Laura Studarus

I love Tokyo.

Admittedly, that doesn’t make me unique. Japan welcomed 42.7 million travelers in 2025, the vast majority of whom funneled into the country’s neon-lit, sprawling capital. With 11 visits under my belt in the last seven years, I’ve had my fill of fragrant ramen shops, panoramic sunsets, and late-night izakaya crawls. But as my 12th trip approached—a brief stopover en route to the wilds of Hokkaido and the reefs of Okinawa—I found myself asking the seasoned traveler’s ultimate question: How do you keep the spark alive in a city you already know by heart?

It’s a hot morning in July at Nova Maldives, and dozens of women are lined up along the deck, waiting to try diving for the first time during PADI’s annual Women’s Dive Day event.

The crowd listens to opening remarks from PADI AmbassaDiver India Black, a special guest at the resort who spent a week guiding guests through various ecological topics. And then, with excitement and a few nervous laughs, all the women present experience their first breaths underwater. Later, they’ll finish the day by helping harvest coral fragments and sipping a few specialty cocktails—but for now, the joy of discovery takes focus.

When we first met Washington, D.C.’s premier crisis manager on Scandal, she was a political savior in a sleek white trench coat, winding down in the evening with red wine and popcorn. But beneath the shiny, stylish veneer of Olivia Pope was a much more complex, morally ambiguous heroine.

Architectural masterpieces are designed to be permanent records of stone and mortar. Yet, the very things that make them iconic—their location, their ornamentation and their symbolic power—also make them targets. From the shimmering bricks of medieval China to the pristine marble columns of ancient Greece, these structures were designed to endure for millennia. Instead, they were caught in the crosshairs of conquering empires, radical internal revolutions and the terrifying efficiency of modern war.

Before 2006, scuba in Greece was almost totally banned, with 95 percent of the country’s waters declared off-limits. Because it took until 2020 for the laws surrounding the country’s historic shipwrecks to finally relax, it’s understandable that Greece might not be on your diving bucket list.

Allow me to change that.

When Teddy Altman (played by Kim Raver) first marched into the halls of Seattle Grace Hospital in season six of Grey’s Anatomy, she was immediately described as a “gift” for Cristina Yang. From the jump, her role was clear: She was a world-class surgeon and a skilled soldier, but she was there solely to sharpen a resident’s brilliance. Over the years, she’s proved just how shortsighted that thinking was — her expertise and willingness to do practically anything for her patients and loved ones alike make Teddy a vital force in the Grey’s Anatomy universe.

Owen Hunt (played by Kevin McKidd) immediately caught our attention during the season five premiere of Grey’s Anatomy when the former Army medic breezed into Seattle Grace Hospital, casually stapled his leg wound shut sans numbing, and promptly yanked an icicle from Cristina Yang’s chest. The encounter ended with an extremely passionate kiss and a revelation: This was a new kind of doctor. He was the antithesis of Derek Shepherd and Mark Sloan, the smooth operators of the hospital, and he was there to shake things up.

Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks brim with visionary designs for flying machines and armored tanks, yet he was an artist who started more than he finished. In particular, his completed painted oeuvre only consists of fewer than 20 attributed works. Within this slim catalog, some of his Renaissance masterpieces stand apart for both their technical brilliance and the extraordinary lives they have led in the five centuries since da Vinci laid down his tools.

Chess is a language that speaks to everyone, whether you’re a Grandmaster in the making, or still waiting for your first checkmate. From surreal chess cities, to hotels that feel like a mid-century fever dream, these eight destinations are a “Queen’s Gambit”-style trip worth taking.

It’s a warm evening, and the sounds of collegiate baseball players warming up fills USC’s Dedeaux Field. On the surface, the exhibition game between the USC Trojans and Waseda University Baseball Club looks like any other high-stakes match, with the score eventually settling 5-4 in favor of Waseda. But what many members of the crowd don’t realize is they are witnessing a transpacific legacy, 121 years in the making.

Heading off on an international adventure can be a little nerve-racking, especially when you’re worried that your language skills might not be ready. But here’s a secret: You’re already able to communicate more than you might think! Don’t believe me? Let me introduce you to ✨context clues✨—those little hints that subconsciously boost your communication skills and act as the ultimate travel safety net. Even if you only catch 10% of the words someone is saying, paying attention to the clues around you can often help fill in the rest.

When Bridgerton started using remakes of modern pop songs as unexpected musical accompaniment to the series, it was both surprising and delightful. As the seasons went on, they became a vital part of the show. Thanks to the versions by such ensembles as the Vitamin String Quartet, Duomo, Midnite String Quartet, and Atwood Quartet, the show plays a neat musical game, connecting the desires for love and acceptance across two different time periods.

With 15 art galleries and outdoor installations scattered across the island, Naoshima is Japan’s premier art destination. Located in the Seto Inland Sea in southern Japan and spanning just over five square miles, it offers a striking blend of nature and human creativity, with installations by artists like Yayoi Kusama and James Turrell placed far from the rush of the mainland. Like any unforgettable day trip, however, a visit to this immersive retreat takes careful planning. Read on to learn how to make the most of your time on Naoshima Island.

Mark Sloan first swaggered into Grey’s Anatomy in season two, emerging from a hotel bathroom and onto our TV screens, wearing nothing but a towel and a smirk. If he were a Bridgerton character, he very well could have been dubbed a rake. But this was Grey’s, so Mark earned the instantly unforgettable nickname McSteamy.

The creators of Jeni’s Ice Creams love a good challenge. Since Jeni’s start as a stand-alone ice cream shop in 2002, they’ve taken on a number of creative challenges. In the past, that’s meant creating a line of outer space-themed flavors featuring a fruit-heavy rotation with popping candies and edible glitter, working with Dolly Parton to create a strawberry flavor as playful as the country singer herself, and paying tribute to Ted Lasso with a sweet-and-salty mix of shortbread cookies and buttery sweet cream that immediately sold out. 

I am struggling to maintain my dignity – and my buoyancy –  in Nagoya, Japan. My legs are encased in a violet-hued mermaid tail, and what I thought would be a graceful glide feels more like a splash. "Good," says Shellina Mermaid, my instructor at Mermaid Academy Japan. "But you swim like an American, late for a meeting. Swim slower, like a Japanese mermaid." This helps; soon, I'm swimming gracefully alongside two other local merfolk.

Every four years, athletes across the world converge for the World Baseball Classic. While the United States’ legacy in baseball is storied, one of its fiercest rivals on the international stage is team Samurai Japan. But Japan’s dominance in the sport is no accident. It reflects more than 100 years of history in which baseball served as a symbol of open borders, a tool for connection and a source of national healing.