British novelist Marcel Theroux is fascinated by Wabi Sabi, a theory of Japanese aesthetics in which imperfection and transience are the touchstone of beauty. The Japanese say that if you can understand Wabi Sabi, you will understand Japan and the Japanese. Yet at the same time they have immense difficulty in explaining the concept themselves, so Marcel travels across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and then on to the mountains of Fukui, trying to unravel the meaning of this baffling concept that is at the heart of what makes the Japanese tick. It is a challenging, funny and ultimately moving journey that starts under the bright neon lights and craziness of Tokyo and ends in an austere Zen Temple in the snowy foothills of Japan's eastern mountains.