“I wanted to experience what the Chinese call Tao, the Greeks call Logos, the Hindus call Jnana, the Buddhists call Dharma. What the Christians call Spirit.”

Though Knight’s trip around the world as a young man is partially inspired by a desire to do business in Japan, it is also inspired by a yearning to connect with the world in a deep and spiritual way. The term that is notably missing in this list of philosophical/religious concepts is Zen: the one that resonates most with Knight and that becomes a major motif in his memoir.

“Driving to my hotel, however, I saw only darkness. Vast sections of the city were total liquid black. ‘War,’ the cabdriver said.”

The fact that the United States bombed much of Japan in World War II provides a subtext to nearly all of Knight’s earliest business interactions in Japan.

“I found everything about it interesting. Even musical. Each time a shoe was molded, the metal last would fall to the floor with a silvery tinkle, a melodic CLING-clong.”

Knight describes his first visit to Onitsuka, the first shoe factory he ever sees, as magical and eye-opening. This foreshadows the many shoe factories he will visit throughout his later career.