In Japan's Backcountry is a lively, personal account of the two years the author lived in the Tohoku, a region recently devastated by the 2011 tsunami and seldom visited by foreign tourists. The book describes life in Misawa studying Japanese and flower-arranging, teaching at a Japanese school, and exploring the Tohoku. The book is a vivid rendering of back roads and fishing villages, thatched houses and endless mountains-small glimpses, both enchanting and resonating, of a rural Japan fast disappearing.