Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (日本奥地紀行) is a book by the English travel writer Isabella Bird, in the form of letters to her sister, describing her journey from Tokyo to Hokkaido in 1878, when she was 46. It was first published in two volumes in 1880 by John Murray, which later arranged an abridged one-volume version in 1885.

Bird became interested in Japan after reading John Francis Campbell's My Circular Notes (1876). Campbell recommended that she meet Colin Alexander McVean, who had just returned to Scotland from Japan. McVean was a former Surveyor in Chief of the Japanese Government and gave her all sorts of advice. Campbell walked the Nakasendo postway through the Japanese Highlands, whereas Bird headed for the northern areas less affected by the new government.

The book recounts how Bird made the journey with a Japanese interpreter named Ito, visiting places that few or no Westerners had seen before, between June and September 1878. It records in great detail her responses to Japanese houses, clothing and customs, and the natural environment, as they were during the early years of the Meiji Restoration. It also has a long section describing her visits to the Ainu people, and many passages describing what seemed to her the extreme poverty of many Japanese outside the major cities.

Isabella Bird in Wonderland, a manga based on the book, was published in 2015.