Category: travel

I’ve always been fascinated by Japan.

Japanese culture is so different than American culture. Here are just a few examples that capture my imagination:

• In Tokyo, living and shopping spaces bring efficiency to levels never achieved in the USA.
• Artisan culture is expressed in fascinating ways, such as extreme pour over coffee methods that have migrated back to the USA. (See this article at Boutique Japan.)
• One person’s trash is another person’s treasure… more than twenty years ago, my friends Eric and Sheryl, who lived in Japan for at least a year, told me of how their neighbors would put perfectly good stereo equipment on the curb to be picked up by the garbage collectors after they bought newer and better equipment.
• Even though the salaryman concept is losing ground, Japan’s often unquestioning commitment to work lives on. (See this article at The Lily.)
• When I was in college, I picked up a photo calendar featuring Japan’s beautiful and rugged mountains. I think Japan has more mountains per square kilometer than my beloved Colorado. (Check out Kamikochi.)
• Japan loves bizarre little cars that will never find their way to the States, such as the Honda N-WGN and the Nissan Roox. I’d love to feature one in my driveway.

Even post-pandemic (if we ever get there), I may never get to visit. But it’s nice to dream.

Photo courtesy of bantersnaps on Unsplash. Used by permission via a Creative Commons license.

Krest Bitter Lemon is a drink that’s widely available in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

While living in Kenya for five years, I developed a taste for the drink. It’s bright, refreshing and not too sweet.

But you can’t buy it in my town in Colorado, no matter how hard you try.

You need to travel. You’ll see, feel and taste things that you won’t experience in your hometown. Guaranteed, you will encounter life in ways you can’t where you live.

Travel can be expensive, but it’s a better way to hit the reset button than almost anything else I know.

Footnotes:

1. My son Benjamin brought this plastic Krest bottle back after his time in Uganda during the summer of 2015. When he brought it, there was liquid inside. That wasn’t for long.
2. Krest (and Schweppes) Bitter Lemon originally contained quinine, a malaria preventative substance.
3. My post at My Part of Nairobi about Krest Bitter Lemon received more visits than any other post in history. Here’s why.

Portland is a crazy place.

(We just returned from a family vacation that included a few days in Portland.)

I knew that I wanted to get to know the city ever since seeing Portlandia.

I was not disappointed.

Plus:

• Powell’s is perhaps the finest bookstore on the planet. Besides stocking an amazing range of books (both new and used), they have the most incredible array of stuff from interesting water bottles to funky backpacks to weird socks.
• Food trucks (often food trailers): a huge collection of semi-fast food outlets are all over the Portland, often in collections filling whole city blocks. Wide offerings of ethnic cuisine are available.
• Shops: If I were rich, I would have gorged on the incredible variety of clothing, trinkets, hand-made art in many useful forms such as furniture and all manner of hipster-oriented stuff. One of my favorite shops was Boys Fort.
• Bicycling: In spite of the generally dreary weather, bicycling is a huge part of life in Portland. Bike paths are prevalent across the city, and as our Airbnb hostess explained, bicyclists there often feel like they rule the world, whether or not that is the case.
• The river: Bike paths go along the Willamette River, allowing you to explore the waterway without getting wet (unless it’s raining).

Minus:

• Trash: There are very few trash cans around the city. Thus, trash accumulates in all the nooks and crannies. Seattle, in comparison, seems to have a normal amount of places to dispose of your waste.
• Homelessness: I’m not sure what attracts so many homeless people to Portland. Denver, the city near my suburban home, seems to have a smaller homeless population. I have nothing against homeless people – drug addiction and mental illness are crippling – but perhaps Denver provides more places for the homeless to find a home. Or possibly Colorado has more restrictive laws governing homeless activities (like no sleeping on sidewalks).
• Maybe a little too much indie-hipster-ness: Though I love supporting small businesses and appreciate creativity, I was almost overwhelmed at the extreme hipster-ness of Portland. One morning, I even wanted to visit Starbucks, believe it or not.

If you can, you simply must visit greater Portland.

Footnote: I only spent a few days there, so these are just a few surface observations.