I find myself in such a strange place. I don’t mean in terms of where I physically am – I’m back in Otaru, Japan at my house, Satoshi Manor. I mean it’s a strange place to be mentally, emotionally, spiritually. China was such an unexpected joy. I made some great friends in a very short…
She hadn’t been here since 1961 so I wanted to make sure she got a better than average experience. Mobility was a little bit of an issue and she gets worn out a little easier than in years past (don’t we all?) but overall – I think we showed her a pretty great time. There…
Let’s start this with a disclaimer. Growing up in Southern California in the 1970s – Disney was a big part of my childhood. You could almost say that Disney defined my childhood. My mom’s first job was working for Walt Disney at Disneyland. She was one of the original mermaids in the Disneyland lagoon. My…
The tricky part of traveling with my eleven-year-old daughter is finding ways to make it fun for both of us. I wasn’t going to keep us in the Narita Airport Crowne Plaza longer than I had to, so I’d booked us into Annex Katsutaro Ryokan in the old Nippori and Yanaka section of Arakawa City…
The trip was far too short but the fact of the matter is, it was longer and further than most people will ever travel. I circumnavigated the globe in 42 days – leaving Hawaii for Australia, then Bali in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Morocco, France, Iceland, New York City and now back to…
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in New York City – wait, let me take that back. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Manhattan. I’m not sure why it was always Manhattan except maybe I didn’t know any better. I ventured to Queens a couple of times, up to Harlem once, never…
There has been so much that I’ve learned on this trip around the world – I simply can’t get into it yet (later posts I will) – but coming back to America feels (and is) like the beginning of the end of this trip. I’m happy that the last stop is New York City in…
On our last day in Iceland, we decided to spend more time exploring the streets and museums of Reykjavik. The museums were a little expensive and for the most part, fairly standard fare. At this point in history, I feel like most museums are better visited online without the crowds or the expensive entrance fees….
Iceland is a really cool place. It has a combination of Pacific Northwest indy/grunge vibes and a mellow European feel. I really like Iceland. In doing a little bit of research and knowing that we only had a limited amount of time – I read that the one tour that we should definitely do was…
We arrived in Iceland yesterday and I looked up a few words and phrases, not sure that everyone here would speak English – so far they seem to all speak high level English everywhere we have gone. Some of the phrases in Icelandic though were so colorful. Like this one “Ég borga bara með reiðufé”…