For more than three decades, Pico Iyer has called Japan home, but as he is the first to admit, the country remains an enigma even to its long-term residents. Drawing on his years of experience—his travels, conversations, readings, and reflections—Iyer crafts a playful and profound book of surprising glimpses into Japanese culture. With wit and poetic insight, Iyer recounts his adventures and observations as he travels from a meditation hall to a love hotel, from West Point to Kyoto Station, and from an ill-fated call to the Apple service center to dinner with Meryl Streep.

"With an elegant, understated manner, Iyer offers poignant reflections on his adopted country and its maddening contradictions and shifting parts…. Subtle observations [that] reveal a great deal…. Marvelously nuanced."—Kirkus Reviews