PRESS REACTIONS

James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly, October 2005

"I love this book. Karin Muller's version of Japan is hilarious, puzzling, sexy, frustrating, elegant, ugly, and in all ways true to the original. This is a wonderful example of the travel book as exploration of self as well."

Body + Soul magazine, October 2005

"Messy, independent, and talkative, Muller has a hard time shoehorning her boisterous personality into a country full of quiet nuance. . . [but] Muller is not nearly the oafish American she makes herself out to be; she’s actually a sensitive observer with a great wit and a talent for deciphering a country and decoding behavior. . . With just the right mix of quirky personal reflection and astute cultural observations, Japanland turns out to be a splendid guide to the land of wa."

Publishers Weekly, July 18, 2005

"The diverse activities and excursions to far-flung places make this a fine travel memoir, but it's the backbone of Muller's voyage that gives her book resonance and richness. . . Muller went to Japan to find wa: a quality of dedication, inner strength and spiritual peace. Her memoir isn't an account of achieving those goals, but it is an engrossing, rewarding record of her travel toward them."

Outside magazine, September 2005

"Muller’s engaging, funny voice turns what could have been a superficial picaresque account into a deeper exploration of a Westerner longing to fit in."

Rebecca Martin, executive director, Expeditions Council, National Geographic Society

"Karin Muller possesses a keen ability to earn a reader's trust. In Japanland she provides insightful, brilliantly detailed accounts of the everyday life of individuals representing the widely varied facets of Japanese society. The story of Karin's sojourn in this remarkable land is illuminating, poignant, and often amusing. Karin is one who acts on her impulses and does those things about which most of us only dream."

Jacki Lyden, NPR senior correspondent and author of Daughter of the Queen of Sheba

"Karin Muller achieves a kind of harmonic ‘wa' in this year in Japan by following that most intense journey, that of the self, in extremity. Whether challenged by the rigors of living in the hermetic world of a Japanese family; or flung about with an island cult, she maintains her composure and delight, and so do we."

To purchase the four-hour DVD set ($29.95)or hardcover book ($23.95), please visit Japanlandonline.com