Big Cats and Giraffes

When I was young, we would visit the Oregon Zoo several times a year. I loved owls, and I would carry a little Audubon pocket guide and look up all the information I could find about the various owl breeds as we encountered their enclosures. The Oregon Zoo also has a successful Asian elephant conversation …

Magic at Bookworm Gardens

When I read about a Wisconsin garden based on children's literature, I knew I had to visit. Bookworm Gardens is based on the idea of bringing children's books to life one garden at a time - which is such a charming concept in itself, but is also just as charming in real life. Bookworm Gardens …

12 Habits I Learned from Japan That Did Not Help Me Back Home

12 Habits I Learned from Japan that Did Not Help Me Back Home 1)      It’s okay not to pay your bills on time, and not doing so results in no, or next to no, consequences 2)      Always run the yellow light, and most of the time run the red 3)      All You Can Eat doesn’t …

Questival DC 2017

This weekend we are participating in a 24-hour scavenger hunt all over the DC metro area, focusing on social conscientiousness and doing good to others and the environment. There's also a fair amount of random-ness involved with getting us out of our comfort zones. See some of the challenges we have completed in the last …

Japan: Christmas 2013

This year, Christmas was different. It held no tree, no stockings, no exchange of presents, no French toast, and no card games. What it held, instead, was a heavily frosted strawberry cake, a ferry ride, noodles dipped in sauce, the world’s largest wooden spatula, and an underwater shrine. That’s what happens when you take a …

Rakugo Culture

Every year my school partakes in some kind of cultural event. Last year it was visiting the Lake Tazawa drama troupe, which I didn’t get to see; the year before that was attending a performance by Malta, a saxophonist famous in the 80’s and 90’s, whom I did get to see. This year was a …

Understanding Tohoku

This piece was recently picked by Japan Today. See it here: http://www.japantoday.com/category/opinions/view/understanding-tohoku I came to Japan in July 2011, about four months after the East Japan Earthquake. We had been warned that electricity use had been cut in an attempt to compensate for the shortages in the northeast, and the first obvious show of this …

My So-Far Tour of Asia

In the last two years I have been living in Japan, I have had opportunities to experience the cultures and climes of five countries in Asia. In receding chronological order, with the most recent first, this is a list summarizing my thoughts about each. 1)      Cambodia From my first lunch overlooking the Mekong River, with …