Followers may be more familiar with her alter ego, Accidental Icon, but Lyn Slater’s credentials go far beyond being fashionable. The former professor and social worker has spent the past decade using the moniker to turn our perception of style and aging on its head. Scroll through her Instagram feed or blog, and you'll find Slater decked out in designer duds, interspersed with fashion campaigns for Hermés and Dior, and sponsored posts for luxury brands like Net-a-Porter, Kate Spade, and Moncler. Slater speaks of this life stage with gratitude for the opportunities it's provided—like access to a wealth of influential people in the fashion industry and travel experiences in new destinations—but always from a place of removal. The Accidental Icon is not her, says Slater. It's a persona.Now in her 70s, Slater says she has closed her chapter as an influencer and is embracing a new one. One where she is still undeniably fabulous and no-less influential, but has traded in her New York city apartment for a home upstate (where she is writing a monthly column for her local paper), her signature red lipstick and large statement earrings for a subtler wardrobe, and the title of “influencer” for “writer” and “grandmother.”
Adventures in Japan’s great outdoors
20.02.2024 - 16:01 / nationalgeographic.com
A trip to Japan offers travelers a range of unforgettable experiences, from sampling the rich culinary heritage to discovering remnants of the country's samurai past. What you might not know is that Japan is also a prime destination for outdoor adventure sports. If you are into skiing fine powder snow or diving with sea turtles, hiking sacred peaks or heading off on rural bike rides, Japan has all that and more.
Tokyo’s image as a neon-lit urban sprawl couldn’t be further from the mark once travelers leave the city center behind and explore the wider Greater Tokyo area. Nowhere demonstrates this better than Tokyo’s Izu Islands, a chain of nine inhabited islands and 100-plus uninhabited islands and reefs stretching south of the mainland into the Pacific.
Reachable in just under two hours by high-speed ferry, the chain's biggest island, Izu-Oshima, is an easy trip from central Tokyo, yet the change of scenery is stark. Where western Tokyo's natural expanse offers hiking trails through wooded mountains, Izu-Oshima is all about barren landscapes, with trails skirting the crater of volcanically active Mount Mihara and then leading to Japan's only patch of desert—the lunar-esque black charcoal sands of Ura-sabaku.
Heading deeper into the Izu chain, 10 hours by regular ferry or 55 minutes by plane, the far smaller Hachijojima offers up even more outdoor activities far off the beaten path. For hikers, there are relatively easy treks up and around 2,800-feet (854-meter) Hachijo-Fuji, a peak topped with a caldera that's accented by virgin forest and ponds. From the trails and the peak, Hachijo-Fuji rewards hikers with sweeping island views. Off land, there are opportunities for guided snorkeling and diving tours in deep blue waters home to table coral, sea turtles, and hundreds of varieties of tropical fish. Alternatively, there's just lazing around in the island's collection of seven distinct outdoor hot-spring baths, taking in island views as the mineral-rich water soothes the body.
Looking north of Tokyo, an alternative to island adventure are the mountains of Niigata, home to some of the finest winter resort areas in Japan, as well as being easy to access from the capital. Only about 70 minutes by bullet train (Joetsu Shinkansen) from Tokyo Station, the mellow town of Yuzawa has 12 ski resorts that between them cater to all levels of skier and snowboarder, from families with small children to advanced boarders in search of backcountry powder.
These include Gala Yuzawa the only snow resort in Japan with its own seasonal bullet train stop at the foot of the slopes, meaning you can be on its 1½-mile (2.5-km) Falcon Slope soon after getting off the train from Tokyo. Then there's Naeba, a popular resort 40
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