Issue #164: My Ultimate Guide to Planning (and Enjoying) Any Trip
Plus highlights from Osaka and Kyoto.
📚 All Fours by Miranda July: A close runner-up for our Morning Person Book Club, I finished this book in a feverish reading sprint on Sunday afternoon. In it, July blurs the line between reality and fiction, as her unnamed protagonist (also a forty-something, “semifamous” creative) commits to a road trip from Los Angeles to New York, only to stop in Monrovia (“twenty-seven minutes with no traffic”) where she falls into an obsessive, erotic affair with a Hertz car rental employee. July employs a (very sexy) tension, while examining the role of pleasure in our lives.
🎥 ‘His Three Daughters’ on Netflix: This slow-moving movie feels much more like play, as three sisters sit vigil over their dying father in his East Side Manhattan apartment. Inspired by writer and director Azazel Jacobs’s own experience, the film examines the strained relationships between two biological sisters (Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen) and their stepsister (Natasha Lyonne) while facing rising emotions and the unpredictability of death. (I also enjoyed this feature on Lyonne and her relationship with her own mortality.)
📺 “In Our Time” on BBC: A podcast that will make you smarter, Melvyn Bragg presents a broad range of ideas, poetry, plays, and people who have shaped our world, in one way or another. The show is currently on summer break, which makes it the perfect time to catch up on episodes, like this one on “Wuthering Heights” or the lasting impact of “The Red March” before it returns later this fall.
P.S. I am so excited to bring Morning Person Book Club back! After polling in this week’s Sunday Edition, our October selection is Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten! Read on for the Zoom link, available to all paid subscribers!
As many of you already know, in mid-August I departed for a six-week trip that took me from Indonesia to Japan and South Korea. What I haven’t shared is that I almost called the entire thing off. During a layover in the Jakarta airport, en route from Lombok to Tokyo, I sat in a quiet spot a few gates away from my own and looked over some of the train routes I would have to take in Japan. As I did, I felt almost crushed by a sense of overwhelm—how was I supposed to get from the hotel to my Airbnb, much less Kyoto to a small hot spring town? The gate I was sitting in went to SFO, and I briefly considered switching my flight. I even texted a friend, “I’m thinking of coming home?” Ultimately, it was my careful planning that buoyed me enough to board the flight to Tokyo and—it’s no secret—I’m so glad I did. Read on for my tips for planning any vacation, including where to start, the Google Doc template I use for every trip, and some inspiration for your next big adventure:
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