February 22 was a beautiful Sunday morning for our drive around Lake Patzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacán. But just as my three friends and I exited our rental car in Erongaricuaro, one of many artisan towns ringing the lake, we heard a loud boom just on the other side of a stone wall.…
You’ll probably eat miso on a trip to Japan, but what if you could also learn how to make the fermented soybean paste? What insight might you gain into wabi-sabi, the Japanese appreciation for the imperfection and impermanence of life, if you learned how to restore broken ceramics using a centuries-old technique called kintsugi? Not only do these experiences afford deep dives into Japanese culture, but they also provide personal connections to the history, techniques, and philosophy behind centuries of Japanese crafts and cuisine.
All Aboard America’s greatest writer, Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, grew up on the western shore of North America’s greatest river, the mighty Mississippi. Abraham Lincoln called it the Father of Waters. I prefer to think of this wide, muscular river as America’s Nile, since it drains 1,125 million square…
Jason Younis y Delgado, fifth-generation tinsmith, sits at a table off the sunbaked plazuela of Casa San Ysidro in Corrales, New Mexico. The Casa is part of an historic adobe complex affiliated with the Albuquerque Museum. Surrounded by pieces of tin and rows of tools, he’s fabricating traditional tin works to sell at the casa’s…
The clerk at the tiny convenience store on Rua de Santa Maria in Madeira’s capital city of Funchal sized up the two American women browsing for bottled water. “Are you visiting? Have you had poncha yet?” Something in his enthusiasm demanded that honesty be abandoned. Even if you have tried poncha already, it’s always best…
By Teresa Bergen The crowd of over 500 wellness and medical professionals from around the world pack the opulent new Mandarin Oriental in Downtown Dubai as Katherine Johnston, senior research fellow at the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute, takes the stage. She is calm and self-assured, the sort of person who seems trustworthy with reams of…
By Richard Varr Our speed boat quietly chugged into a secluded cove off the Pakleni Islands archipelago where forested bluffs adorn a rocky coastline. The gentle water – aquamarine and clear – brought to mind a Caribbean dream. But that setting of sun-drenched islands is on the other side of the Atlantic. Instead, we had…
By Steffy McCourt Untouched by the glaciers that leveled the northern part of the state, Southern Indiana swells and ebbs against an unending sky, forested hills, and ancient farms. On its winding two-lane roads, it unfolds like a good story… slow turns, familiar scenes, a feeling that you’ve been here before, even if you haven’t.…
The Guadalupe River appeared benign – quiet, slow-moving, fishy-looking. It was just what a visitor from a thousand miles away expected in the Central Texas Hill Country, a region of big skies, gentle hills and open land that native son President Lyndon Johnson loved. The Hill Country is north of San Antiono and south of…
By Ramaa Reddy New York City is a wonderland to visit in winter and can captivate visitors with its spellbinding attractions, sights, and sounds. Eternally an iconic city, it was born of grit, and its unique racial and cultural diversity has spawned a variety of restaurants, music talents, and distinctive establishments. Its fame and attractions…