London: The 100th Chelsea Flower Show
London: At the Hermès Festival des Métiers – how luxury gets made
New book “65 Things to Do When You Retire: Travel” with a contribution by Zen-Aida!
Japan: Nagasaki’s Atomic Bomb Museum
Japan: Dolls everywhere – the Hina-Matsuri Festival
Japan: The amazing 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa
Kanazawa, gold-leaf capital of Japan
Kanazawa, Japan: A city devoted to ART
Ode to a department store – Tokyu Hands
Japan: The artistry of straw
Croatia: Dubrovnik, the pearl of the Adriatic
Estonia: a frightening experience in Tallinn’s KUMU museum
Japan: Endless views of Mt. Fuji
Culture»
London: At the Hermès Festival des Métiers – how luxury gets made (0)
Hermès …. synonym for luxury scarves, bags, porcelain, saddles. You might or might not like their style, but there is no doubt about it: as far as craftsmanship is concerned, they are tops. When I saw that a traveling show of meeting their craftspeople was on at the Saatchi Gallery, I made a point to [...]
Destinations»
London: The 100th Chelsea Flower Show (0)
Attending the Chelsea Flower Show has been a very pleasant ritual for the last twelve years in the month of May. This year, however, being the 100th edition, was a little more special. Just a little more hoopla, such as the lily-bulb grower H. W. Hyde showing 100 new lovely varieties, some of them not yet even [...]
Events»
Estonia: a frightening experience in Tallinn’s KUMU museum (1)
The KUMU contemporary art museum in Tallinn, Estonia, is one of those iconic buildings you don’t forget: clean lines, generous spaces, windows that catch as much light as possible. No wonder Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori’s design won the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award in 2008. So whenever I visit Tallinn, I always make [...]
Food and drink»
Japan: Delicious white strawberries! (2)
Ever on the lookout for new gourmet taste sensations, I found these white strawberries in Tokyo’s famous wholesale Tsukiji food market. Beautifully packaged, as they should be for the price of 800 Yen for 6 strawberries in early February (that’s about $10 or 8 Euro). Amazingly, they really tasted like strawberries, as did the red [...]
Gardens, Parks, Nature»
Japan: The artistry of straw (0)
The country and culture that has given us Ikebana – that ever-so-sophisticated art of arranging flowers – has also created an artful way of keeping trees and bushes from falling apart under the weight of snow. When you consider, that every one of these trees is wrapped and strapped by hand twice a year – [...]
Observations»
Bangkok to Penang: 24 hour International Express Train (17)
Nowadays, the internet is the source of instant information and this is especially true for travel news. I forget how I found www.seat61.com but in no time, I was intrigued by the very detailed account of how to get from Bangkok to Butterworth, which is the railway station to get to Georgetown on Penang Island [...]
Travel tips»
Ode to a department store – Tokyu Hands (0)
„When you visit, you find what you want“ is the motto of the Tokyu Hands department store in Japan. And so it is: whether you are looking for sushi making gadgets; shoe insoles made of anything from fur to cork to leather with and without magnets; cookie stamping forms; stickers, ribbons or anything crazy to [...]
Argentina
Australia
Chile
Estonia
Georgia
Germany
New Zealand
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