Business travel is doing something interesting again, and it’s not loud or flashy, it’s steady, intentional, and very much about results. According to fresh data released by Navan, Q4 2025 closed with a 13.8 percent year-over-year increase in business travel activity, a number that looks even more striking when placed next to the almost flat 1.2 percent growth recorded by TSA … [Read more...] about Business Travel Quietly Reasserts Itself in Q4 2025
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Shiso City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan: Japan’s Quiet Forest Kingdom for Slow and Sustainable Travel
Tucked into the central-western hills of Hyogo Prefecture, about a 90-minute drive from Kyoto or Osaka, Shiso City feels like a place Japan almost forgot to advertise, and that might be exactly why it’s starting to matter. Forests blanket nearly 90 percent of its land, wrapping the town in green silence, mist, and the kind of calm that city travelers don’t realize they’ve been … [Read more...] about Shiso City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan: Japan’s Quiet Forest Kingdom for Slow and Sustainable Travel
Elon Musk and Ryanair: When a Tweet Shakes the Budget Airline World
For a few days, the idea floated through the aviation world like turbulence you feel before you see the clouds. Elon Musk, half-joking and half-not (which is usually how these things start with him), publicly mused about buying Ryanair after a very public clash with Michael O’Leary over Starlink internet on planes. It sounded absurd, entertaining, and impossible all at once — … [Read more...] about Elon Musk and Ryanair: When a Tweet Shakes the Budget Airline World
Why We Gather: Hilton’s 2026 Report and the Quiet Return of Human-Centered Events
Something subtle is happening in the world of meetings, and it’s easy to miss if you’re only looking at the tech. As AI, automation, and digital platforms accelerate the pace of work, the most meaningful gatherings are moving in the opposite direction, back toward presence, emotion, and shared physical experience. Hilton’s newly released Why We Gather Report, part of its … [Read more...] about Why We Gather: Hilton’s 2026 Report and the Quiet Return of Human-Centered Events
Xi’an Famous Foods, NYC: When Chili Oil Becomes the Whole Story
I really wanted to like this meal. The trays looked promising at first glance, almost theatrical in their intensity, bowls and plates glowing red under the lights, steam rising, that unmistakable scent of chili oil hanging in the air like a warning and an invitation at the same time. The cucumber dish arrived first, thick chunks of bright green cucumber swimming in a dark red … [Read more...] about Xi’an Famous Foods, NYC: When Chili Oil Becomes the Whole Story
Why Joe’s Pizza Is Worth Waiting in Line, New York City
Joe’s Pizza never tries to seduce you. That’s part of the trick, and also the reason the line outside keeps regenerating like a living thing, no matter the hour or the weather. The place looks almost stubbornly plain, like it decided sometime in the 1970s that nothing else needed to be added, and then stuck to that decision forever. Fluorescent lights, white tiles, the counter, … [Read more...] about Why Joe’s Pizza Is Worth Waiting in Line, New York City
January in New York City: Cold Air, Clear Light, and a Different Kind of Energy
January in New York is when the city exhales. The crowds thin, the sidewalks feel wider, and the skyline suddenly becomes more visible, almost sharper, as if winter scrubs the air clean. The image here captures that feeling perfectly: you’re standing near the edge of Central Park, looking up at a mix of old and new towers that seem to lean toward each other in conversation. … [Read more...] about January in New York City: Cold Air, Clear Light, and a Different Kind of Energy
New York, The Megacity That Refused to Grow
Looking at this image, New York still feels endless. The city stretches like a textured carpet of brick, glass, and steel, stitched together by straight avenues that fade into the distance, with the Empire State Building still standing like a punctuation mark in the middle of the sentence. From above, Manhattan looks dense, confident, almost defiant, as if scale itself were … [Read more...] about New York, The Megacity That Refused to Grow
The Death of Munrow, Staffordshire, England, c. 1745–1760, The Met Museum, New York
At first glance the object looks almost playful, like something lifted from a fairytale shelf, but the longer you look, the more unsettling it becomes, and that slow shift is exactly the point. Behind the glass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art sits a brightly glazed ceramic group: a yellow tiger with black stripes, mouth open, teeth sunk into the neck of a man dressed in an … [Read more...] about The Death of Munrow, Staffordshire, England, c. 1745–1760, The Met Museum, New York
Why Japan’s Dual Museum Pricing Is a Bad Idea
Double-Edged Culture: When Museums Turn Tourists into Targets The blade in the image floats in silence, perfectly balanced, its polished edge catching the light just enough to remind you that it exists. It looks like a katana seen sideways, reduced to essence: no handle, no decoration, just the line that matters. The steel is calm, disciplined, almost meditative, and yet its … [Read more...] about Why Japan’s Dual Museum Pricing Is a Bad Idea