Dying for a cup of coffee? You will feel at home at Bangkok’s new “death awareness” cafe, a macabre, Buddhist spin on the themed-cafe craze where customers are urged to confront their own mortality — and live better lives as a result. With drinks called “death” and “painful” on the menu, and a skeleton splayed out on a couch in …

  You may travel to Japan, but not get to meet a geisha. Like a rare wildlife sighting, real-life geishas can be elusive creatures to capture on camera. Graceful and discreet, the ladies are not known to stop and pose for a photo, but are more apt to scurry off to their appointment, head bowed. Women who do ham it up …