TBOT is a followup to KISSA BY KISSA, starting right where it left off in central Japan, chronicling my ten+ year relationship with the Kii Peninsula through the lens of a thirty+-day walk (routes include: Ise Kaido, Ise-ji, Kumano Kodō, Nakahechi, Kohechi, and more). 

TBOT has a strong "memoir" component (it was technically sold as a memoir to Random House) — in that the walk frames reflections on my childhood in a post-industrial American town, my emigration to Japan as a student some 23 years ago (!!), and the life of one lost friend. If you've ever wanted to know a bit more about who the heck I am, this book might illuminate some of that. All the while we'll be chatting with farmers, kissa owners, inn proprietors, drunken fishermen, okonomiyaki ladies, foul-mouthed little kids, and whispering priests. We'll be reflecting on the complex spiritual history of the peninsula, its loss of industry (lumber, fishing), eating a bunch of toast and lobsters, guzzling gallons of bad coffee, gazing longingly out at the sea, communing with the fauna, and climbing a bunch of leechy wet mountains. 

In November 2023 I'll be publishing (via my SPECIAL PROJECTS membership program) the "fine art" edition of TBOT: 

I'll then be working with editor Molly Turpin at Random House to produce the "trade hardcover" edition — text only (maybe a few B&W photos), expanded ~30% for a "broader audience" to be published in ~April 2025 (yes, it's a long way away!). 

This is exciting and rare — to be able to produce two complementary editions of the same book. Everyone has been so generous and accommodating in this process. I'm grateful for this opportunity, and I hope that you'll consider grabbing both copies, since they'll be quite different (and it should be interesting / fun / bizarre to see how TBOT evolves!). 

Thanks for your interest and support. 

— Craig