Author(s): Kate T. Williamson

Travel Writing

The only way for a Westerner to know the real Japan is to become part of it.

Kate T. Williamson did just that, spending a year experiencing the culture, studying sock design, and reflecting on her adopted home. She brings her keen observations to us in Zen and Socks, a dramatically different look at a delightfully different way of life.

In stunning watercolours and piquant texts, she explains the terms used to order various amounts of tofu, electric rugs, and how to distinguish a maiko from a geisha. She observes sumo wrestlers as they use ATMs and the temple carpenters who spend each Sunday dancing to rockabilly. Zen and Socks is a colourful journey through the beauty, poetry, and quirkiness of modern Japan--a book not just to look at but to experience.