SHIMOKITAZAWA Cool kid on the block Standing in vintage high tops, Espresso in hand. We arrived in Shimokitazawa station at 10:00am on a Saturday, figuring we’d spend a lazy morning going in and out of coffee shops and browsing vintage stores. That plan was quickly foiled. The whole neighborhood is closed until noon, which led … Continue reading A Tour through Tokyo Via Haiku: Shimokitazawa, Ginza, and Harajuku
TOKYO METRO A polite hussle Moving in silent masses Train calls cut the air. There’s a weekday uniform on Tokyo’s subways. Every man is wearing a white button down with black slacks — that’s just what they wear, regardless of age or profession. One man, however, is wearing navy pants. I wonder if this means … Continue reading A Tour Through Tokyo Via Haiku: The Metro, The Fish Market, and the Gardens
Bubblegum is holding my shoe together. The black perforated flats I packed have proven to be a bad choice, and the last week of walking through Tokyo’s streets on 90 degree days has caused my skin to swell into each tiny puncture, leaving my feet with a perfectly red and symmetrical polka dot pattern of … Continue reading An Afternoon Abroad with a Poor Choice of Footware
The fog in San Francisco is named Karl. Karl has his own Twitter account and LinkedIn profile. He’s famous here, shrouding the iconic Golden Gate ‘til it’s lost in the clouds, causing the sky to glow in the evenings. City lights trapped in the haze. Even during mid summer, fog blowing in from the marine … Continue reading The Old Heart of San Francisco
Petrichor is a word constructed from the Greek “petra”, meaning stone, and “ichor”, the fluid that flows through the God’s veins. It refers to the smell created when rain hits dry earth. The west coast is suffering through a drought currently, and Seattle, one of the rainiest and greenest cities in the country, is seeing … Continue reading Block Party in Seattle
Think of a town living in the hall of a mountain king. Where in it’s shadow people spend their days picking peaches and cherries. Juice running between cracks in fingers, the crevices of hands stained crimson. Where waterfalls roar within a mile of your doorstep, mists coating rock walls cool and damp to the touch, … Continue reading Seven Wonders of Oregon Part II: The Columbia River Gorge
Honky Tonks are the main attraction. Men play cellos as they trill their tongue to twanging strings. Women lit in lavender strum guitars and croon lonesomely. Achy Breaky hearts howl from bars, musicians rattle their tip jars, and it’s a Sunday night. Stage lights envelop singers in shades of deep blues, magentas, and golds, while … Continue reading Honky-Tonk Town in Nashville
A grandmotherly woman in the ranger station traced routes on our maps with a red pen, writing in small dashed lines like the guides of a treasure map. The process took several minutes as she described with a lispy voice where she was taking us: to Bandelier National Monument then Farmington New Mexico for the … Continue reading National Monument: Bandelier
Driving to California has been a dream of mine since the tween years. After graduation my friends and I would load ourselves into a dirty van and just go. We’d sleep under the stars, eat greasy cheeseburgers, and wash our hair in rest stop sinks. It was a dream which wasn’t unique to me, but … Continue reading Roadtrippin’ in California
Lightning blazes in windows but no one looks. No one even speaks. Tables across the room are covered with empty Quilmes bottles and fernet glasses. In the middle of the floor a man sitting on crates is playing the erhu, and even though people have been drinking and tangoing for hours, no one anywhere will … Continue reading Tango In Buenos Aires
