Unexpected Destinations: The Poignant Story of Japan's First Vassar Graduate is a biography of Ōyama Sutematsu, written by her great-granddaughter Akiko Kuno.

[5] Kuno travelled to San Francisco in July 1982,[6] and visited several stops from Ōyama's journey with the Iwakura Mission, using Kunitake Kume's published diary Beio Kairan Jikki as her guide.

At age eleven, she was one of five Japanese girls sent to be educated in America as part of the Iwakura Mission, in support of the new imperial government's program of rapid modernization.

After ten years, however, the time came for her to return to Japan, where she found that Japanese society was not as welcoming of an independent, intellectual, Westernized woman as the imperial educational program had expected.

[13] In presenting her great-grandmother's life story, Kuno often discusses the broader ideas of international education, US-Japan relations, and the social roles of women.

[14] News coverage of Ōyama often emphasized the glamour of her aristocratic life; Kuno sought to fill a gap by highlighting the value of her education and its effect on diplomatic relations.