With sakura season officially underway and full bloom coming to many parts of Japan over the next two weeks, it’s time to start finalizing hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) party plans. The classic, and many would say still the best, way to enjoy the cherry blossoms is to head to a park, find a spot under the sakura trees, and enjoy a leisurely day of relaxing, snacking, and drinking, either soft drinks or alcoholic beverages, under the pink petals.
Ah, but it’s easier to eat and drink if you’re got a table, isn’t it? However, with public transportation being the primary way of getting around in Japan, lugging a standard folding table to the park isn’t really an option. However, it turns out there’s a handy, convenient, and extremely affordable alternative.
We actually bought this 487-yen (US$3.15) Folding Cardboard Table a while back, through Amazon Japan, while putting together a disaster preparedness kit. It says right there on the packaging, though, that it’s perfect for outdoor events like cherry blossom parties, and since we’ve got a bunch of those coming up in the very near future, we decided to test the table out at home first to see if it really works as well as advertised.
Folded up, it measures roughly 26 by 36 centimeters (10.2 x 14.2 inches), making it compact enough to easily slide into a moderately sized backpack or tote bag, but once it’s put together the tabletop is a more expansive 34.5 by 51.2 centimeters. Being made of cardboard it’s light too, weighing just 420 grams (14.8 ounces).
After removing the wrapping we saw that the entire thing consists of just three parts: the tabletop (which folds in half), the base, and one additional piece. To assemble it, you actually start by unfolding the tabletop and placing it on the ground, upside down. Then you unfold the base so that it crisscrosses like shown in the photo below, and slide in into the tabletop’s notches.
The base has two notches in it too, at corners of its central diamond…
…and this is where you insert the third piece, which acts as extra bracing.
Once you’ve done that, all that’s left is to flip your table over!
The whole process takes literally just a few seconds, and the tabletop is actually rather steady, with no significant wobbling when we tried jiggling it with our hand.
However, because the table is so light, it could get blown around if you’re outside with it on a particularly windy day. There’s an easy solution to that, though, and it’s something you’ll no doubt be planning to do: put stuff on it, which will help weigh it down.
According to the manufacturer, the Foldable Cardboard Table can support five kilograms (11 pounds) of weight, and with a standard-sized can of beer or soda weighing around 370 grams, that means you should be able to put 13 of them on there. Unfortunately, we didn’t have quite that much liquid refreshment stockpiled for our test, but the table did handle two cans, plus a bottle of wine, with no problem in structural integrity or stability.
So yeah, this thing should work perfectly for a cherry blossom party. While you can’t fit an entire opulent feast on top of it, it’s big enough to accommodate you and a couple buddies.
In addition to the low cost and light weight, the cardboard construction also means that if you’re picnicking with kids, you can let them doodle or put stickers on it, and if/when the table reaches the end of its service life, you can put it out with your other recyclables on trash day. And should you need more space, in addition to a single table for 487 yen, Amazon Japan is also selling a bundle of two for 974 here.
Sam’s mild concussion didn’t appear to have impeded the majority of his memory. Although the exact order of events was a little hazy, unfortunately, the memory of the pain inflicted on him was sharply in focus.
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Sam gets attacked while out on patrol, Havelock gets all protective and sappy about it.
With AI, it's now possible for researchers to predict the three-dimensional structures of proteins directly from their amino-acid sequences. But what biologists really want to predict, says Columbia biophysicist Hashim Al-Hashimi, is how RNA and DNA-encoded molecules behave inside their natural cellular environments.
I've seen two Boston Ballets in relatively quick succession over the past month, both combo programs featuring two pieces; the first was "The Rite of Spring" (Elo's, not Nijinsky's) paired with Pite's "The Seasons' Canon," and the second was a premiere, Stromile's "The Leisurely Installation of a New Window," paired with Ashton's "The [Midsummer Night's] Dream."
