Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
I have an alabaster vase that produces a happy, satisfied smile every time I see it. I saw it in a dusty shop on the second floor of the Khan in Cairo with a friend, decided days later I would like it and somehow found my way back to the shop and bought the thing…
We met some friends at this sushi go-round on road 146 that’s closer to our house than our usual ¥105 per plate place up near Gorilla Pachinko. That fish tank behind the chef is the refrigerator. As in, the food on the go-round was in the tank a few minutes ago. To keep it fresh,…
Headed to an Evil Empire? Dress the part with these smashing militant pieces–let fashion come out in force! You’ll be too cool to re-school if you’re taken captive–living without this adorable hat would be torture enough! So whether you’re practicing drills in Tienanmen Square or using the Great Wall of China as a catwalk to…
Our friends put their daughter in a Japanese preschool and invited me to come to the year-end assembly. Ooo, a Japanese cultural activity! I thought. It was 3.5 hours…and so worth it! The kids began with a few songs, which started calmly and got progressively more lively. Then came the dances—SO excellent! First the PIRATES!…
We got the final permits on the car. I thought this tiny, dark road might be two-way and a short cut…and it was! I went to the dairy aisle looking for sour cream for baked potato soup and apparently Japanese people don’t keep it between the yogurt and the cheese, so after watching a tiny…
The Ginza shopping district is just blocks away from the Imperial Palace. Chris and I were browsing our guidebook trying to figure out where to find some dinner near the palace when a very helpful man who ended up living just a few train stations from us asked if we needed help. I said we…
The outer wall of the East Garden used to be a lookout point for Mount Fuji. It’s blocked by buildings now, but that’s not a bad view of Tokyo Tower (left, under the willow branches). These fish adorn the edges of homes and pagodas to protect the structures from fire, which finds shoji screens of…
