Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
I heard about a park somewhere in Odawara City where more than 35,000 plum trees lift their blossoming branches to frame distant Mount Fuji. That seemed worth the hour-long train ride, so I blocked off an afternoon for exploring. I must not have left at the exact time I’d researched, because lo and behold, I…
Who knew cute tights at three pairs for 1000 yen were as close as the Ayase Hills mall?? JUST what my wardrobe needed to suffer through this freezing weather and transition from winter to spring colors: grey argyle, sheer plum with stars, skulls and crossbones, and of course black with pink roses. Kawaii!!!
The entire world was covered in rain clouds when we looked at the worldwide weather map this weekend. Bleak. What a time for a three day weekend. By Presidents Day we decided we’d had enough so we pulled on rain boots, braced our umbrellas into the wind and headed off for Enoshima Island. EnoSpa is…
Like clockwork, the weather flipped with the calendar page. All of January had just one rainy day (coincidentally, it was the day of Root Canal Procedure Part 2). February first marked the beginning of more or less two straight weeks of freezing rain. This is especially obnoxious because Chris just completed his strenuous Helicopter Aircraft…
Tired of Japanese food? Wishing a crusty loaf of bread would come your way? A snug, sort-of Northern European-style lunch is only a Cafe Ko-Ba away! My lunch set (the no.2 pan set, 990 yen) included the above tea and the below salad, bread and sausages. The mushroom and ham pasta is topped with seaweed…
One time I was trying to get somewhere faster and thought, “I bet this is a shortcut!” I ended up on a freeway on the Scoop lost for the better part of an hour. I will be lost forever! I thought. I will become a ghost on a ghost Scoop, doomed to wander the back…
A couple summers ago my sister Hannah and I sailed across the Straights of Gibraltar from Tarifa, Spain to some town in Morocco where we rode a camel for a dollar. We stayed in the colorful Hotel Tarik that included: a nice view, dinner, bugs to chomp you in your sleep. We watched the sun…
