It isn’t as if his pictures are overrun with details about the subjects he captures in them. Quite the opposite, in fact. The lack of details creates a tantalizing mystery that is left up to the viewer to decipher. The foggy, surreal environment in his photographs are highly evocative in nature and they transport you into a completely different world altogether. Varnas’ greatest strength lies in making even the most prosaic and banal landscapes interesting and engaging.

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Christmas is a widely celebrated festival Japan, though not for its religious symbolism. Women and children are greatly fascinated by the story of baby Jesus being born in the manger; however, the celebrations in Japan during the Christmas season have more romantic connotations. This is the time of the year teenagers propose to the girl they like and invite her out for an intimate dinner. It is also the time when guys summon up the courage to ask a girl to marry them. In very simple terms, it is an early Valentine’s Day in Japan.

Christmas lighting in Japan

Christmas in Japan is also a time for great commercial activity not unlike what you would see in America or England. Although Christmas trees are not a popular trend owing to the cramped living spaces most people have, Japanese are fond of buying evergreens and electric lights to decorate their home. Christmas trees are a luxury that can only be afforded by those who have enough space in their homes to accommodate one. Shopping malls and retail outlets woo customers with discounts and offers and people enjoy buying Christmas goodies and gifts to mark the occasion.

Christmas in Japan

The most commonly eaten Christmas delicacy in Japan is the Christmas cake: a sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries. It is customary for the man of the house to bring this cake on his way home from work. Christmas cakes are sold at great discounts since most stores would like to sell all their cakes before the 26^th. This has given birth to a rather interesting expression among the Japanese who draw a parallel among young girls and Christmas cakes: eligible and desirable for marriage until they are 25 and difficult to “get rid of” after their 25th birthdays!

Christmas Cakes in Japan

For children, Christmas is a special time since they get gifts from « Hotei-osho », a sort of an Oriental cousin to Santa Claus. Just like Santa, Hotei-Osho delivers gifts to the children in each house. Children are expected to behave well throughout the year and nothing escapes Hotei-Osho’s attention since he has eyes at the back of his head.

Hotei-osho, an Oriental cousin to Santa Claus

The typical Turkey feast organized in Western countries is rarely seen in Japanese households. It costs a fortune to buy Turkey from one of the very few department stores that stock them and even more if you should take it into your head to have it mail-ordered to you. However, Japanese have found a happy replacement in the Christmas Chicken dinner. Thanks to the aggressive marketing done by Kentucky Fried Chicken, this has become an extremely popular concept and you can see a long line at any of the KFC outlets in Japan. There are many who make reservations for their Christmas dinner weeks in advance.

Japanese family celebrating Christmas

Turkey or no Turkey; Christmas tree or no Christmas tree; reindeers or no reindeers, the spirit of Christmas is very much alive in Japan. So, what if it is slightly different and they don’t get together and sing carols or stuff red stockings with treats for kiddies. It is still a very Merry Christmas for them, or as they would say ‘Meri Kurisumasu’.

Historic Farnsworth House Inn (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)

When you have an entire town steeped in the violent history of the Civil War things start getting interesting. Add to that a 19th century building riddled with more than a hundred bullet hills turned into an inn, you can be sure its reputation is going to spread far and wide. This inn is among the most haunted lodgings in the country and spirit of dead soldiers who lost their lives in the Gettysburg battle are said to roam freely around the property. The inn conducts ghost tours that take you around the little town but begin from the Mourning Theater in the basement. Halloween could barely get more interesting than this.
Price: from $145/night

Historic Anchorage Hotel (Anchorage, Alaska)

This is the oldest hotel in Alaska and has been around since 1916. This place is a veritable hub of the deceased and departed and various spirits are said to make their presence felt here. Among the popular ones are a young girl who walks about on the second floor and the ghost of the first Police Chief of Anchorage, John J. « Black Jack » Sturgus. He comes back every year since 1921 on February 20 at 9:15 pm, which happens to be the exact date and time of his death.
Price: from $109/night

The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado)

The Stanley Hotel inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. Though that is not the spooky element of this place we are talking about. The Stanley is said to be overrun by ghosts. If it isn’t a piano playing all by itself, it is uninvited occupants you can’t get out of a room. You get your usual stock of hair raising events and then some more.
Price: from $169/night

The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast (Fall River, Massachusetts)

Lizzie Borden, the original, cold-blooded, axe wielding, psycho babe that chopped her entire family in their Victorian home in 1892. This very same home has been converted into a part bed and breakfast and part museum. The jitters begin at the idea of sleeping within the same walls that were silent spectators to such a gruesome episode. Those with a penchant for the macabre will love it; and others with a faint heart can skip it.
Price: $175–225/night

Jekyll Island Club Hotel (Jekyll Island, Georgia)

This massive 1886 resort was once given the title of the « the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world. » That is hardly the case now but, it does make for a comfortable place to stay in with an elegant Victorian feel about it. On occasion, you may be able to make the acquaintance of General Lloyd Aspinwall who was the first president of the club. The fact that he happens to be dead only adds to the charm of the meeting. Honeymooners keep an eye out for the « bellman » spirit dressed in a 1920s-style uniform. He is notorious for knocking on doors of newly married couples, not to scare them but to simply offer laundry services. This ghost has a thing for cleanliness, it seems.
Price: from $189/night

Today, what can beat the pleasure playing war games in your tree house or simply sitting there listening to the call of the birds and watching the trees sway in the wind? Standing at that height you must have felt almost dizzy with the sense of power you seemed to have over all things under your feet – Lord & Master of all that you saw!

Have you read that poem by Ruskin Bond, “Grandma climbs a tree?” Here’s how it starts off:

My grandmother was a genius. You’d like to know why?

Because she could climb trees. Spreading or high,

She’d be up their branches in a trice. And mind you,

When last she climbed a tree, she was sixty-two.

The poem goes on to describe the joy this sprightly old lady got from climbing trees and how she decided to rubbish the belief that people should age gracefully and not exhibit such childish tendencies. She managed to have her way, and finally, her son set about to building her a house in the tree. The poem ends on these notes:

So Granny moved up, and now every day

I climb to her room with glasses and a tray.

She sits there in state and drinks sherry with me,

Upholding her right to reside in a tree.

I’ve always wondered what it must feel like to live in a tree house. I’m determined to find out sometime or the other and it’s on my list of “Top things to do before I kick the bucket.” However, for Peter Bahouth, the former director of Greenpeace, living in a tree house is not just a novel idea.

He has built a cozy getaway spot behind his house and it is.….you guessed right, a tree house. He’s connected three trees to build a beautiful, yet rugged, retreat. Cradled in the woods, this amazing structure overlooks a stream, and it is furnished well enough as far as tree houses go. Any time Bahouth wants to take a break from the hectic pace of the city, he doesn’t have to go any further than his backyard.

To see this fabulous tree house, that has charmed its way right into my heart, click here http://bit.vc/zO.

And to read an interview with Peter Bahouth and hear his opinion, go here: http://bit.vc/dI.

David Leventi takes us on an amazing journey around the world.   You are able to stand center stage as well as experience the vantage point of the performer.  This is once in a lifetime opportunity.

Our eyes can feast on the incredible detail from gilt decorations, to velvet seats to the most exquisite chandeliers.