The Sarashina Diary

Takasue's Daughter, or Sugawara no Takasue no Musume, (菅原孝標女, c.1008 - after 1059) was a Japanese author, who's real name is unknown. Translator Ivan Morris referred to her as Lady Sarashina. She is well-known by her classic Heian period travel diary, “The Sarashina Diary” (更級日記Sarashina Nikki). 

“The Sarashina Diary” was one of the first work in the genre of travel writing in the literature of the Heian-period Japan. It is memories written by Lady Sarashina in her later years. It started with her childhood days when she traveled to the provinces with her father, an assistant governor. “Sarashina” is a geographical district never mentioned in the diary, but it is alluded to, in a reference to Mount Obasute, also known as Mount Sarashina, in one of the book's poems (itself an adaptation of a more ancient poem). This, and the fact that her husband's last appointment was to the province of Shinano (Nagano), probably led to the use by later scholars of "Sarashina" as a point of identification of the text and its author. Let's read and enjoy one of the most famous classical writing of Japanese literature.