Layers of the Leek: A Memoir -- Revised Edition

Now, Japan is a must-see travel destination, known as the land of anime, sushi, and coveted cheap akiya houses. But did you ever wonder what the country was like in a different era? Long before the country was viewed as a cool, cheap destination with great cuisine, foreigners were a rare sight. Knowledge about Japan was hard to get in the outside world. The careful, painstaking details, told through the meticulous eyes of a humorous geographer, are found in this true love story. You will be taken by the hand and shown what prompted a young American to set off for the unknown. You will learn what the first impressions of life were truly like in Japan in the early 1980s for a person suffering the various stages of culture shock. It was a time long before the internet and smartphones made navigating day-to-day life in a foreign land a breeze. Layers of the Leek is a brilliantly told, dramatic, and bittersweet memoir of a young American woman motivated by grief to reach beyond her comfort zone and live her life to the fullest. Her anxiety-ridden misadventures start with a 10,000-mile road trip from the American Midwest to the Pacific-Northwest before eventually making her way to Japan. More than just a travelogue, more than just a love story, this is also a thriller. The revised edition is filled with never-before-told material. These harrowing memories laid bare will stay with you long after you finish the final page.