The popular district of Kichijoji, in western Tokyo, is the place to hunt for vintage clothes and quirky antiques, enjoy drinks and food in the narrow alleyways called Harmonica Yokocho, or ride the swan boats in scenic Inokashira Park. Right at home in this buzzy area is a shop called Masa’s Pastime, specializing in antique…
We’re kicking off our new season this Valentine’s Day with a story from a Modern Love veteran. David Finch has published three Modern Love essays about how hard he has worked to be a good husband to his beloved wife, Kristen. As a man with autism who married a neurotypical woman, he found it especially…
As 2023 gave way to 2024, the weather snapped, and I was suddenly drawn to very particular kinds of food: comforting, restoring, reassuring. As I leafed through Najmieh Batmanglij’s wonderful book “Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies,” it was her khoreshes — delicate, refined braises — that were clearly calling,…
In the almost five decades that Bernhard Lederer has been working with timepieces — making and maintaining clocks and watches with complications such as chronographs and tourbillons — one component has been his obsession: the escapement. It is the part of a mechanical timepiece that regulates the gears so the watch runs and keeps time…
As the chopper rose into the sky, my heart raced with excitement and a twinge of fear: This was my first helicopter ride. The man beside me glanced over and asked why I’d choose to visit the Gurez Valley now, when it had so little to offer. “Even the locals avoid it if they can,”…
On Spring Street in Lower Manhattan, tourists slide in line for a “cronut.” A group of 20-somethings play pickleball on a court nearby. Along the sidewalk, couples stroll hand in hand, squinting in the sun on an abnormally warm winter morning. Out and about, too, are thousands of creators on the hunt for content. One…
The Piaget Polo 79, unveiled Feb. 5, may be new, but it looks an awful lot like one of the watch brand’s most recognizable models: the Polo, first released in 1979. “We had a huge history during the ’70s about creativity,” said Rémi Jomard, Piaget’s director of products and innovation, who added that the best…
Lisa Adams is convinced that the secret to calming the chaos of life begins each morning in her favorite room, the closet. “Every house, big or small, has one,” she said, “and everyone has a certain way they want their stuff.” Since establishing her company, L.A. Closet Design, in 2007, Ms. Adams, 50, has designed…
When Marisa Coulson, her husband and daughter moved to Majorca from New York in 2019, she packed her collection of branded hotel items, including a sweatshirt from Sunset Beach Hotel on Shelter Island; a hat from the Dunmore in Harbour Island, the Bahamas; and an “ancient” sweater fraying at the seams from the Chateau Marmont,…