Breaking with the actual curation of the productions, I'm going to talk about "The Rite of Spring" and "The Leisurely Installation of a New Window" together because they both came first in their productions, they had kind of similar vibes, and I experienced similar feelings of mild disappointment about both of them that were not technically the fault of the productions. I was really excited about "The Rite of Spring" because I wanted to see some ballet dancers do a dramatic ritual sacrifice, and I was really excited about "The Leisurely Installation of a New Window" because I wanted to see some ballet dancers slowly install a window. Instead, both of these pieces were kind of abstract explorations through dance of the Relationship between the Individual and Society, and I think both would have been enjoyable for fifteen minutes but ran a bit long at half an hour.
The description for "Window" in the playbill reads:
Eighteen dancers inhabit the work through distinct but interdependent roles. The Seeker stands close to tradition, moving with discipline and clarity. The People operate within shared systems, attentive to both order and its quiet tensions. The Reformers introduce disruption, not as spectacle, but as pressure applied from within.
This did help me understand better what was going on in the dance, as the Seeker stalked around holding a book and then portentously passed it off to some dueting Reformers, but also made it feel a bit like a LARP that I was not participating in. On the other hand Reeves Gabriel of The Cure was There and Participating in Ballet Music (and every bit of marketing wanted you to know that Reeves Gabriel Of The Cure was There and Participating in Ballet Music) and occasionally the music would get very thrillingly electric guitar and you'd be like "Hello, Reeves Gabriel of The Cure!" So it's not that I didn't have a fine time, I just would have been okay with somewhat less of that time.
However, after these very mildly disappointing openers, I loved both "The Seasons' Canon" and "The Dream" very much! The Seasons' Canon is, justifiably, a known Boston Ballet showstopper -- a huge piece with a huge cast, and as you guys know I often have trouble with a piece that is not trying to tell me a story but this piece is truly just Humans Make Big Shapes and it's riveting. Could not take my eyes off it. The trailer here gives a bit of a sense but of course is not that much like seeing it Actually On Stage, but it does let you see one of the things I found most striking about the piece which is how extremely non-gendered it is -- everyone on that stage is dressed identically in pants and nude tank that makes them look topless, the whole corps looks like one and moves like one and there is nothing to distract you from that. Really, really cool experience.
And "The Dream" -- look, I'm a simple soul, and what I have discovered is that I love Ashton's silly panto-esque ballets. They are fun and they are funny and I love it when people get to be funny in dance! Dance jokes are good actually! Titania ballet-hopping her way towards Bottom in a way that manages to be simultaneously fairy-like and hilariously sultry, the arguing lovers constantly picking each other up and pirouetting a partner firmly Away from them Thank You, the rude mechanicals!! we wanted more rude mechanicals but I was so glad we got what we got. A+ Midsummer Night's Dream, would see again.
Provided they host thick, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres, moons orbiting free-floating exoplanets could retain much of the heat generated deep within their interiors by tidal forces. Led by David Dahlbüdding at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and Giulia Roccetti at the European Space Agency, a new study predicts that hydrogen could act as a potent greenhouse gas—potentially providing habitable conditions for billions of years after their host planets are first ejected from their stellar systems. The work has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Been making a few last minute preparations, including a little bit of promotions in a couple of discords, though I really don't know if I'll get any viewers at all today. Also looked into monetization, though I'm not doing that for the moment. It took an aggravatingly long time to determine whether Twitch will put ads on my stream or not, but it now seems like they can, but aren't likely to bother right now. After the test recording I did on Wednesday night mostly just to see if the sound quality was okay and also if my game would crash (It ran smoothly for the 50 minutes...) I am currently standing at the front of the Counting House, which I suppose will make for as interesting a first stream. I'll probably be streaming Date Everything! and Dispatch over the next week as well, though I'm less certain what I'll stream when I'm done with the latter. It's all happening over here, starting today at 1 PM Eastern.
Name: JacieLeigh Age group: Legal in all 50 States! I have online friends everywhere from 20s to 70s. As long as you're of age wherever you're from, you're okay with me. No minors, please. Country: USA
Subscription/Access Policy: I used to post often, but was discouraged by a lack of commenters. Sometimes I'm okay with posting to the void, but sometimes it feels a little sad. I also recently had (minor) surgery, but was under for about 10 hours, and I'm just starting to get my energy back, so I haven't been posting much recently. Hopefully, with spring arriving, I'll feel more motivated to post. Anyway, I bounce around on my locking of posts. I do create some public posts, but I have two locked filters as well (one for about everyone friended to my journal, and the other tends to be locked to people I've known for years who actively converse with me, i.e. people I trust with private info), some things I post privately, mostly recipes that I'm not sure will interest other people.
