Tourism
Some days you wake up and just feel like being a tourist.
More often than not, I like to feel my way into a place when I’m traveling. I’m not all that keen on sights and would always prefer to get the leisurely first hand tour from a local. Secret coffeeshops and favorite walking spots, front [...]
Neighborhood Bits
In case I forgot to mention, Okinawa is not just white sand beaches and green forest and turquoise water and volcanic rock. It’s also bicycles and edible children and cute cafés and talking elevators and a vending machine on every corner just like the rest of Japan.
Five Hour Walk
I don’t have a lot of words, but I do have a lot of pictures. Listen, all this relaxing is positively exhausting. I have to go swimming. I have to lay in the sand. I have to make vodka tonics for everyone at 5pm. I have to read. My nose is deep in the Copper [...]
I May Have Spoken Too Soon
Today was another brilliant blue sky day here in Okinawa, even moreso than yesterday.
In the Sun
I will be honest. There has not been a whole lot of sunshine here in Okinawa since my arrival. The island is at the tailend of its rainy season, so while there’s been plenty of cloudporn and the occasional downpour, the sun and blue sky have kept their appearances to a minimum. But I knew [...]
Okinawa
Having grown up on the ocean, I am often amazed at how easy it is to slip into the comfort of silence. From an early age, I was trained in the art of sitting together quietly, listening to the wind and the waves, lazily watching the water breathe and the sun sink into the horizon. [...]
This Time Tomorrow
Tomorrow morning I am heading back to the place where my heart thumps deeper than anywhere: Japan.
This trip will be a bit different.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Eating
No discussion of Singapore would be complete without talking about the food. As diverse as the people themselves, the food in Singapore is a vast array of Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Chinese cuisine, with a sprinkling of colonial England. Coconuts, curries, spicy rice dishes, duck, satay, fish ball noodles and fresh fruits are just a [...]
Forcing Blossoms
Since Seoul has refused to cooperate this year, and winter has refused to release its icy deathgrip, I’m going to take a lesson from my mother and do some forcing.
Every year around this time,
Singapore
I’ve been in Singapore for nearly a month now, but you’d hardly know it if you’ve been visiting these pages.
I wish my absence was due to lazying about in hammocks under palm fronds, munching on papaya slices and sipping Singapore Slings from tall glasses. But I’m afraid there’s been far too much work and far [...]
Island
This is how it works: sun, hot, beach, book, sandals, purple yam soft serve, sleeping cats, shrines, tiny shops, steep steps, shady path, stunning view, Fuji, incense, garden, hawks, observatory, music, magicians, yaki soba, cold beer, book, sun, hot, terrace, long shadows, flat rocks, big ocean, meandering path, cool breeze, sun sets, thai noodles, more [...]
Enoshima
Japan, you had me at konnichiwa. Sure we had that falling out last week with all those earthquakes. You made me think long and hard about our future. But then you surprised me with a weekend on the seaside, and well, let’s just call it a wash.
Adventuring
Ganghwa Island, just 90 minutes and 4,200 Won west of my front door, is a lush and quiet landscape of rice paddies, verdant mountains, Buddhist temples and mud flats on Korea’s western shore. The island lies just at the edge of the North Korean border and has a long history of blah blah blah invading [...]
Into the Presence of Still Water
Two months before I moved to Austin, I stopped through the city on my way back to Massachusetts from California. I took a small room at the Hotel San Jose on South Congress, where I drank cold beer on the patio, stuck daisies in my hair and listened to Toni Price sing her heart out [...]
