The Japan Journals: 1947-2004

About this book

Richie should be designated a living national treasure.Library Journal "Wonderfully evocative and full of humor... honest introspective and often poignant."New York Times "No one has written with more concentration about the peculiar quality of exile enjoyed by the gaijin the foreigner in Japan."London Review of Books "To read The Donald Richie Reader and The Japan Journals is like diving for pearls. Dip into any part of them and you will surely find treasures about the cinema literature traveling writing. The passages are evocative erotic playful and often profound."Japanese Language and Literature Donald Richie has been observing and writing about Japan from the moment he arrived on New Years Eve 1946. Detailing his life his lovers and his ideas on matters high and low The Japan Journals is a record of both a nation and an evolving expatriate sensibility. As Japan modernizes and as the author ages the tone grows elegiac and The Japan Journalsnow in paperback after the critically acclaimed hardcover editionbecomes a bittersweet chronicle of a complicated life well lived and captivatingly told. Donald Richie the eminent film historian novelist and essayist still lives in Tokyo.