After departing Koyasan, we made our way to Nagoya by a combination of bus, rapid train, subway and then shinkansen. We got in to Nagoya in the late afternoon. Jeff was scheduled to fly home from Nagoya the next evening, and I was scheduled to fly home from Tokyo Haneda a few hours before him. My plan was to fly from Nagoya to Haneda, spend a few hours in Tokyo, and then depart from Haneda. Jeff and I didn't do much in Nagoya that day. We walked to the International Design Center, enjoyed the cool architecture there, had dinner, walked around the Sakae area a little, and then called it a night. On his own the next day, Jeff explored Nagoya Castle, the aquarium, and the Museum of the Antarctic. I chose to fly from Nagoya ... read more

My random observation the day I arrived in Kyoto was that "Tokyo" and "Kyoto" are anagrams in roman script, but their kanji characters ("東京" and "京都", respectively) are not. I knew from my limited Mandarin that Tokyo meant "Eastern Capital". I researched Kyoto and learned it meant "Imperial Capital". I also learned that Tokyo is traditionally called Tokyoto (東京都), meaning "Eastern Imperial Capital"). So, connection drawn. Rather fittingly for an imperial capital, Kyoto turned out to be a sizeable city with lots of cultural sites. Before arriving in Kyoto, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of sites listed on the Lonely Planet, as well as the effort it would take to cover the distance between them. Fortunately, our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Kyoto provided resources to help us whittle down our list and ... read more

Answer: Robot Restaurant. I am in Japan once again. Jeff had been selected to judge a diving meet in Fuji, southwest of Tokyo. Because this meet ended just before his spring break, we decided that he would stay there through spring break and that I would meet him in Tokyo. I flew to Tokyo the day after Jeff’s meet ended, took the Narita Express to the city, and met him at our hotel in Shinjuku. Soon after my arrival, we made our way to Robot Restaurant nearby. As you may already be aware, I went to Robot Restaurant in September last year. Jeff was bitter that I had gone without him, so, to keep the peace, I atoned for this transgression by taking him there. Our evening started in the lounge area, which we entered just ... read more

First, Let's Get Caught Up... So, what has happened since I returned home in December? As you may recall from my Intermezzo entry, I initially traveled for three months. When I first returned home in October, I met with an executive from a local company who told me about some jobs he would need to hire for in early 2018 as part of a major company initiative. This executive has hired me before, and there is a good amount of trust between us, so I took a leap of faith and extended my travels. I have met with a number of leaders from this company since my second return home in December; through those meetings, it became clear to me that the team leaders for this initiative were recently appointed and that t... read more

New Zealand wasn’t on my radar as a place I would visit in the near future because I had already been there as a teenager, and, because I didn’t know anyone I could stay with there, an extended sojourn there wouldn’t fit my budget as a funemployed person. However, when I extended my Midlife Crisis Flashpacking Trip, the only mileage award flight home I could find was from Auckland. So, I decided to make a short trip to NZ to check one more item off my list - the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It also helped that Air New Zealand offered attractive fares on their B787 Dreamliner flight from Adelaide to Auckland. It was also a neat bit of serendipity that I end my travels in the country where my wanderlust was first stoked; I’ll explain that ... read more