What I chat about: I enjoy dialogue. Mostly, I chat about writing, and cats would be my guess. I also chat about whatever is on my mind at the moment. So, yeah, you never know. It could be fitness, stories, items, a show I've watched, or current events (Poli-chat is rare and tends to be LOCKED). I will say, although I am an Independent, I am NOT a fan of what's going on in my country at this time. Anyone who supports the felon need not apply. Seriously, just no.
I'm looking to connect with people who: Enjoy chatting, seriously, I'm very chatty and love good dialogue. Also, people who love cats, NCIS, and other common interests. I tend to mirror people. I'm generally pretty engaged with those who engage with me. I'm okay with lurkers, but I'm less likely to comment to people who never comment on my journal. Just being honest. It doesn't mean I'm not reading or don't care, but I've had a lot of negative experiences with one-sided relationships in my life. But yeah, if you want to innocently lurk, then lurk, it's fine. If you want to chit-chat, then feel free to comment. I started on LJ in 2004, and have online friends I've known for years, who are from several different countries. I enjoy learning about history, other countries, and cultures. Unfortunately, so many people have left LJ over the years, and not all of them have found their way to DW. I finally made DW my main journal in 2025, but had been cross-posting for a few years before that. I generally don't bother posting to LJ anymore, except my communities.
Main Fandom: NCIS Other Fandoms: I have written NCIS crossovers with Criminal Minds, Ghosts, and SEAL Team OTP: Gibbs/DiNozzo will always be my OTP, however, I've been known to write Gen or other pairings here and there What I create for Fandom: Stories and banners, mostly for NCIS challenges these days Communities that I run: I have several Fandom communities, including NCIS Big Bang, NCIS Reverse Bang, NCIS Discuss, NCIS Challenge, NCIS SeSa, and an NCIS newsletter that posts every week or two. Where I post my fanfic stories: Mostly AO3
Favourite Movies: Hmmm, there are so many! So, a few favorites in no particular order - A Fish Called Wanda, Hidden Figures, Sneakers, The Sting, Victor/Victoria, A Few Good Men, Men of Honor, The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home, Generations, Hair, This is Spinal Tap, Point Break (original), My Cousin Vinny, Apollo 13, The Rutles, The Yellow Submarine, Frozen I & II, The Aristocats, Minions, Ice Age movies, The Emperor's New Groove. Sometimes, I'm a kid at heart.
TV Shows: NCIS (original), NCIS: Origins, Ghosts (US), Fraiser (original and reboot), Friends, SEAL Team, Criminal Minds, School Spirits, Starfleet Academy, The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, Hell's Kitchen (Gordon Ramsay), Next Level Chef (Gordon Ramsay), RuPaul's Drag Race, Queer as Folk (US), Picard, NCIS: New Orleans, Heartland. I also like to watch documentaries on history and nature. There is also a list of other older shows I also enjoy when I can find them on my sticky post at my journal.
Books: The Chronicles of Narnia, also a fan of Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc) and Thich Nhat Hanh (Peace is Every Step, etc) Music: BEATLES!!! Also Simon & Garfunkel, Elton John, The Doors, Styx, Led Zepplin, Abba, Blondie, *NSync, Allman Brothers, and others. I mostly listen to 60s and 70s classic rock, but also enjoy older stuff from the 50s, and classical music. I also listen to alternative music like Linkin Park, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, etc. I love harmony stuff like Pentatonix.
Hobbies: Writing, hiking, chatting, photography, history - I'd like to get back to playing the bass guitar, and I'm also trying to learn a bit of Spanish and German via Duolingo. Volunteer work: I volunteer with a cat rescue
Japan’s favorite domestic burger chain, the one that introduced the teriyaki burger to the country, launches seventh-generation sandwich.
