Category: East Asia
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Wish You Were Here: Nara, Japan
It is winter in Nara, so the light that falls on Tōdai-ji temple is peach colored and hazy with wood smoke from the black steel carts that roast sweet potatoes for tourists. We are among the temple tourists, and we’ve also come to feed the messengers of the gods, liminal deer who inhabit the Nara temple…
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The Philippines: Steam and Ghosts, Part III
The zoo is an hour’s drive in the rain, through soupy fields of rice paddies. Occasionally we pass a farmhouse that seems to float in the water around it. A family sits on the porch: a grandmother, a mother, and a small boy watching a teenaged boy steering their water buffalo through the muddy furrows.…
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Hong Kong Laid Over: A Exploration of the Senses
The airline gave us a dark plush room in a nice hotel located in the heart of Hong Kong. There were two shower caps, one sewing kit in a hard plastic case, two free bottles of water, one large can of peanuts for eight dollars, two paper bags on a peg next to the toilet…