines, walked through minefields and been detained for spying by the KGB. His travels have taken him across jungles, deserts, mountains and oceans, and to some of the most beautiful, dangerous and remote regions of the world. In this revelatory account of his life Simon gives the full story behind some of his favourite expeditions, and traces his own inspiring personal journey back to leaving school without qualifications, teetering on a bridge, and then overcoming his challenges by climbing to a 'Lost Valley' and changing his life ... step by step.

THE LAND OF THE CAMEL Tents and Temples of Inner Mongolia By SCHUYLER CAMMANN THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY f NEW YORK Copyright, 1951, by THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY All Rights Reserved The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing 1 from the publisher. PRINTED IN THE XJNITED STATES OF AMERICA To Marcia WHO WAITED FOREWORD This book describes western Inner Mongolia in 1945. For almost nine years this region had been cut off by hostilities with the Japa nese, which began there in 1936, and it will probably be a very long time before any American can get there again. Even before the war it was little known, as the distance from the China coast had prevented foreign contacts, except for a handful of missionaries. The war years had brought marked changes to Inner Mongolia, accelerating the exploitation, terrorization, and dispossession of the Mongols which the Chinese had begun some forty years before. Enough Mongols were still living there, however, to enable us to see and share their life in tents and temples, after the end of the war brought us leisure from other activities. It seemed important to write down what we saw of their strange customs and complex religion, as well as to describe the forces that were undermining their old traditions and their way of life. Thus this is primarily an account of the Mongols we met, and their opponents among the immigrant settlers and border officials. But it would not present a complete picture of the region if it did not also describe the semifeudal realm of the Belgian mission ary fathers, . which has now passed into history. Most of Chapter 10 has previously been published inthe Bulletin of the University Museum, Philadelphia, while some of the passages dealing with Mongolian chess have appeared in an article for Natural History. The writer is especially grateful to Walter Hill and to Dr. William LaSor for their kindness in allowing him to use their photographs. SCHUYLER CAMMANN University of Pennsylvania September, 1950 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1 First Impressions of Mongolia 3 2 Crossing the Ordos 9 3 The Great Plain IS 4 Camp Life and Recreation 21 5 Farmers of the Great Plain 28 6 The Victory in Shanpa 41 7 Our First Lamasery 48 8 The Mongols at Home 57 9 Meeting Dunguerbo 66 10 The Living Buddha of Shandagu 73 11 Chien-li Temple, Pride of the Oirats 85 12 More Lama Personalities 96 13 Mongol Festival 101 14 Down the Range to Dabatu Pass 106 1 5 Temple in the Gobi 1 14 16 Dunguerbo and His Family 121 17 The Journey to Ago-in Sume 130 18 Temple of the Antelope Cave 137 19 Last Days in Shanpa 143 20 Lo-pei Chao 152 21 South by Camel 163 22 Ninghsia Interlude 173 23 The Second Camel Trip 183 24 Leaving the Ordos 193 Index 199 vii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Getting the truck aboard the Yellow River ferry 12 Ordos camels in summer, with sagging humps 12 Chinese immigrant farmer ploughing up old Mongol grazing land on Hou-tao Plain 13 Farmers harvesting soy beans on Hou-tao Plain 13 The camp well 24 A Chinese mother rides into Shanpa to market 24 A Provincial army caravan enters Shanpa 24 Typical Chinese tenant farmers homes on Hou-tao Plain 25 Tsong Kapa, founder of the Reformed Sect, with episodes from his life 52 Tara, the Green Goddess. Gilded bronze image from a Mongol lamasery 53 Mongol woman milking goats 64 Yurts in the wasteland, Beilighe Pass 64 Dunguerboturning a giant prayer wheel in a lamasery 65 Shandagu Miao at the base of the mountains. Author in foreground 80 Chortens at Shandagu Miao 80 Yamantaka and other demon-gods 80 The Golden Image at Shandagu Miao 81 Main pieces from two Mongolian chess sets 88 Playing Mongolian Chess 89 Peacock pawns and rabbit pawns from two Mongolian chess sets 89 The Abbot, Lopon Dorje, receives some guests 104 Two Oirat matrons in festival finery 105 A Mongol woman brings her child to the Festival 105 A Temple in the Gobi...

