I’ve written before about Turkish and Moroccan Hammam, as well as Korean jimjilbang – now it’s time to talk about the Japanese version – onsen. These are bath houses but don’t get them confused with a soapland which is a different thing entirely – though still involving a bath. Onsen are traditional, segregated by sex,…
I have to admit, Hokkaido has really grown on me. In particular, I really enjoy the temperate forests and the peaceful nature. I grew up in snow and it’s incredibly nice to be able to go walk through a park and enjoy the crisp sound of my footsteps. I would love to go skiing or…
Let’s start this with a disclaimer. Growing up in Southern California in the 1970s – Disney was a big part of my childhood. You could almost say that Disney defined my childhood. My mom’s first job was working for Walt Disney at Disneyland. She was one of the original mermaids in the Disneyland lagoon. My…
The tricky part of traveling with my eleven-year-old daughter is finding ways to make it fun for both of us. I wasn’t going to keep us in the Narita Airport Crowne Plaza longer than I had to, so I’d booked us into Annex Katsutaro Ryokan in the old Nippori and Yanaka section of Arakawa City…
I love Japan. I’ve only spent a little bit of time here – but in that short period, I’ve learned that it offers everything I want from a place. The landscapes, the cities, the food, the people and culture, the technology, and much more. I’ve said it before – if Japan were the first country…
Harry Franck’s willingness to travel with no money, his keen eye for the details of his journey and the societies he recorded (some of which soon disappeared) make him a welcome addition to our list of Extraordinary Vagabonds.
Jack London’s life reads like an adventure novel. From being a vagrant to a pirate to working in the gold fields to learning to surf from Duke Kahanamoku, he lived forty years larger than life. Truly an extraordinary vagabond.
Exploring the world’s strangest hotels is certainly a fun thing to do, given the extremes hotels have gone to, just in the name of being “strange”.
Don’t read anything about the country of place you are going to. That way you won’t understand the culture, the traditions, the history, the climate, or anything else. You will be able to have a completely one dimensional experience.
2019 Largest Cities in the World The world has changed a lot since I originally wrote this article back in 2011. Almost a decade later – populations have shifted significantly along with everything else. I’ve got this idea in my head these days that I want to visit all of the largest cities in the…