From our lovely stay in Kyoto, we continued eastward, where we made the train-equivalent of an extended layover in Nagoya en route to Tokyo. My friend Julianne happens to be living in Nagoya for two years, so we took the opportunity to do a one-night stay to say hello and even do some laundry! Our…
Halfway through our Japan trip, we had such a lovely time in Kyoto. It’s quite the darling of Japanese cities, as we enjoyed plenty of its historical attractions, food, shopping, and even some nature. Anchoring it all was our stay at the Ace Hotel Kyoto. Something about this West Coast American (from Portland) property in…
From the quiet, meditative spaces of the art islands, we traveled straight into the center of the chaos when we took a shinkansen into Osaka. The trains were all nearly full, as it seems like everyone else was also going back to the big city after their New Year’s breaks. We spent only two nights…
I first heard of Japan’s art islands when my friends visited a couple years ago and declared it their favorite place in the entire world. The islands of Naoshima and Teshima are set in the Inland Sea, west of Osaka. They require at minimum a train and a ferry– half a day’s travel– to reach,…
We flew out on Christmas night, skipping over the 26th and arriving the morning of the 27th in Taipei. I hadn’t been to Taiwan since before the pandemic, and Alex hadn’t been in a decade. This would be our first Asia trip together! After dropping off our luggage at the hotel in Gongguan, we then…
I was just in Taiwan over Lunar New Year in February, so I had no plans to return so quickly– and in the middle of summer when the heat and humidity soar to the high 90s. However, my maternal grandmother, my last remaining grandparent, passed, and so I was grateful to have the time and…
For the second year in a row, I headed to Taipei in February. Growing up, I only visited my parents’ homeland once every several years, so making it an annual trip is a recent development. With winter being the slow season for work and with plane tickets being so reasonable, I figured I should seize…
Singapore! I wanted to take a little trip with my mom, and Singapore seemed like the perfect choice. We could easily get there from Taiwan since we were already planning to go there in February, and it’s a safe, easily accessible, English and Chinese-speaking country. Plus, with the runaway success of Crazy Rich Asians, Singapore…
Let’s take a little trip to the equator today! I was so excited to meet up with the Bermudez family over in Singapore and continue our little tradition of family portraits together. We started working together before little Harrison was born, and this adorable family has since moved to Singapore and lived there for just over…
Here goes part two of my Taiwan trip, this time with a few more excursions to nearby towns around Taipei, and more explorations of the city as well. Here’s part 1 if you missed it. We kick it off with a view of Taipei 101! A quick stop by the Ju Ming museum that honors…
Back to the motherland with my mother. It has been five years since my last visit to Taiwan. It felt like I was overdue for a return, so Lunar New Year was the perfect time to join my mom on her annual trip to Taipei. In the span of two weeks, we trekked all over…
In this last post of my Taiwan trip, we start in Taroko Gorge, a beautiful national park on the eastern side of Taiwan, and finish with my last few days in Taipei for Lunar New Year. With a hike through a waterfall tunnel and a soak in a natural hot spring at the base of the…