(This post was originally published on Vietnam Weekly.) The Case of the Nguyen Sisters and Their Image in Vietnam Last Monday, the The New Yorker published a lengthy feature by D. T. …

EDIT: Since this appears to be getting read internationally, I should say that I’m based in Vietnam and this took place in Southeast Asia. I’ve noticed an important (though still small) trend of freelance journalists publicly sharing experiences involving extremely slow pay, poor treatment and other issues related to this…

Joe Black, member operations director at a co-working company in Ho Chi Minh City and a self-proclaimed “electric nut,” has fully embraced the first vehicle launched by VinFast, Vietnam’s most ambitious automobile manufacturer. He purchased a Klara electric scooter as soon as it went on sale last November. “I really…

I woke up early in Chicago this morning to edit a podcast episode before heading to Michigan for my best friend’s wedding. …

Last week my girlfriend and I bought metal straws, cloth cup holders and canvas re-usable bags in an effort to cut down on our daily plastic usage. Plastic is everywhere in Vietnam — order a cup of coffee to go and you get a plastic cup, plastic top, plastic straw…

While Tokyo is generally headache-free (minus rush hour on the subway), it’s the rural parts of Japan where the country’s calm demeanor and sense of order really shines. Omachi, a small city located in the Japanese Alps between Matsumoto and Nagano, was a great place to get out of the…

In my recent travels through Asia I’ve evaluated new cities on whether or not I’d want to live there. One important criteria in this assessment is access to nature, ideally hiking, something that Saigon utterly lacks. Taipei and Hong Kong came through in spades in this department, and Tokyo scored…

The Nakagin Capsule Tower, located near Ginza, was built in 1972. Designed by Kisho Kurokawa, it is an example of Japanese Metabolism, “an architectural movement emblematic of Japan’s postwar cultural resurgence” (according to Wikipedia). There is a lot of history behind the building, and there has been controversy surrounding its potential demolition for years. You can read more about that here and here.

Next on my architecture/design list in Japan’s capital was the Tokyo International Forum, a striking convention center near Tokyo Station that was completed in 1996. The sweeping glass-and-steel building is designed to resemble a ship, and indeed if you stand on the ground floor and look up it’s hard not to notice that the roof looks like a hull.