Written by one of the greatest connoisseurs with poetic nostalgia, this essay gathers insights and reflections on Japanese culture, both classical and modern. It represents the concentrated attempts to describe everything that Donald Richie sought to understand through experience and observation during his seven decades of life in Japan. Towards the end of his life, he sums up the knowledge he acquired about his lifelong love for Japan in his final book, knowledge gained against all odds. In a blend of Western didactics and traditional Japanese informality, he manages to capture the essence of the Japanese spirit, which seems to be disappearing just as he believes he is discovering it. His regret over the deep intrusion of Western culture into Japanese tradition in the 20th century gives his work a distinctive tone.