Mos Burger is Japan’s favorite domestic hamburger chain, and not only was it the creator of the rice burger, it was also the first chain in Japan to sell teriyaki burgers. Mos’ teriyaki burger made its debut in May of 1973, but while it’s been on the menu ever since, the teriyaki burger it serves today isn’t the same as the one it sold 53 years ago. As a mater of fact, it’s not even the same as the teriyaki burger they sold last week.
That’s because Mos Burger is using a new recipe for its teriyaki burger as of March 18. This is actually the seventh generation of the Mos teriyaki burger, and its first update since four years ago.
▼ A sign announcing the new teriyaki burger, with an excited “Renewal!” (リニューアル), which is used in Japanese to describe renovations and reformulations
With Mos’ reputation for excellent quality, the idea of a new teriyaki burger was both intriguing and worrying. On the one hand, the chain has a strong track record of cooking up tasty chow, but on the other, with their teriyaki burger already being a hit, you could argue this is a case of a company trying to fix something that’s not broken. Still, Mos said that it has “updated the flavor” of its teriyaki sauce “to fit with the current times.” Slightly more specifically, they said that the new teriyaki sauce has “a gentle sweetness within a sauce packed with rich umami flavor that leads to a clean finish.”
Drawing taste-test duties this time around was our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun. Since there was no overlap between the availability of the new and old sandwiches, P.K. headed to Mos Burger for one last old-teriyaki burger dinner on March 17, then hit the chain up again the next day to try the new version.
Appearance-wise, the new Mos teriyaki burger, which at 470 yen (US$3) us 10 yen more than its predecessor, keeps the same overall look: nice fluffy bun, crisp lettuce with a dollop of mayo mixed with teriyaki sauce, and a teriyaki-slathered patty.
Having securely input the flavor of the old teriyaki burger into the part of his brain for food memories the night before, P.K. took a bite of the new version…and it tasted very good!
However, it didn’t taste very different. He could perceive a little extra sweetness in the sauce, but not so much as to majorly shift the balance of the flavor profile, and he might have only been able to notice it because he was specifically looking for it, since Mos had said that “gentle sweetness” was going to be the biggest difference between the new teriyaki sauce and the old recipe’s. Being the biggest difference, though, doesn’t automatically make something a big difference, and P.K. thinks that many people, unless they’re also armed with prior knowledge that Mos has changed its teriyaki sauce, probably won’t notice that anything has changed.
However, this isn’t a criticism. Like we mentioned earlier, the old Mos Burger teriyaki burger was already awesome, and it’s hard to imagine how they could have strayed from its recipe very far without making the results worse. At the same time, P.K. isn’t upset that Mos Burger has made a subtle shift in its sauce. That kind of incremental evolution may not be the most dramatic way to update your menu, but it’s just the sort of fine-tuning that makes Mos Burger one of the most reliably satisfying burger options Japan has, and with a final verdict of “Yep, new Mos teriyaki burger tastes pretty much like the old one: delicious,” the last part is really what counts.
Fest Name: Wolf & Prince Fest 2026 Links: Tumblr | The Snupin Server (Discord) | Prompting Post Type of Challenge: Description: A Remus/Severus fest. Almost any medium is welcome, including fic, art, podfic, moodboards, translations, physical crafts, etc. Fanworks based on fanworks (aka remixes) are welcome. No AI-generated works allowed. Prompting is open till April 3. Ratings Restrictions: All ratings allowed Length Restrictions: Fic: Minimum 100 words Other medium: To be announced Timeline: Prompting begins: 21 March 2026 Prompting closes: 3 April 8:00 PM EDT Claiming begins: 4 April 8:00 PM EDT Claiming closes: 27 June 11:59 PM EDT Submissions due by: 30 June 11:59 PM EDT Work reveals first day: 3 July Work reveals last day: 24 or 31 July (depending on amount of enteries) Creator reveals: 7 August
13 books new to me, and save for one mystery, all fantasy. Man, fantasy is just eating SF's lunch. Not that that will be reflected in what I actually review.
