Japan, Boston, and Everything Else
Kind of an experiment...
I’m in a bit of an experimental phase with this newsletter, and I’m attempting this week to share two articles instead of one. This is possibly a terrible and logistically unworkable idea, but hey let’s try it!
Notebook: Japan Coffee Shops
This is my Japan coffee shop list. It is neither completist (meant to cover everything) nor complete (finished). It’s just stuff I like.
Big Essay: Boston Is Where You're From or Where You're Going
The 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston are a big event. A people-come-from-all-over-the-world event, and it feels especially important in the lead-up to an Olympic year. This is the last World Championships to be held before the Milano-Cortina Olympics, which …
News and Intrigue
Happy to share my latest on The Points Guy — an interview with new Holland America president Beth Bodensteiner. I chatted with her while we were onboard the line’s Grand World Voyage, a 4+ month cruise that sails to ports all over the world, including some very remote ones that are hard to reach through other modes of travel.
Learned on my trip to Fukuoka, Japan that an Ace Hotel — always a personal fav — is scheduled to open there in 2027. (Ground is broken. Floors are rising.) I’m intrigued by the decision to open Japan’s second Ace Hotel in Fukuoka instead of in one of its larger cities, but Fukuoka feels buzzy. Of course, it’s been kind of scrappy and cool for a while. The Akasaka and Daimyo neighborhoods are amazing clusters of new, unique small businesses of every stripe. (And in the birthplace of Hakata ramen, there’s always the food.) But the recent opening of the One Fukuoka building in Tanjin, which includes a fabulous-looking luxury hotel, signals a more glamorous turn. As a footnote, word on the street is that travelers from all over Japan are using Fukuoka especially as a hub to see concerts, something that became a bona fide economic phenomenon on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. It makes sense that developers all over the world are looking to capitalize on that trend, long-term, with new high-end lodging and food.