Isabella Bird · 1880 · overland

Isabella Bird's 1880 account of the journey she made in 1878, a lone Englishwoman travelling by horse and on foot through the wild interior of northern Japan and on to Hokkaido, far from the treaty ports and the beaten track, to live among the Ainu. Sharp-eyed, intrepid and free of cant, it is one of the great Victorian travel books. The route runs north from Tokyo to the Ainu country of Yezo.

1. 1
   Tokyo

   Bird sets out from Tokyo with a single Japanese interpreter, bound for the unbeaten interior the guidebooks ignore.

2. 2
   Nikko

   North to the glorious shrines of Nikko, then up into the rough mountain country beyond.

3. 3
   Niigata

   Over the passes to Niigata on the Japan Sea, through villages that have never seen a European woman.

4. 4
   Aomori

   The long hard road north to Aomori at the tip of Honshu, mud, fleas and astonishing kindness along the way.

5. 5
   Hakodate

   Across the Tsugaru Strait to Hakodate on the northern island of Yezo, now Hokkaido.

6. 6
   Biratori

   Inland to the Ainu of Biratori, among whom she lives and whose vanishing world she records with rare respect.