Destination: Asia
Don George: ‘Anticipation is one of Travel’s Great Gifts’
by Eva Holland | 11.11.09 | 1:22 PM ET
In the latest issue of Recce, Don George looks back at his first trip to Japan, and realizes—as he prepares to board another flight for Tokyo—that the pre-trip excitement still hasn’t waned, thirty-two years later.
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Yahoo! BuzzPhoto You Must See: Models Strike a Pose in Karachi
by World Hum | 11.10.09 | 10:49 AM ET
REUTERS/Adrees Latif Two fashion models pose together before hitting the catwalk during Karachi’s Fashion Pakistan Week.
‘Is Japanese Getting Simpler, Easier or Just Worse?’
by Eva Holland | 11.09.09 | 2:09 PM ET
Writing in the New York Times, Emily Parker ponders the changes being wrought on the Japanese language by the internet and cell phones:
Americans may fret over the ways digital communications encourage sloppy grammar and spelling, but in Japan these changes are much more wrenching. A vertically written language seems to be becoming increasingly horizontal. Novels are being written and read on little screens. People have gotten so used to typing on computers that they can no longer write characters by hand. And English words continue to infiltrate the language.
Video You Must See: From Denver to Singapore in Five Minutes
by Eva Holland | 11.06.09 | 1:44 PM ET
(Via Kottke)
‘Ivory Coast = France = Japan’
by Michael Yessis | 11.06.09 | 10:02 AM ET
That equation comes from a James Fallows post in the Atlantic, and he’s talking about language habits.
That is: in France and Japan, the deep-down assumption is that the language is pure and difficult, that foreigners can’t really learn it, and that one’s attitude toward their attempts is either French hauteur or the elaborately over-polite and therefore inevitably patronizing Japanese response to even a word or two in their language. “Nihongo jouzu! Your Japanese is so good!”
World Travel Watch: Protests in Nepal, Tensions in Nicaragua and More
by Larry Habegger | 11.05.09 | 7:47 AM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
Photo You Must See: 32 Meters of Mao
by World Hum | 11.04.09 | 11:34 AM ET
REUTERS/China Daily A 32-meter (or 105-foot) statue of a youthful Chairman Mao is under construction in Hunan province, China.
Fall Foliage Around the World
by Alicia Imbody | 11.03.09 | 10:16 AM ET
From Osaka to Chicago, seven photos of turning leaves around the shrinking planet
Escape From Thamel
by Eric Weiner | 11.02.09 | 10:19 AM ET
On hawkers, banana pancakes and tourist ghettos from Kathmandu to Bangkok
Photo You Must See: Tokyo Punk Parasol
by World Hum | 10.26.09 | 5:10 PM ET
REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao Japanese girls in punk fashion sit under a parasol in Harajuku, Tokyo’s fashion district.
‘This is Such, Like, an Authentic Experience’
by Eva Holland | 10.26.09 | 3:06 PM ET
Tom Gates eavesdrops on backpackers at a restaurant in Ko Chang, Thailand. My favorite overheard gem? “I can totally see eating this for thirty dollars in L.A.”
Interview With Nicholas Kristof: Traveling and Tweeting Under ‘Half the Sky’
by David Frey | 10.21.09 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo by Fred R. Conrad David Frey asks the author about his dream vacation, Twitter, travel to hellholes and the trip that changed his life
Photo You Must See: Burqas and a Baby in Kabul
by World Hum | 10.20.09 | 12:40 PM ET
REUTERS/Ahmad Masood Two Afghan women and a child walk down a set of mud stairs in Kabul.
Photo You Must See: Wedding on the Great Wall
by World Hum | 10.19.09 | 1:07 PM ET
REUTERS/David Gray Actually, we’re not sure there was a wedding—but at the very least, a woman in a bridal gown poses for photos on a section of the Great Wall of China.
Fallows: ‘How I Survived China’
by Michael Yessis | 10.19.09 | 9:58 AM ET
The Atlantic’s former China correspondent reflects on the health issues he faced as an expat amid the “ochre skies and suspect sanitation of China.” The air quality there can be so bad, one doctor told Fallows, “I encourage people with children not to consider extended tours in China. Those little lungs.”
What will future air quality be like in China? In Beijing, at least, it’s already improving.