Japan

Bashō’s Narrow Road to the Deep North and Parkman’s The Oregon Trail (1849) to the great travel books of our own day: the vomiting camels of Thesiger’s Arabian Sands, the muddy Congo paths of Redmond O’Hanlon’s No Mercy, the flitting and plodding of Bruce Chatwin in Patagonia—and, I should add, to a lesser degree, nearly everything in travel that I

When looking for wabi sabi pottery either overseas or at home the following are guidelines on what to look for: Functional rather than decorative Rough and organic feel Little to no defined design Dark, mute colors, preferably with a natural ash glaze Complexity in color and texture Naturalness and ease of use

but in my thirties I had a period when I thought there was nothing more beautiful in this world than the new green leaves of zelkova trees. It was from that time that I became attracted to plants. Trees are so beautiful. Yet, when I went abroad and thought that some tree was wonderful or beautiful, there was always something different about my

This fear of being ridiculed is reflected in one of the key words by which the Swedes define themselves: duktig. It literally translates as “clever,” but this is a specific type of Swedish cleverness: a diligent, responsible kind of clever; punctual, law-abiding, industrious clever. We’re talking Japanese-style responsible competence, rather than

but can still reach out and touch each other’s faces with our outstretched arms, so to speak.