Author: Ms. R.

The name “Kingston” gives some indication about the historical importance of this Thames-side town, located just southwest of the hustle and bustle of London. This small enclave has a unique royal connection.  Towards the end of the 10th-century, the town sat near the border of the ancient kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. In 925 CE, when Saxon king Athelstan united the kingdom and his coronation was held in “Cyninges tun.” During the ceremony, he sat on this very large……

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The town of Hakone has attracted visitors for centuries, serving as the entrance to Tokyo for those making their way from the cities of Kyoto or Nara. Naturally, Hakone had many inns and teahouses, which thrived by catering to travelers. The Amazake-chaya Tea House is one such establishment, dating back more than 400 years. It has been damaged by fires and earthquakes several times over the course of its history, but each time the owners simply renovated and carried……

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Dedicated to the life and work of Don Antonio Blanco, this complex is a mansion turned art gallery. In 2004, the building also became a bird sanctuary after it gained legal permission from the government to act as a conservation area. The Bali myna, also known as Rothschild’s mynah, Bali starling, or Bali mynah is a critically endangered bird with fewer than 100 adults existing in the wild. The sanctuary has helped increase the species’ population with a government-approved breeding……

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Completed in 2011 after seven years of construction, this 144-foot tall statue presenting the hand gesture (or mudra) offering blessings of peace stands approximately 12 miles east of Kathmandu. Nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty (151 feet), Shiva is comprised of copper, zinc, concrete, and steel. It’s also the second tallest Hindu deity in the world. Accompanied by his telltale trident representing Shiva’s three functions as creator, preserver, and destroyer, as well as a damaru (drum), which……

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You’re not going to find jello cups on the menu at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Instead, patients and visitors choose between reindeer pot pie, smoked hooligan, birch sourdough biscuits with fireweed jelly, herring roe, salmon-belly or seal soup, and Eskimo ice cream (made with animal fat, fish oil, and berries). Depending on the season, the hospital’s Executive Chef, Amy Foote, receives boxes of fiddlehead ferns and spruce tips trimmed in the late spring, coho salmon and……

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During the Meiji Restoration of the late 1800s, the Japanese government sent many students abroad to learn more about Western society to better modernize their home country.  One of the first American schools to accept Japanese students was Rutgers University in New Jersey. Rutgers is rooted in the Dutch Reform Church and missionaries from this denomination in Japan encouraged young, ambitious students to apply to their school.  As a gift of gratitude, the Japanese government sent Rutgers the exoskeleton……

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In a converted cattle shed in central Kenya, a mischief of rats is getting up to some. Bristling with energy, the salt-and-pepper animals—African crested rats, which look like skunks that tumbled around in a dryer—gnaw on the stalks and leaves of a poisonous plant. Raising the fur on their flanks, the rats use their tongues to lather their bodies with a mixture of spit and toxin. Recently, a team of researchers including scientists from the University of Utah and……

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Philip K. Wrigley began the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) in 1943, as many male athletes were fighting in World War II. The AAGPBL was at the forefront of women’s professional sports.  The Rockford Peaches were one of the teams that operated during the first year of the league and played at Beyer Stadium, nicknamed the “Peach Orchard.” Although the league disbanded in 1954, Rockford won four league championships including the first “three-peat” in 1948, 1949, and 1950. Beyer……

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