– After a three hour bullet train ride from Hiroshima, Vanessa and I arrived in Kyoto on August 18th and planned to stay for a couple days. Vanessa had been here before and I was excited as she knew of some fun areas we had to check out. This time, she would have a different […]
Japan Part 5 (Miyajima and Hiroshima) – August 2009
– After five days in Osaka, it was time to leave and head west towards Hiroshima. With only a 90 minute train ride, on the super fast bullet train, we arrived in Hiroshima. We decided to stash our bags in lockers at the train station for the day, which meant I had to unpack my […]
Japan Part 4 (Himeji and Nara) – August 2009
– The first of our day trips was to the city of Himeji as this city is known to have the best castle in Japan and was said to be worth the hour train ride from Osaka. As nothing is easy, the first challenge we had was getting to a new train station to take […]
Japan Part 3 (Osaka) – August 2009
– After my week in Okinawa with Vanessa and Chris, it was time to fly to the mainland and explore more of Japan. I had looked into flights and was shocked how expensive domestic flights were and based on the prices (meaning $800 one way from Okinawa to Hiroshima vs $200 to go to Kobe). […]
Japan Part 2 (More Okinawa) – August 2009
– After my really slow Saturday, I was ready to get up and see more of Okinawa. Vanessa and I decided to drive north to “the bagel place”. Yes there is one bagel place on the island and it’s right by the US Military bases. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful lunch on bagels and felt […]
Japan Part 1 (Okinawa) – August 2009
– As a seasoned traveler, I wanted to try to adjust my body to the local time in Japan right away when I got on the flight. I boarded the plane in New York on Monday, August 3rd at 12:30pm. So after an hour delay on the plane at the gate, I finally set my […]
I’m Off Again! – August 2009
I’m off to Japan for 3 weeks to visit with my Australian friend Vanessa (who just moved to Japan last month). Some people think this is crazy of me as I just got back from traveling for 15 months all over the world, but after a lot of thinking, it makes a lot of sense […]
Canada (Toronto, Niagara Falls, Waterdown) – July 2009
– I love Air Canada Airline! To be fair, this could be partly since I was able to get a free can of Diet Coke (and even got a second one!). I had in-seat entertainment and my 4 hour flight from Cuba just flew by as I watched movies and TV shows and honestly had […]
Cuba Part 5 – The last stop in Cuba…(Varadero) – June 2009
– As I was already at the end of my rope when I arrived in Varadero, it was another rough start to the city. I hadn’t made any reservations prior to my arrival. The tour lady I met in Cinefuego suggested waiting till I got to the new city as there are lots of deals […]
Cuba Part 4 (Cinefuego) – June 2009
– Arriving in the city of Cinefuego was the start of a downward spiral for my time in Cuba. As soon as I pulled into the bus station, everything started to get bad and then became worse, and this this was the starting point for my dislike of parts of Cuba! – So backing up […]