PETTICOAT VAGABOND IN AINU LAND

Subtitled And Up and Down Eastern Asia -- this record of wartime travels in Northern Japan, by this petticoat vagabond. Red tape and restrictions hampered her determination to visit northern Japan, and sea Ainu at first hand, but she used her waiting period in Tokyo to absorb a picture of the new nationalism and the unity the war has brought to the Japanese people, the problems of foreigners, the privations and the substitutes. When she finally gets under way, she covers 30,000 miles in six months, gears her life to the places she stays, becomes an habituee of the famous hot mineral baths, explores (despite trailing secret agents) the island of Hokkaido. She hunts for curios, she bicycles to the astonishment of the Ainu inhabitants she visits. Then on to Korea, Monchuokuo, Mongolia, North China, and out by way of Dairen and Port Arthur. There is a good description of the Ainu race, history, customs, festivals, folk lore, and of Japanese penetration into Chinese country. Of espionage and the troubles it caused her, of Japanese character...Entertaining travel for the stay at home, predating and non-prophetic of current status with Japan. Her enthusiasm for the country will probably prove a deterrent to sales at this time.