I’ll never forget the moment my friend Sarah stood in the middle of Shibuya Crossing at midnight, surrounded by 3,000 people crossing in perfect synchronization, neon signs bleeding colors onto wet pavement, and she turned to me with wide eyes and whispered, “Is this Japan?” Three weeks later, she was sitting in a quiet Kyoto … Read more
Six trees stood at ground zero and lived to tell the story. On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb detonated 600 meters above Hiroshima, instantly killing approximately 70,000 people and incinerating nearly everything within a two-kilometer radius. Wooden buildings evaporated. Concrete cracked and crumbled. And yet, within a few hundred meters of the hypocenter, six … Read more
Six months after returning from two weeks in Japan, I sat on my couch with a cup of cold coffee, scrolling through 3,847 photos on my phone. There was the vermillion torii gates at Fushimi Inari, glowing pink in the dawn light. There was the bowl of ramen in that tiny Shinjuku alley—the one with … Read more
I still remember the exact moment I realized my “research” had failed me. I was standing in the middle of Narita Airport, jet-lagged beyond reason, staring at a ticket machine entirely in Japanese, with a line of patient commuters forming behind me. I had spent three weeks watching YouTube videos about cherry blossoms and ramen … Read more