Fest Name: HP Hedonism Fest 2026 Links: Tumblr | AO3 | Rules | Prompting Type of Challenge: Anonymous prompt fest Description: A HP fic and art fest dedicated to the theme of hedonism. AI-generated content is not allowed, in part or whole. Prompting is open till April 4. Ratings Restrictions: All ratings allowed Length Restrictions: Fic: Minimum 500 words; no maximum Art: None? Timeline: Prompting: March 21 - April 4 Sign-up: April 6 - August 8 Submission: August 9 Posting: August 17 Reveals: To be announced
Here is what you told me about the 11 states I am racing to visit before July 4th. And here is what I am still wondering.
A few weeks ago, I announced my quest: Visit all 50 states before America’s 250th birthday on July 4th. I had 11 remaining—Arkansas, Kansas, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska—and I asked if you had suggestions.
What arrived was not a trickle. It was a flood. Hundreds of emails, from readers in Fairbanks and Visby, Sweden; from retired wildlife biologists and Jesuit priests and 87-year-olds and environmental science teachers in Phoenix. You have collectively produced what might be the most detailed, lovingly opinionated, off-the-beaten-path guide to these 11 states I have ever encountered.
I want to share what you said. And then I want to ask you something.
What You Told Me
The single most-recommended destination in my entire inbox was Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. A world-class art museum in the Ozarks, built by the Walton family—and apparently, it is exactly as extraordinary as its reputation. Consider that recommendation well and truly made. It also has a special exhibit showing for the 250th.
South Dakota produced the most passionate emails. The Badlands—“badass, take water”—came up from many readers. Mt. Rushmore came up almost as much, though almost always with a counterpoint: Crazy Horse, which multiple readers called more meaningful; or Custer State Park, where one reader used to pay her kids for animal sightings to keep their eyes off their screens. One reader admitted he was dead set against visiting Rushmore—saying “a bunch of stone heads defacing a beautiful mountain, who cares?”—and then was completely won over after hiking the trail up close.
Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rain Forest - Forks, Washington
Washington produced more recommendations than any other state. The ferry system. The Olympic Peninsula. The Hoh Rain Forest. Mt. Rainier. Mt. St. Helens. The Underground Seattle tour. The LIGO gravitational wave observatory on the Hanford nuclear site, which has monthly public tours and which I am not missing. Eastern Washington’s Yakima Valley, where one reader described apple orchards on volcanic soil and hop fields carrying “the foreshadowing fragrance of future IPAs.” And the Moccasin Bar in Hayward, Wisconsin—cash only, taxidermy animals staged in dioramas playing poker and boxing, a world-record musky on the wall. No website.
For Nebraska: Several of you mentioned Carhenge. Several more mentioned the sandhill crane migration along the Platte River in March—which, as I write this, is happening right now. A Jesuit priest from Omaha described driving up through the Sandhills toward the Badlands as “a different kind of stunning beauty you won’t see anywhere else.” I believe him.
Iowa kept surprising me. Mason City came up from numerous readers independently: It has the last surviving Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel, the hometown of Meredith Willson (who wrote The Music Man), and puppets from The Sound of Music on display at the local art museum. I did not know any of this. The future birthplace of Captain Kirk is also in Iowa, in the town of Riverside, which I find deeply wonderful.
Craters of the Moon - Arco, Idaho
Idaho, I am told, contains incredible nature. A retired wildlife biologist sent me a list of fifteen places that don’t appear in any guidebook, including rivers that vanish underground and a fault scarp still visible from the 1983 earthquake. Craters of the Moon came up four times. The town of Arco—the first city in the world powered by atomic energy—sits right next door.
For Alaska, the advice was nearly unanimous: Go. Just go. One reader who has lived there 45 years wrote: “We love Atlas Obscura, but you don’t need smoke and mirrors in Alaska.” I believe him, too.
What I Notice Across All of It
Reading through hundreds of recommendations, a few themes emerge that say something about how this community thinks about travel.
Almost everyone pushes past the obvious. The marquee attraction gets mentioned, and then immediately qualified or redirected. Go to Rushmore, but Crazy Horse. Visit Seattle, but cross the Cascades. The instinct to find the less-trodden version runs deep in this inbox. It is, I think, the Atlas Obscura instinct made explicit.
