Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: An Account of Travels in the Interior Including Visits to the Aborigines of Yezo and the Shrine of Nikkô

"Having been recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order to recruit my health by means which had proved serviceable before, I decided to visit Japan, attracted less by the reputed excellence of its climate than by the certainty that it possessed, in an especial degree, those sources of novel and sustained interest which conduce so essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary health-seeker. The climate disappointed me, but, though I found the country a study rather than a rapture, its interest exceeded my largest expectations.... Having been recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order to recruit my health by means which had proved serviceable before, I decided to visit Japan, attracted less by the reputed excellence of its climate than by the certainty that it possessed, in an especial degree, those sources of novel and sustained interest which conduce so essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary health-seeker. The climate disappointed me, but, though I found the country a study rather than a rapture, its interest exceeded my largest expectations.

This is not a "Book on Japan," but a narrative of travels in Japan, and an attempt to contribute something to the sum of knowledge of the present condition of the country, and it was not till I had travelled for some months in the interior of the main island and in Yezo that I decided that my materials were novel enough to render the contribution worth making." -Isabella L. Bird

"Miss Bird is the ideal traveler." -London Spectator

"Fresh and striking." -The New York Times

"A great pleasure....No work in English gives so vivid a picture as this of the life of a people" -New York World

"Miss Bird is one of the most remarkable travelers of our day. Penetrating into regions wholly unknown by the outside world, she has accomplished by the force of an indomitable will, aided by great tact and shrewdness, a task to which few men would have been found equal; and she has brought away from the scene of her researches not only a lively tale of adventure, but a great store of fresh and interesting information about the character and habits of a people now undergoing one of the strangest transformations the world has ever seen. We doubt whether the inner life of Japan has ever been better described than in the pregnant pages of this pertinacious Englishwoman." -New York Daily Tribune

"It is a novel feature to read a book upon a far distant land and then with little trouble or fatigue be able to compare the description of the inhabitants and their industries (as described in the book) with the people themselves. This may be done in the present instance, and a visit to the Japanese Village at Hyde Park will enable us to verify, in numerous cases, the accuracy and skill with which Miss Bird has depicted the manners and customs of the Japanese at home, and has, moreover, made solid contributions to our knowledge by giving the results of her travels in regions scarcely known to European travelers - regions, moreover, of special interest to horticulturists....Will be useful for reading aloud to classes of young people, and very acceptable to them as a gift book or school prize in its present form." -The Gardeners' Chronicle

"Her narrative is vivid, one can scarcely help forgetting one's surroundings and imagining himself going on the same paths. Miss Bird read all that she could lay her hands upon in the way of the literature concerning Japan; yet, even after this she makes some mistakes, mainly by lending a too ready ear to the cynicism of Ito, her native guide. But one likes her book; yes, one likes it better after a rereading....It would be an excellent plan to read...Miss Bird for the sake of the deep interest and graphic description of her journey." -The Gospel in All Lands