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Top 10 books
Most of the books below are by non-Japanese authors. I'm re-reading a few Japanese novels to decide on my final selection for the Top 10 classics - unless someone else beats me to it!

(All these books can be ordered through your local highstreet bookstore. If you'd rather order online, the links below take you to the relevant page of Amazon.com. Alternatively, they are also available through Amazon.co.uk.)

• A Wild Sheep Chase, Marukami Haruki
  Marukami weaves wonderfully off-beam, slightly disturbing tales. More recent works include Dance, Dance, Dance and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
  
• Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
  The compelling tale of a young girl sold to a geisha-house, who ends up owning her own teahouse in New York. It's well-researched and surprisingly convincing - on the whole Golden succeeds in getting under the skin of his mostly female characters. (The book is now being translated into Japanese and Spielberg recently bought the film-rights.)
  
  
• Essays in Idleness (translated by Donald Keene)
  I love dipping into this book. A collection of jottings by a rather world-weary 14C Buddhist priest, Kenko, it's full of amusing anecdotes and pithy observations that still resonate today. For example, on travel: "It wakes you up to take a journey for a while…. In such a place you really notice everything. Anything good - even the possessions you have brought along with you - seems better, and anyone you meet with artistic talent or handsome features seems more impressive than he usually would".
  
  
• A Guide to Japanese Hot Springs, Anne Hotta with Ishiguro Yoko
  The essential travel accessory for anyone going to Japan. For more advanced practitioners, there's Robert Neff's Japan's Hidden Hot Springs. I never leave home without them!
  
  
• Inside Japan, Peter Tasker
  Though it's getting a bit dated now (1987), this book is still a great introduction to Japanese society and the country's post-war economic success. Tasker enables you to learn without realising it.
  
  
• You Gotta Have Wa, Robert Whiting
  I never thought I'd read a book about baseball and enjoy it, but You Gotta Have Wa ("wa" is roughly translated as unity, team spirit, belonging) is about so much more than the mere sport. By looking at Japanese baseball through the eyes of American players, Whiting reveals a lot about cultural misunderstandings and gives a glimpse into the deeper workings of Japanese society.
  
  
• The Inland Sea, Donald Richie
  Anything by Donald Richie is a treat, but this is perhaps his finest piece of travel writing. A wonderful companion to a voyage through Japan's Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.
  
  
• The Roads to Sata, Alan Booth
  The engaging tale of Alan Booth's 2,000-mile walk from Hokkaido to the southern tip of Kyushu, full of colourful characters, amusing anecdotes and spot-on observations. I'd also recommend his Looking for the Lost, a trio of hiking tales.
  
  
• Old Kyoto, Diane Durston
  Diane Durston guides you to the best of Kyoto's traditional shops, restaurants and inns. Look out, too, for her more recent Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City.
  
  
• Children of the Drum, Mark Coutts-Smith
  Photo-journalist Mark Coutts-Smith spent five years studying and working with the Kodo drummers on Sado Island. His powerful black-and-white photos record the daily lives of a very special community.

Top 10 films

• Rashomon, Kurosawa Akira
  The film that first brought Kurosawa international acclaim and introduced Japanese cinema to the outside world. Rashomon, set in 12C Kyoto, tells the story of a murder from four different points of view - one for each of the characters involved.
  
  
• Ran (Chaos), Kurosawa Akira
  Kurosawa's loose adaptation of King Lear, fought out on a grand scale in 16C Japan. If anything, it's even more bleak than the original.
  
  
• Shichinin-no-Samurai (The Seven Samurai), Kurosawa Akira
  A classic samurai epic later remade by John Sturges as The Magnificent Seven. More stunning action scenes.
  
  
• Marusa-no-Onna (A Taxing Woman), Itami Juzo
  This engaging comedy about a zealous tax-collector was an instant hit in Japan. She goes after small-time evaders before tackling the big one - the owner of a "love hotel" - in an exciting climax.
  
  
• Tampopo, Itami Juzo
  A satirical film full of marvellous vignettes and cinematic references, in which Tampopo, the owner of a Tokyo ramen restaurant, learns how to say it with noodles.
  
  
• Ososhiki (The Funeral), Itami Juzo
  Anyone worried about Japanese etiquette will appreciate this comedy, in which a modern family fumble their way through the arcane ritual of a traditional Buddhist funeral.
  
  
• Narayama Bushi-ko (The Ballad of Narayama), Imamura Shohei
  Moving tale of an old woman in a remote village approaching her 70th birthday, when she will be taken up the mountain to die. Before then she has various family affairs to settle - like taking her precocious grandson down a peg or two.
  
  
• Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story), Ozu Yasujiro
  Another elegiac tale, this time examining the gulf between town and country, old and modern, and also between the generations as elderly grandparents visit their offspring in Tokyo.
  
  
• Nijushi-no-Hitomi (Twenty Four Eyes), Kinoshita Keisuke
  The 24 eyes belong to 12 first-grade students on Shodo-shima island during and after WWII. The film is told though another pair of eyes, those of Oishi-san, their teacher and a pacifist beautifully portrayed by Takahime Hideko.
  
  
• Blade Runner, Ridley Scott
  Though set in LA, Ridley Scott's vision of the future is a dead-ringer for the neon-seared streets of Tokyo on a rainy night. Loads of atmosphere.
  
  And another. Beverly asks me to include
• Maboroshi no Hikari (Maborosi in the US), Koreeda Hirokazu
  The plot: a man commits suicide for no apparent reason, leaving behind a young widow (Yumiko) and their child. She subsequently remarries and moves to a small fishing village to try and find a meaning to life. Dark, brooding and contemplative, the film has certain similarities with the works of Ozu.