"Vivid word-paintings and silky literary tone-poems that will engage and electrify all five senses of you armchair travelers and seekers of greater truths," says author Elizabeth Moisan of this novel, A Japanese Journey.....
A poignant and personal travel essay/memoir of three fantastic years spent abroad in the somewhat mysterious, exotic culture of Japan, this author realizes her childhood dream of striking out to Japan! Alone!(a neon word for some)Widowed at a very young age, now in between jobs, and empty-nest at last, Turner ventures to Tokyo on a three month tourist visa and about three weeks financial resources, what she thought would be a simple three-month odyssey. She lands a job, furnished apartment, and salary advance on day six, and stays three years!
She enjoyed three careers there, and a plethora of amazing travels the length and breadth of the archipelago. Her personality and fortitude opened doors and took her places few Americans will/would ever go. Days off were full of train rides, hikes, and adventures few would attempt "alone," but her instant love of the country and its people, food, extraordinary scenery, and "riding the rails" was infectious to those around her.In her personal dialogue, she laces humor, facts, vivid description, and will make you chuckle, laugh and cry. She was hosted by a wonderful Japanese family early on who would adopt her, fill up her days off, and take her places she would never have experienced nor gone without their unending generosity, a friendship that endures to this day, across the sea.
Leaving her rural life teaching in one of Oregon's last one-room schools, Turner, mother of three, lonely from loss and facing difficult struggles following a catastrophic bankruptcy, sells and stores her life's possessions to seek out the Land of the Rising Sun. Intention, ingenuity, and her teaching experience afford her this unique and very personal sharing...." dedicated to those who hold in their hearts a hidden dream, as I, yet wonder if they'll ever make...the Journey." P. Amalie Turner
