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Exploring Fukuoka, Japan’s ‘Gateway to Asia’

22Aug

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Travel

Exploring Fukuoka, Japan’s ‘Gateway to Asia’

There’s a soothing hum to laid-back Fukuoka, the largest city on the Japanese island of Kyushu. It’s hard to miss on a weekend afternoon as you stroll down Meiji-dori Avenue, the city’s wide downtown spine, passing places like the Kabuki theater Hakata-za and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Eventually, you’ll reach the slow-flowing Naka River, whose banks are lined with the traditional open-air food stalls known as yatai, a signature attraction in this culinary and arts haven.With a sprawling commercial port that was Japan’s largest between the 12th and 16th centuries and which, to this day, links the country with China, Korea and other parts of the Pacific, Fukuoka has long been considered Japan’s “Gateway to Asia.” A popular destination for vacationing Japanese, the city is also drawing t...

Exploring Maremma, a Quiet Corner of Italy

I woke up to the braying of donkeys. Opening the window to morning air perfumed by wisteria and honeysuckle, I could see the herd — 16 sweet-eyed animals in all — grazing by the olive groves of La Pescaia, a country estate turned idyllic inn that embodies a fantasy of pastoral happiness for me: life among animals and bird song and olive trees, encircled by the rugged nature of Maremma, in Italy.The most sparsely settled area of Tuscany, spilling slightly into northern Lazio, Maremma retains vast swathes of nature reserves and uncontaminated woodlands, and over a series of visits, I took a deep-dive into countryside Zen, with horseback trips, hikes, bike rides, swims at protected beaches and improvised field sessions of donkey therapy.“Here your days follow the cycles of the weather, anima...

The Wind, the Water, the Islands: Exploring Stockholm’s Archipelago

The moment the motor turned off, I was hooked.It was 20 minutes into my first Swedish sailing trip on a blazingly sunny morning in late June. I’d set sail with two friends from their summer house on Kilholmen, a wooded islet in the central archipelago, about an hour by bus (then a five-minute boat ride) from Stockholm. After motoring through a narrow waterway, past smooth, rounded cliffs backed by pine forests and the occasional red timbered cottage, we entered a wide-open bay, steered the bow into the wind and raised the sails. When the puttering motor was cut, it was suddenly quiet, just the wind in my face and the sparkling archipelago all around.The sheer magnitude of Stockholm’s archipelago is astounding. Shaped like a fan spreading out from the capital into the Baltic Sea, this wate...