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As I mentioned in post #58 for Laggan, Scotland, I love visiting TV and movie locations. There’s something cool about stepping onto the “set” of your favorite screen drama and imagining that you’re right there with the characters, playing out a scene, participating in the action. I will forever kick myself for missing out on […]

Before the Power Rangers, there was Ultraman. Before Spirited Away (and the anime of the Ghibli studios), there was Speed Racer. Before Jurassic Park, there was Godzilla and his kaiju giant-monster friends, Gamera and Mothra. Japan has been exporting its pop culture around the world for ages. Its offerings have certainly been a big part […]

There’s a certain time in life – often in our early-to-mid 20s — when we don’t really think about consequences. According to the National Institute of Health, “The brain undergoes a “rewiring” process that is not complete until approximately 25 years of age.” In other words, our brains are like a house being built on […]

While visiting an architect’s house in Nagasaki, I noticed that the kitchen was very small in relation to the much-larger living room. “Why is the kitchen so small, Koji?” “I believe that beauty only comes when there is some imperfection.” “Sooo, are you saying that the rest of your house is the perfection and your […]

It’s 7am in the morning when I wake up in my hotel in New Orleans and flip on the TV. To my surprise, the programming for every channel has been interrupted to cover breaking news about a plane that has crashed into the one of the towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. As […]

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that when I travel into town, I tend to avoid city parks. It’s not that I don’t like them; it’s more that cities attract me for city attractions. In a metropolis, you can find museums, plays, musicals, bars restaurants, churches and temples, public art, historical sites, etc. In short, “city […]

Sometimes all it takes is an invitation. “Hey Dave, you should come down to Brazil and visit me in Rio de Janeiro.” “But I don’t speak Portugese.” “That’s okay, I’ll be here to translate for you.” That’s how easy it is to find yourself traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language. In […]

As an extrovert who loves talking and interacting with people, living in the small, Japanese town of Shimonoseki at age 23 – without a shred of foreign language skills — was not an easy experience. There many times when, sitting alone at home in my 1-room, 6-tatami-mat apartment, I wondered what in the heck I […]

As much as I like novelty and variety, there is something comforting about ritual and tradition. For example, when one of my college buddies called for a “Foster’s Run,” I always knew the drive to our favorite donut place would involve a familiar, comforting liturgy, like: • When we pass by the Bob’s Big Boy […]

There’s a series of photos going around the internet, showing different old-masters paintings in which one of the characters is holding a cell phone. The claim is that these newly-discovered artworks prove that time travel exists! Wouldn’t that be wonderful, if someone from our time traveled back to, say, the 17th century and posed for […]