Status Updates From On the Narrow Road to the D...

Later, I became a connoisseur of plum blossom - delicate, more delicate than the celebrated cherry, and with a certain sadness, appearing as it does in February when the snow is still on the ground. I had learned the Japanese way of seeing.

Ms Downer arrives at Basho’s famed gate to the Deep North, on foot:
‘So that was all that was left - no ruins, not even a rock, just a dent in the hillside. Only 300 years before, when Basho came, the border had been full of life.... things disappear quickly in Japan.’
This is a delightfully entertaining read!