Granted, it might not be the best time to travel right now. The world is on fire, and everything is horrible. But to find a silver lining, with millions of people social distancing and in quarantine, there’s never been a better time to virtually travel the world.

There are plenty of ways to put one foot in front of the other and circle the globe from the comfort of your own home. Tools like Google Earth allow you do visit almost anywhere with ridiculous ease. Films, documentaries, and pop culture from hundreds of countries have never been easier to find and devour.

And then, of course, there’s the traditional, reliable answer of the printed page. Now more than ever, books have the power to set your imagination in flight and make the impossible possible.

Say hello to Tuttle Publishing, a relatively small publisher firmly grounded in its niche of introducing Asian culture to a Western audience. Going way beyond language learning guides, Tuttle produces gorgeous books about everything from Japanese tea to Filipino children’s stories.

But Japan’s World Heritage Sites is a book that seems tailor made to appeal to me personally. The book is a chronicle of Japan’s 22 (as of 2019) UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the result of author John Dougill’s self-proclaimed “journey of discovery” to visit all of them. Dougill is a professor emeritus at Ryukoku University in Kyoto and the author of more than a dozen textbooks and books about Japan and Japanese culture.

A decision to visit all 22 World Heritage Sites in the country speaks to my very core. As someone who is committed to several similar travel goals (including an unwieldy U.S. National Park Service quest), this is a quest I very much relate to.

Dougill’s book isn’t merely a travel guide to Japan’s world heritage sites, though a prospective tourist could use it as a framework for travel. Rather, it’s a gorgeous coffeetable-style book overflowing with hundreds of stunning photos and pages detailing the historical, cultural, and geographic significance of each site – from the famous (Mount Fuji, the Peace Memorial at Hiroshima) to the unfamiliar (Ogasawara Islands, the Kingdom of Ryukyu).

I’ve been to several of the places highlighted in this book (i.e., the World Heritage Sites in and around Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo), but most of the sites included here were mostly foreign to me. Many of Japan’s UNESCO-preserved sites are religious shrines, temples, and memorials, but I devoured the pages about the country’s 16th century silver mine, 19th century silk mill, Meiji Industrial Revolution sites, thousand-year-old cedar trees, and the subtropical “Galapagos of Japan.”

Since I don’t know when it’ll be “safe” to travel again, I’m beyond thankful for books like this – books that let you “travel” the world, explore new places, and learn new things. And since I don’t know when I’ll have the opportunity to be back in Japan, I’m especially thankful for Tuttle’s Japan-centric catalog and Japan’s World Heritage Sites in particular.

It doesn’t quite cure the travel bug, but it definitely helps scratch the itch.

And, in the interest of “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” I’d like to put it out there that I’d be totally game to take on China’s World Heritage Sites for Tuttle, should they be interested. I’ve been to a majority of that country’s 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and have lived in and traveled extensively through all but 5 of China’s 33 provincial-level jurisdictions. It’s a place I know rather intimately.