Collective Winner of the 2019 Highland Book Prize Under the ravishing light of an Alaskan sky, objects are spilling from the thawing tundra linking a Yup'ik village to its hunter-gatherer past. In the shifting sand dunes of a Scottish shoreline, impressively preserved hearths and homes of Neolithic farmers are uncovered. In a grandmother's disordered mind, memories surface of a long-ago mining accident and a 'mither who was kind'. For this luminous new essay collection, acclaimed author Kathleen Jamie visits archaeological sites and mines her own memories - of her grandparents, of youthful travels - to explore what surfaces and what reconnects us to our past. As always she looks to the natural world for her markers and guides. Most movingly, she considers, as her father dies, and her children leave home, the surfacing of an older, less tethered sense of herself. Surfacing offers a profound sense of time passing and an antidote to all that is instant, ephemeral, unrooted.

On 4 August 2020 a massive explosion in the port area obliterated parts of Beirut and damaged many others, bringing fresh international attention to a city already recovering from civil war and weakened by economic instability. This book contributes to the rediscovery of Beirut by inviting the visitor and reader to explore a city that is unique in the region for its multicultural heritage, where antiquity jostles with Ottoman and French colonial influence as well as with striking expressions of modernity. The history of Beirut, as with so many other cities, is multi-layered; but this is exceptionally conspicuous in the cultural, denominational and economic diversity of its neighbourhoods. These are best investigated slowly and on foot, a strategy both practicable and pleasurable despite a tyrannical car culture. Between 2019 and 2021, in the aftermath of the explosion, Beatrice Teissier walked through the city's streets and recorded her impressions as a record of Beirut's architectural fabric and turbulent recent history. Beirut: Scarred City offers twelve itineraries in parts of west, central and east Beirut, with a foray south, which take the reader to easily accessible areas of the city. From crumbling mansions to brutalist high-rises, from seascapes to inner-city parks and cemeteries, from ancient ruins to the latest reconstruction, from graffiti to international street art and contemporary art galleries, each area tells its story. The present crisis is not avoided, and the author discusses Lebanon's economic crisis, the political problems that have beset the city since the civil war and the controversies surrounding reconstruction. References to contemporary Arab literature on Beirut and, more personally, private insights and conversations give voice to the spirit of the city and to the resilience and creativity of its citizens.

In the Encyclopedia of Travel Literature, an expert sketches the lives and achievements of explorers, adventurers, novelists, and poets from l450 to the present and describes, critiques, and quotes from their works. Before visual media, readers learned about foreign countries, exotic realms, other peoples, and intrepid adventurers through travel writers. Here you'll read about Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who died in 1817 on his return trip from Mecca and was buried still disguised as a Muslim; George Sand, who scandalized Europe by illegally wearing trousers and wrote a singularly interesting travel book; and Lord Byron, who fictionalized his Grand Tour in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Includes illustrations

After Paul Stutzman lost his wife to breast cancer, he sensed a tug on his heart--the call to a challenge, the call to pursue a dream. Paul left his stable career, traveled to Georgia, and took his first steps on the Appalachian Trail. What he learned during the next four and a half months changed his life--and will change readers' lives as well.
In "Hiking Through," readers will join Paul on his remarkable 2,176-mile hike through fourteen states in search of peace and a renewed sense of purpose, meeting fascinating and funny people along the way. They'll discover that every choice we make along the path has consequences for the journey and will come away with a new understanding of God's grace and guidance. Nature-lovers, armchair adventurers, and those grieving a loss may not be able to hike the AT themselves, but they can go on this spiritual pilgrimage with a truly humble and sympathetic guide.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.