By Alex kerr
Another Kyoto
Travel literature
This book is the fruit of a half-century of living in Japan and of lore gleaned from people I have met along the way: artists, Zen monks and Shinto priests, Japanese literati, and expat personalities from days past, such as legendary art dealer David Kidd. The book began with conversations held with close friend Kathy Sokol as we walked through temples and gardens. Kathy later transcribed and edited those conversations. Our aim was to provide detailed knowledge, but with the light-hearted character of a travel companion.
As Kathy and I talked, probing the inner ideas behind simple things like walls, floors, and sliding doors, we turned what we thought we knew about Kyoto inside-out. Friends say that after this book, they can never walk through a Zen gate in the same way again.
Other Books
Lost Japan
Lost Japan is a series of autobiographical essays, experiences I had since coming to Japan as a boy in 1964, and how the country has changed.
Another Kyoto
Based on forty years in Kyoto, these conversations with Kathy Sokol, turn what we think we know about Kyoto inside-out.
Bangkok Found
Companion to Lost Japan, Bangkok Found is a mix of the essential and the quirky, as old culture meets global fusion in the crossroads that is Bangkok.
Dogs & Demons
Dogs and Demons combines a study of the financial, the bureaucracy, and culture, to get at the roots of Japan’s long malaise since the 1990s.