Barring the afternoon snack of school children, it’s true: Snacking between meals isn’t really a thing in France. Unless, of course, you swap in the word snack for “apéro.” Pausing for a drink and small bite during apéritif hour is sacred across France — and easily translates to your own backyard. The word apéritif, derived…
As it is in the United States, TikTok is popular in Taiwan, used by a quarter of the island’s 23 million residents. People post videos of themselves shopping for trendy clothes, dressing up as video game characters and playing pranks on their roommates. Influencers share their choreographed dances and debate whether the sticky rice dumplings…
Emma Lembke did not know what an algorithm was when she started using social media. The then-12-year-old was thrilled when her parents gave her permission to join Instagram. She quickly followed all kinds of accounts — from Kim Kardashian to Olive Garden, she said — and was soon spending five to six hours a day…
At the southwest corner of Ishikawa, a verdant prefecture hugging the Sea of Japan, traditional craftsmanship thrives alongside contemporary art and architecture in the small towns that make up Kaga City. Three of these towns — Katayamazu Onsen, Yamashiro Onsen and Yamanaka Onsen — are famous for their onsen, or hot springs. In centuries past,…
As a reporter who covers sex and intimacy, I spend a lot of time listening to experts extol the virtues of open, honest communication. To have good sex — and to keep having good sex over time — couples must be willing to talk about it, they say. But some people would rather leave their…
Hypertension affects more than half of America’s adult population. It is a leading cause of stroke and heart attack, and often comes with no obvious early symptoms. One of the best ways to both prevent high blood pressure and lower it is by working out (as well as an improved diet). That’s in part because…
Tourists tend to flock to Macerata, a small hilltop city in the eastern part of the Marche region, for two reasons: The summer opera festival and the decidedly unsummery seven-layer baked pasta dish known as vincisgrassi. Letizia Carducci, one of the three siblings who have been running the 30-seat Osteria Dei Fiori, which opened in…
KARUIZAWA IS OFTEN called “Tokyo’s backyard” because it’s here, an hour northwest by bullet train, that city people come to escape the summer heat. For the executives and government officials who own villas in the resort town, it’s akin to the Hamptons or Malibu but, rather than coastline, this mountainous part of Nagano prefecture is…
A growing number of women have opted to get an intrauterine device in recent years, but the pain of the insertion and removal remains a barrier for many. While some clinicians have tried pain killers or numbing agents, the pain-relief options most commonly offered are often insufficient. A new device, described in a presentation this…
I’m a person who craves regular alone time. At home, I take quick walks. At work, I sometimes disappear into the office supply closet, which is always deserted. I find the orderly stacks of notebooks soothing. When I can’t grab these moments, I tend to get twitchy. Robert Coplan, a psychologist at Carleton University in…
