Pico Iyer’s The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto (1991) is a memoir and love story based on his visit to Japan, in which he tests his vision of Japan. In the first section, “Autumn,” Iyer recalls his arrival in Japan. He had been drawn to Japan since childhood, and now, he is attracted by “its touch of Alpine charm in the quiet of the autumn morning.” While in Kyoto, many features of Japan remind him of England. Mark, an artist from San Francisco who has been in Japan for several years, introduces him to Zen, which is more appealing to a foreigner than to the Japanese. Mark’s comments are prophetic for Iyer when he says the girl he is looking for would be exceptional. Later, Iyer finds a Japanese girl from Kyoto named Sachiko Morishita, whose children, Hiroshi and Yuki, develop a fondness for him. He teaches English to Sachiko and feels that his tongue sounds strange to him. Apart from Sachiko’s influence on him, Iyer is interested in Zen; for him, Zen’s whole-mindedness seems to be the natural product of a culture that abstains from philosophical thinking and believes in rituals.