21st Century Tokyo: A Guide to Contemporary Architecture by Julian Worrall, Erez Golani Solomon, Joshua Lieberman

It's like a trip to Tokyo in black and white and without the long flight. In this COVID world it's wonderful to look at the late architecture of the city that is Tokyo. Some buildings I have seen - and admired - and others I wish I had found the time to visit.

The level of the architectural descriptions is just right - simple enough to get the concepts across to non-architects, but with enough details and explanation to reveal why the building carries some importance.

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth

Something that seems lost these days are great English-language travel books about Japan. I do not mean guides — those come out a plenty on a regular basis. I mean travel narratives. There have been a few food based ones.

Booth's death was such a great loss. His keen observations during his odd and wonderful walks around Japan, collected in this volume, capture so much of a way of life that has likely passed.