What a treat it was to go back to Tokyo in April after having just been there in January. Alex went for work, so it was a bit of a last-minute trip that we hadn’t originally planned on. I invited myself along, and while he worked long hours every day, I had lots of time…
We’ve finally reached the final post of our Taiwan & Japan travels from this winter! Rewinding a bit from the Japan portion of our tour, we circle back to January first, in Taipei. After having watched the famous Taipei 101 fireworks the night before from our friends’ place out on the west side, we ventured…
Tokyo! After a whirlwind eight days visiting four other places in Japan, we finally reached its biggest city, Tokyo. We stayed for five nights in Ginza, a nice, relatively quiet commercial district filled with luxury brands and nice hotels and restaurants. Alex had made a reservation ahead of time, so after checking in to the…
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…
What a strange reality we’ve stepped into. Looking back just one month is like looking at a completely different world. But here goes: my monthly recap of February, a.k.a. pre-Covid19 life. Filled with gatherings of all sorts. We start the month with our weekly bike ride to the Ferry Building for the farmer’s market. …
It’s time for our first monthly recap of 2020! I had a wonderful January in the Bay, with the tail end of our Redwood National Park excursion in the beginning, my birthday party in the middle, and a small road trip to Monterey as well. But otherwise, I spent most of my time right here…
On Christmas Day we flew from Maui over to Oahu for part two of our Hawaii vacation. We stayed with our friends Crystal and Chris near Diamond Head and circled the whole island seeing the beautiful sights and eating all the delicious things. This was my first time on Oahu, and I would definitely come…
We originally thought about visiting Hawaii over the holidays because flights were pretty reasonable. However, as soon as we looked for housing between Christmas and New Year’s we realized the only options left were $10,000/night. So we made alternate plans to visit West Texas instead. But as soon as we did, Alex’s friends Chris and…