I know that cats don’t really have anything to do with travel or food. And I know they are popular on the internet, but this is certainly not my feeble attempt at clickbait.

Lately, there's been a lot of bad publicity about chef René Redzepi, the founder and driving force behind Noma — the Copenhagen restaurant he closed in 2024 following a reckoning over the treatment of its staff.

There’s a quiet garden in Tokyo filled with tiny statues that are tributes to children who died before their time. It is touching, sweet, and heartwarming, yet heartbreaking.

I always thought Halloween was dreamed up by the candy manufacturers collaborating with the American Dental Association (just kidding, I love going to the dentist). But I was wrong, of course.

I was struck recently by an odd sight (at least for an American) when I was riding the subway in Tokyo. We were on the escalator, going up from a station to the street level. Ahead of us was a small boy…

There's one feature of Japanese culture that most tourists don't rave about but should. Japan has the best toilets in the world. Bar none.

There’s a series on Netflix called Midnight Diner (Shin'ya Shokudō in Japanese). Kind of like Seinfeld, it’s a show about nothing (because not much happens), except, down deep, it’s about human relationships.

You’ve seen them everywhere, especially in Asian restaurants: small statues, which portray a cat sitting up and beckoning with its front paw.

We recently checked into a VRBO for an eight-night stay in Barrio de las Letras in Madrid, a neighborhood that was home to some great 17th-century writers. 

We are back in Paris and there’s so much to do with hardly any time to do it. However, one of my favorite things is to walk through the Jardin du Luxembourg, one of the city’s most beautiful parks.

It’s been a while since we’ve been to Spain so here we go, top to bottom starting in Basque. The Basque country straddles the North of Spain and the South of France. 

I wish I’d paid attention in French class.