Follow Ben and Jenna | Uncommon destinations for travel indulgence

Just a few short hours ago, when we first sat down to brainstorm this yearly review, I figured we wouldn’t have much to write about. After all, our travel pace over the past months as we’ve been getting to know our new home of Japan is about...

Welcome: entryway to the castle, or in the humble and welcoming language of the staff, the “gusuku” (guest house). Photo Ritz Carlton Okinawa
 
It was Ben’s birthday, so what better than Japan’s top resort spot, Okinawa, and Okinawa’s top hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Okinawa?...

In 1995, the Guinness Book of World Records named it the largest rope in the world.
How large is Guinness-large? Try 200 meters long (656 feet) and 2.2 meters thick (7.2 feet), for a whopping 43 metric tons of rice straw (94,799 pounds)!
 

 
Not everyone belongs, but we think more people should. Greater numbers and the resulting diversity might help erase the stigma surrounding our beloved cult, not to mention what it would do for the new members.
It’s true: we’ve been ridiculed, even parodied! Comedians have attempted to recreate what goes on behind the closed doors of vowel-challenged patriarchs in private clubs and little white-haired ladies in crochet-strewn parlors. We’ve...