Jeff Shaw

Japan’s Elusive Mountain Cat

To find one of the world’s rarest felines, first fly into Tokyo. You’re still a long bus ride, two more flights and a turbulent ferry jaunt from reaching the only spot in the world—a far-flung island in southern Japan’s Yaeyama group—where an observer can spot a wild yamaneko, or mountain cat.

Marines and Manatees

For more than 100 years, Tokyo and Washington were content with domination of Okinawa’s land. Now, say environmental groups on both sides of the Pacific, the United States Marine Corps has come for the sea as well.