TOKYO – Summer, spring, winter or fall?  Due for a Tokyo fix but not sure when to go?  As with everything in Japan, it’s all about choices and options, quite often way too many.  Just have a look at the beverage section at any Japanese convenience store or the pen/pencil selection at any stationery shop (Ito-ya in Ginza [...]

  BY: MONICA BYERS NEW YORK –   11th Street Bar is a locals joint in the East Village that, among NYC football aficionados, is known as a  Liverpool Football Club fans’ bar.  As a card-carrying Liverpool supporter, I felt compelled to check it out.  I didn’t quite get my ass into gear during the league season, so I checked out [...]

    CALIFORNIA – To some, the train is one of the most enjoyable modes of travel.  To others it’s archaic, a thing of the past.  For me, it seemed an interesting way to spend some of my newfound, Cali-based free time and what I hoped would be a great way to a see a bit of the US. I [...]

  HONG KONG – They’re old-style, double-decker, eco-friendly and come in multiple, cute colors.  They’re called street trams and Hong Kong is one of a few cities to still use the double-decker version.  It’s also my preferred way to get-around the city. Yes, the double-decker street trams…possibly the slowest way to transverse Hong Kong, but also one of the most [...]

BY: MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – Sylvia’s has been famous for as long as I can remember.  This Harlem soul food institution was founded in 1962 and has been going strong ever since.  Because it was so famous and so sought out by visitors, I was expecting a disappointing tourist trap. You know – overpriced, lousy service, mediocre food.   Yes, [...]

  MACAU, CHINA – If you’ve spent any time in Hong Kong, then you know how bloody crowded and claustrophobic it can feel.  If you’ve actually lived there, you also know that there’s only one way to deal with all that craziness – the weekend getaway, the key to making HK living bearable. It seemed like everyone I knew in [...]

    By GARY FONG So, I was having drinks with a few friends the other day and somehow we got on the subject of cities when one of them posed this question:  what makes a great city, truly great?  In other words, if you set aside the obvious things that make a city just great – e.g, fab restaurants [...]

    LOS ANGELES – While most visitors to LA flock to the renowned Getty Museum, they often forget about the city’s first major museum dedicated solely to art:  the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Granted, LACMA may not be housed in a beautiful, mountain-perched Richard Meier-designed building (like the Getty) and can’t boast an unrivaled collection of [...]

  BANGKOK – It seems like every country in Asia has their own version of a hot pot, that communal dining experience where a pot of simmering soup is used to cook fresh pieces of meat, seafood and vegetables which are in turned dipped in different kinds of sauces before being consumed.  At the more refined end of the spectrum, [...]

  HONG KONG – Back in my corporate days, when I was constantly on the go traveling from one city to the next, the airport often became my temporary home, a place where I would eat, drink, shop, shit, work, sleep and even shower, while waiting for my flight onward.  It’s not something I particularly enjoyed (because, like it or [...]