To Understand Custer’s Last Stand, You Have to Visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield

America, History, Travel

On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, high atop the bluffs over Montana’s Little Bighorn River, General George Armstrong Custer, clad in frontier buckskins, lead 210 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry down a ravine in pursuit of rebellious Sioux Indians. Two days later, a relief force curious as to his whereabouts arrived and found a gruesome sight. Scattered over a wide area on several hills were all 210 of Custer’s men… each man lying in the sun, scalped, stripped naked, and often mutilated. One victim had 105 arrows stuck in him…

Tripping Through Wintery Japan

Asia, History, Religion, Travel

Three nights in Tokyo Japanese winters are fairly mild with rare snowfalls, apart from the Hokkaido ski slopes. This makes winter a perfect time to see Tokyo and other Japanese cities without the tourist crowds of spring and summer. Tokyo has a population of 37 million. Despite its size, the world’s largest city is sparklingly…

SECRETS OF AUSTRIA’S SALT ROAD

Culture, Europe, History, Travel

High above Salzburg’s Alstadt (Old Town), the stark, impregnable, 11th-century stronghold of Fortress Hohensalzburg looms over a city long ruled by mighty prince-archbishops—Catholic prelates who wielded both spiritual authority and secular power within the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted from 800 to 1806. Below, amid glittering domes and ornate courtyards, visitors stream through the Salzburg…

LEARNING ABOUT JAPANESE CULTURE ONE HANDICRAFT AT A TIME

Asia, Business, Culture, Travel

You’ll probably eat miso on a trip to Japan, but what if you could also learn how to make the fermented soybean paste? What insight might you gain into wabi-sabi, the Japanese appreciation for the imperfection and impermanence of life, if you learned how to restore  broken ceramics using a centuries-old technique called kintsugi? Not only do these experiences afford deep dives into Japanese culture, but they also provide personal connections to the history, techniques, and philosophy behind centuries of Japanese crafts and cuisine.