Wow Place #440: Pig Memorial, Bangkok, Thailand
When it comes to travel, there are two kinds of sights: 1) planned & 2) unplanned. Planned sights include landmarks you find in a guidebook as well as ones you hear about from friends, family and online forums. You “plan” to visit these kind of locations because, more often than not, they’re pretty darn [...]
Wow Place #339: Otokoyama Sake Brewery, Hokkaido, Japan
As long as there’s been a Japan, there’s been sake. At least that’s the message I receive as I wander through the three-story history museum at Otokoyama Sake Brewery near Arashiyama, Hokkaido. If ever there was a cathedral to the production and consumption of Japanese rice wine, this is it. Here you [...]
Wow Place #338: Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Egypt
Wouldn’t it great to have a secret lair? Good guys like Batman and Superman have one. Bad guys like the Penguin or Gru (the evil villain in Despicable Me) also have one. It seems like everyone has a lair these days, a secluded place where you can hide out, make plans and train your Minions. [...]
Wow Place #337: Lake Kussharo Hot Springs
Japan is a land of contradictions. On the one hand, its people are some of the most easily-embarrassed folks on the planet. At least once a day, you’ll notice a Japanese person putting a hand over their mouth and exclaiming, “Hazukashii!” (“I’m so embarrassed!”). I find it rather charming, actually – especially if it’s a [...]
Wow Place #336: Sounkyo Gorge, Hokkaido, Japan
Have you ever arrived in a location and exclaimed, “This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before?” It’s a magical feeling, isn’t it? It happened to me at Pagan, Myanmar. At the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. At Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal. Time again, I was unmoored from the familiar, transported to a place [...]
Meritage Resort, Napa
A fun place to hold a team building activity in Napa Event Description: During this treasure hunt adventure, you'll solve clues on the property of the lovely Meritage Resort Location History: Opened in July 2006, the Meritage Resort and Spa is a premier, 322-room luxury destination in Napa Valley managed by Pacific Hospitality Group (PHG). [...]
Wow Place #335: Sapporo Art Park
Wow Place #335: Sapporo Art Park Growing up in the San Francisco suburbs, my family and I went to a lot of movies. We did long drives. We ate a lot of dim sum. What we *didn’t* do much is 1) go to art museums, and 2) walk in nature. Part of that [...]
Wow Place #334: Es Con Field Baseball Stadium, Sapporo, Japan
Like many Americans, I grew up watching baseball. My team, the Oakland Athletics, played in the clunky old Oakland Coliseum, known for its broken seats, peeling paint, power outages, and failing sound systems. Described as a “bland, charmless concrete monstrosity,” the Coliseum had a massive foul territory that pushed the fans far from the field. […]
Wow Place #333: Myriad Botanical Gardens, Oklahoma City
When you’re planning a trip to Athens, you go to the Acropolis. When you’re planning a trip to Agra, you go to the Taj Mahal. When you’re planning a trip to Pisa, you go to the Leaning Tower. There are some cities that are just known for their one, primary tourist attraction. Not that [...]
Wow Place #332: New Chitose Airport, Sapporo, Japan
Those of us “of a certain age” remember the good old days of travel when one could go to the airport, walk right up to the gate, and meet our friends and family as they arrived or departed. Wasn’t it fantastic? In those heady days pre-9/11/2021, we were still required to pass through x-ray machines, […]