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Two Cities: From the Neva to Moscow | Latest update: The Empire’s World, the World’s Empire
A travel essay in five parts, published chapter by chapter. I’ll update this page as each section takes shape, with the latest addition noted in the title. Since returning from Sicily, I haven’t managed to write a word. Syracuse has remained like a bookmark tucked into the pages just before my Russian journey. There is…
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The First Sin of French Dining
During Chinese New Year, I flew through Paris on my way to Lyon. I arrived, but my luggage didn’t. Losing my suitcase turned out to be only the first unexpected experience of my Lyon trip. I spent the trip sightseeing while chasing the airline about my missing suitcase. Multi-tasking at its finest, I didn’t let…
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No Bear, No Poet: Remembering Siberia
The seventy-kilometer journey from Irkutsk to Lake Baikal often meant several hours without even a 3G signal. Apart from reading, there was little to do but look out of the window at the endless repetition of rolling grasslands and birch forests. It was late autumn. Haystacks had already been piled up, and cows and horses…
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When a Tasting Menu Loses Its Shape
The final stop in Sicily was Palermo, and finally, there was time to sit down for a proper meal. A tasting menu is truly a challenge for any chef – getting a single dish right is already not easy, let alone an entire sequence of courses. Balancing portions, layering, pacing… there were too many things…
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The Living and the Dead
Just before Qingming Festival, I went up the mountain to visit my grandmother and aunt. I had two grandmothers. The one who looked after me as a child was my little grandmother. She wasn’t my father’s birth mother. Before I turned five, my father would ride his bike to take me to her home. Back…
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Paul Bocuse’s Legacy
Spring Festival in Lyon, so of course I had to eat at Paul Bocuse. It felt a bit like a pilgrimage. After all, the man was hailed as the “father of modern French cuisine,” held three Michelin stars for over half a century, trained chefs all over the world – half the foundation of modern…
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Where the Light Settles
Along the Nakasendo, at its seventh post town, lies Konosu – once a shogunate landholding directly administered by the Tokugawa government and today part of Saitama Prefecture. Not far off, the Arakawa River completed a deliberate, slow, and profound westward shift. Over centuries the river, more or less as people in successive eras intended, nourished…
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The Map Is Not the Territory: A Year of Unwritten Journeys
This year, Bach has played in my headphones more than ever – the quiet, persistent soundtrack to a year defined equally by immense pressure and profound, almost imperceptible, growth. In the rhythm between work and movement, I found a kind of balance. Most of these journeys never unfolded into full essays, they remained as fleeting…
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Hakushu | A Whisky Distillery in the Heart of the Forest
Many of the peaks retain their snow caps, or are streaked with snow, until the early autumn, while in some of the recesses and gorges where it is partially screened from the sun’s rays, the snow never entirely disappears. During the Meiji era, British mining engineer William Gowland—employed by the Osaka Mint—explored the Etchu and…
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Gold That Tells Stories: The Timeless Allure of Scythian Treasures
The Scythians, an ancient nomadic civilization known as early pioneers of the Silk Road, left behind a legacy shaped by gold. Famous for their weapons, horse gear, and stunning goldwork, these skilled artisans created pieces that still amaze us today. Herodotus wrote about their love for gold, describing how Scythian royalty wore golden belts, drank…
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