Basil Hall Chamberlain & W. B. Mason were expatriates living in Japan at the turn of the century. Chamberlain had been a professor of Japanese and philology at the Imperial University of Tokyo and Mason, a member of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, had been on the staff of the Imperial Japanese Department of Communications. Their book, Travels in Japan, was published by Murray in 1913. The volume provided detailed maps and explanations, not only of important sites but also of the customs and culture of the Japanese as East and West came into contact after years of isolation.