Great Travel Memoir - Haiku Apprentice

I have died and and gone to heaven.

Actually, that was last week. Now, I'm alive again and back on planet Earth.

The reason behind my transformative state was a book called The Haiku Apprentice.

During the time that I was reading it, I was "in heaven." Now, though, I've turned the last page and am wondering how the next book I pick up has any hope in topping it.

The book combined two of my obsessions: Travel and Haiku.

It was written by an American woman who is living in Japan and working as a diplomat. At a work function, an older Japanese gentleman invites her to join his haiku group. She doesn't consider herself a poet in the least, but decides to attend on a lark.

But she gets hooked and the rest of the book is her investigation into what makes haiku "Japanese."

She launches into a cultural study of the art of haiku and in the process reveals so many fascinating tidbits about the mindset and history of the Japanese.

I've never been to Japan, and truth be told, hadn't really had much interest. But now, I'm chomping at the bit to go.

Until reading this book, it had never occurred to me that I could plan a "haiku themed trip" to Japan. Now though, the idea is budding.