Hello there, wherever you are (hopefully far from the chaos of looters or stock markets!) It has been a dramatic week in geopolitical affairs since we last blogged from the US, with the English riots, the US S&P downgrade and the huge falls in global markets. We, however, have had an exceptionally peaceful week here in Japan. We've both been amazed by our host society, which in many ways is a model one. In an age when it has been fashionable to criticize so...

Hi there! Welcome to the first installment of our travel blog, written at the end of the U.S. part of our adventure on the lush, tropical north shore of Kauai, the northernmost of the main islands of Hawaii. We have to start by saying this is an idyllic, privileged place to be, and we feel very fortunate for all of the good times we're having. One aspect of high volume, high velocity travel, as we're doing, is that you get to see a lot of people living in a lot...