2025 Wrapped
A review of our favorite things
Weelllll thennnn! We’ve arrived at the 365-day mark of traveling. It’s difficult to articulate all the ways this year has changed us. We have vague notions like “more capacity for global empathy” and “less ethnocentric in our assumptions” and “more open-endedness about how to live a life,” but I’m certain that many of the lessons we’ve picked up are still germinating, rattling in their little seed coats. Maybe we won’t see a sprout until years later, or know what kind of fruit tree we’ve planted until it’s been ten years. I suppose that’s the thrill of it, of planting seeds.
Right now, we’re nestled in Osaka, Japan, after having moved through Seoul, Tokyo, and Nagano (accompanied by the snow monkeys in a winter wonderland). We rang in the new year with a mass of Japanese people at the local shrine, where we waited an hour to send a quiet prayer to the deity of scholarship and learning (Sugawara no Michizane, who happens to also be a poet).
It feels fitting, given the energy of studiousness that we’re carrying into the new year. But before I get into what’s next, I thought it’d be fun to do a little Wrapped list. This is mostly a self-gratifying practice, and wildly specific to our own contexts and experiences- the little conversations we had, where our apartment was, what the weather might’ve been. But the list holds memories for us, trinkets that feel nice to share. Steven and I aren’t in complete agreement over the ranking of each of these, and honestly we’re not sure about any of it… the world is just too beautiful to rank okay?! :) (Also, we decided to ignore to the email length limit and just go ham with photos… so you may need to view this in Substack). Ok here we go!
On Places
Favorite Cities
Tokyo, Japan
Mexico City, Mexico
Lyon, France
Copenhagen, Denmark
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Favorite Nature
Dingle Peninsula, Ireland
Penestanan, Ubud, Bali
Cinque Terre, Italy
Japanese Alps, Japan
Alishan Forest, Taiwan
Basque Country, Spain
Caminito del Rey, Spain
Most Impacting Places
Mumbai, India
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Athens, Greece
Xochimilco, Mexico
Tbilisi, Georgia
On Art
Favorite Movies
La Chimera - Alice Rohrwacher
Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier
The Act of Killing - Joshua Oppenheimer
Perfect Days - Wim Wenders
Song of the Sea - Tomm Moore
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Pedro Almodóvar
Favorite Books
Circe, by Madeline Miller
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
A Long Petal of the Sea, by Isabel Allende
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Earthly Bodies, by Vanessa Chakour
Favorite Museums
STRAAT Museum for Street Art & Graffiti (Amsterdam)
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Phnom Penh)
The National Museum of Anthropology (CDMX)
Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis (Athens)
Picasso Museum (Málaga)
Accademia Gallery (for the David statue- Florence)
teamLab Planets (Tokyo)
Museo de Arte Popular (CDMX)
On Watering Holes
Favorite Third Spaces
Il Conventino (Florence, Italy)
Cafe La.Zero (Saigon, Vietnam)
Hotel Stamba (Tbilisi, Georgia)
Tetetlán (CDMX, Mexico)
Yellow Flower Café (Penestanan, Bali)
Sound Cafe (Da Nang, Vietnam)
Okupa (Athens, Greece)
Teahouse Džirlo (Sarajevo)
Favorite Bars
Abstract (Lyon, France)
Kodomo (Toulouse, France)
BERTA (CDMX, Mexico)
Dick Mack’s Pub (Dingle, Ireland)
Café Chaduna (Tbilisi, Georgia)
The Shaker (Madrid, Spain)
Favorite Restaurants
This category gave us the most angst… it seems ridiculous to even try lol.
Leptine (Lyon) - artistic, creative, mind-blowing food
El Baldío (CDMX) - beautiful dishes sourced from the chinampas / floating gardens
Alla Vecchia Bettola (Florence) - best vodka penne of our lives
Boucan (Lyon) - another art-forward seasonal french restaurant with the best cheesecake
Niki Bar & Restaurant (Goa) - a random local Indian joint where Steven met da boyz
Taquerìa Orinoco (CDMX) - “I would move to mexico city just for that” -SG
Pita Goal (Crete) - a random gyro place that absolutely slapped, run by a grandma
Vegan Ramen UZU (Tokyo) - the teamLab museum restaurant somehow had our favorite ramen
ASDŽ Aščinica (Sarajevo, Bosnia) - favorite cafeteria-style bosnian comfort food
La Piperna Firenze (Florence) - a pizza place at the corner of our Florence apartment where we kept going back to for a simple margherita pizza
Hom Duan (Bangkok) - amazing khao soi aka coconut curry noodle soup
[bakery] Juno the Bakery (Copenhagen) - the cardamom buns…
[bakery] Panadería Rosetta Puebla (CDMX) - the guava rolls…
[bakery] Jayeondo Sogeumppang (Seoul) - the salt bread…
Seeds of things we want to keep exploring
How geography shapes myth, memory, and language
How underlying cultural principles influence urban design
How the “commons” and third spaces & green spaces increase a city’s happiness
How maps, symbols, and place-names reflect and anchor our sense of belonging
How microseasons influence emotional cycles
How to exist on the spectrum of hearth (rooting, nesting, settling) vs. horizon (traveling, exploring, expanding)
How to move from individualist-and-isolated towards interconnected-and-communal
How to consider what lies at the end of endless consumption, from labor to waste
How ancient animal instinct may still be at the base of our intuition and knowing
How to bring the same level of attention, curiosity, & love back home
What’s Next
Well, we’re still traveling, but there’s an end date in sight, and we are embracing slow travel more than ever. We’ll be taking Chinese classes in Taiwan in February, then joining our friend Emma in South Africa to experiment with a pop-up city, then getting our Permaculture Design Certificate in Costa Rica in April, before making the rounds with family & friends in the States, and finally “settling down.” We’re not putting pressure on ourselves to stay in that first place for the far far future… but it will feel good to be nested, build rituals, and observe the seasons of a single place.
As far as this blog goes, I am going to be gently letting it go (Steven will take the reigns if he so pleases), as I make space for my Time Studies project. I’ve always been a bit time-anxious (and time-obsessed), memorizing my calendar and buying planner after planner, but I was faced with my time-condition more than ever this past year, being confronted with the made-up urgency to maximize time every new place we went.
So, I’m going to spend the first part of this next year studying time, picking a new framework every month to understand and embody. Hope to see you there, at yet another Substack.. heh ;)
And our gratitude keeps growing!! Thanks for following our journey.
Sending love,
Jessie & Steven xx