Author: Ms. R.

According to a local legend, during the Kyōhō era (1716–1736), a tailor’s apprentice was taking an afternoon nap outside when someone came and stole expensive fabrics from him. With no suspect around, the police arrested a Jizō (Ksitigarbha) statue that “stood by and did nothing.” The statue was dragged across the town to the police headquarters, rousing people’s curiosity. They came flocking to see the unusual sight, and the police charged them a fee for entering the building without……

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Amsterdam boasts numerous converted spaces that have radically changed their purposes. A monumental century-old building with the inscription “Pathologisch Anatomisch Laboratorium” on the facade is one of the best examples, beloved by the locals. Once a part of a huge hospital named the Wilhemina Gasthuis, the building stopped being used for performing autopsies and conducting research on patients’ tissue samples in 1983 and was later turned into a cultural center. Now, it houses a cinema known for its screenings……

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The Golden Heart Plaza at First Avenue and Cushman Street is home to a monument paying tribute to entrepreneur E.T. Barnette, who was forced to take a detour up the Chena River on his way to setting up a supply store elsewhere. Facing low water, the Lavelle Young riverboat left him here in 1901. Barnette and his wife reluctantly set up business. Just a few months later, gold was discovered in the area, and they were perfectly placed to make……

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The run-up to D-Day was tense, the world hung in the balance and the allies were determined to get Europe back from the Nazis, however, in the lead-up to D-Day, six men would go on to lose their lives in an ambitious training exercise.  One of the original plans for D-Day was to land tanks along with the first troops in Normandy, but getting a ship close enough to the shore to offload the tanks onto the beaches would’ve……

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Nagoya is home to a beautifully reconstructed castle and gardens. Historically, it belonged to the Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan, built on the site of warlord Oda Nobunaga’s family fort by the order of Shogun Ieyasu. A lot less visited, not far from Nagoya—10 minutes or so away by train—is the city of Kiyosu, the former seat of Owari Province. Nobunaga, the ruler of Owari, had his military base at Kiyosu Castle, originally built in 1394. From here,……

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In the summer of 1859, John Brown rented this small cabin and farm as a barracks, training ground, short-lived antiracist utopia, and launching point for his fateful raid on Harpers Ferry. Using the alias of Isaac Smith, Brown claimed interest in establishing a mining operation locally to cover the shipments of 200 Sharps carbine rifles, hundreds of Colt revolvers and 950 iron pikes that would arm the Second American Revolution that he envisioned would follow the action at Harpers……

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The island of Bang Krachao is often known as “Bangkok’s Green Lung,” but also colloquially as “Pig Stomach Island.” This used to be a peninsula formed by a bend of the Chao Phraya River, but these days, a thin canal separates it from the mainland, making it technically an island. Although not located within the limits of Bangkok proper, it is almost completely engulfed by its metro area, making it one of its most important zones of low-rise development……

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This is a beautiful small garden straight off a main road in the Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. You enter through a small gated archway in a stone wall and a tranquil green garden haven hides behind it. (Do watch your head, it’s a low arch.) The garden was created in the 1970s to commemorate Ernest Henry Wilson who was born in Davies House, Lower Street, Chipping Campden in 1876 (the house now has a commemorative plaque). He went……

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