Indigenous history comes up again and again, and always with moral weight. The flooding of Ojibwe land to create the Chippewa Flowage in Wisconsin. The Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. The First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. Multiple readers specifically suggested skipping the Mt. Rushmore tourist shops and buying from Native artisans instead. This isn’t incidental. It feels like something this community carries collectively.
Food is always specific, never generic. Nobody says “eat at a good restaurant.” They say: Get a Maid-Rite in Iowa, a loose-meat sandwich served since 1926. Eat cheese curds in Wisconsin—“the squeakier, the fresher.” Get pie at Norske Nook. Have a coney dog at Coney Island on 104 E 3rd St in Grand Island, Nebraska, run by the original owner’s son, interior unchanged. These aren’t Yelp recommendations. They’re heirlooms.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Allen House - Wichita, Kansas
And this surprised me: Frank Lloyd Wright is a secret connective thread through the whole trip. His last surviving hotel is in Mason City, Iowa. His Allen House is in Wichita, Kansas. His Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, has hotel rooms and a bar. His Taliesin is in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I could build an entire itinerary around one architect across four states. I might.
Where I’m Still Looking for More
I want to be honest: Kansas and Indiana got thinner treatment in the inbox than the other nine states. Kansas carries a reputation—“it’s flat,” multiple readers noted, often before and sometimes after their recommendations—that seems to suppress enthusiasm even among people who clearly love it. I know Monument Rocks exists. I know Lawrence has some of the richest Civil War history in America. But I want more. What are you not telling me about Kansas? Here is a video of one interesting little place I visited there so far.
West Baden Springs Hotel - West Baden Springs, Indiana
Indiana also feels like it has secrets I haven’t unlocked. The dunes, the caves, the West Baden Springs Hotel with its extraordinary domed atrium—those came up. But I suspect there’s an Indiana that doesn’t get written about, and I want to know what it is. So here is my ask: What did I miss? What did your fellow readers get wrong, or underrate, or skip entirely on the above states? Are there places on this list you’d push back on? And what would you add?
Why I Trust You
Studies consistently find that friends and community members—people who share your values, your curiosity, your sense of what a good trip means—are the most reliable predictors of whether you’ll love a place. One analysis of millions of travel check-ins found that the people in your community shape your destination choices more powerfully than any algorithm. The intangibility of travel makes us especially dependent on the testimony of someone who has actually been there—not descriptions, but the lived experience of a person saying: Go, it surprised me, do not miss it.
The Atlas Obscura community self-selects for a particular kind of curiosity. You are not here for the obvious. You are not here for the sanitized version. The recommendations you sent are, almost without exception, from people who went somewhere, were surprised by it, and wanted to hand that surprise to someone else. That is an act of generosity. That is also, I think, why it feels so trustworthy—because it comes from the same place that wonder does.
I am going to all 11 states. I have four months. And I am taking your list with me.
A critically endangered monkey has given birth just months after pioneering surgery saved her from undergoing an amputation. Masaya, a 15-year-old roloway monkey at Chester Zoo, had a golf-ball-sized mass removed from her foot last summer in a complex operation carried out jointly by zoo vets and surgeons from the University of Liverpool's Small Animal Teaching Hospital.
This week, among a lot of other important findings, we learned that emperor cichlid fish have gaze sensitivity and dislike it if you look at them—or especially their children. England is looking for a solution to its 5-billion-liter water deficit. And a high-fiber diet isn't only healthy for you—it also benefits your parasitic tapeworms!
This is honestly devastating. It's sad knowing how deeply troubled his life had become. I don't always pay that close attention to the personal lives of actors, however every time I heard about him over the years it was something revolving around his constant struggle with addiction which got him into various legal issues, and I kept on hoping that somehow he'd get himself better and back on the right track. I also recently learned about his health problems, too. It's just so sad and tragic.
Outside of his small roles on shows like Criminal Minds, I mostly knew him from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, while Xander Harris wasn't my favorite character, Nicholas did fantastically in the role, providing much needed comedic relief along with emotional moments with the rest of the Scoobies.