This is the grave of Edward Morse. Born in Portland, Maine in 1838, Morse must have had a somewhat difficult childhood. His father was a strict Calvinist and his mother didn’t really believe in
Friends, Japan has a problem. Its population isn’t drinking enough anymore. And the nation is trying to do something about it: Young people turning away from alcohol is generally welcomed as a p
This is a vending machine in Kyoto selling….cactus. It could be late on Saturday. You’ve had a few drinks. You just feel the need for some drought tolerant plants to top off the evening. M
Convenience stores in the U.S. are horrible. Even the “healthy” part of them, which I admit have gotten a little bit better in the last decade, might mean some old bananas, red “deli
Since I’m in Tokyo and have major jet lag, let’s watch a film about the nation. It’s 1956. You are the U.S. military. Your troops are….probably not very well-informed about the
Back in 2020, I was selected to be a visiting scholar in Japan as part of the Organization of American Historians-Japanese Association of American Studies collaboration. They select two American schol
Even without climate change, it would be a really bad idea to hold the Olympics in Japan in August. It’s really hot and humid! Climate change only makes this worse, as we are seeing globally in
Everything’s fine! We’ve got this climate thing under control! Amid an exceptionally warm March in Japan, the cherry blossoms in Kyoto peaked Friday, the earliest in more than 1,200 years