I think I'm turning Japanese, at least I hope so. =) Ahhh, gotta love the 80's songs. Japan, my friend, I'd visit you again in a minute! After Osaka, we headed to this darling little town in the mountains called Koya-san. And by 'in the mountains' I mean C-O-L-D. And by C-O-L-D I mean snowing! Seriously. After living in Hawaii for 5 years, my blood is seriously thin & I was cold everywhere in Japan (and San Diego!) but especially in Koya-san. Karen's toes almost fell off from frostbite, except for that she didn't actually have frostbite. So they're still attached & healthy. We checked out a super cool cemetery in a beautiful forest. It was perhaps my favorite part of Japan. That night we stayed in this cool temple and got to experience a Japanese-style ... read more

I heart Japan! I know that I have said this about a lot of the countries I have been to in the past few months, and it is true again--Japan is awesome. I arrived into Tokyo & my friend Karen was waiting for me as soon as I got out of customs--a familiar face in a new city. Yay! We made our way to our budget accomodation which turned out to be pretty nice for going cheap. We had a room with 2 bunk beds so we each got our own bottom bunk--no camp nightmares of falling off the top bunk when having to get up to pee in the middle of the night! We explored Tokyo for 2 days and everywhere we went friendly people helped us--some even approached us when we were looking ... read more

China is incredible! It has beautiful mountains, rivers, new cities & a gray-ish haze covering it all. We continued through China traveling from Guilin (lots of mountains) to Lijiang (blue sky! yay!) and then to Xian, the former capital and then up to Beijing, the current capital. Guilin was a beautiful smaller sized city, where we stayed in this super cool hotel, the Hotel of Modern Art (HOMA). It rocked! They had artists from all over the world create sculptures for the grounds. The hotel itself had artwork everywhere. The "upscale" restaurant 'Lotus' was terrible though (just trying to save people money). Hotel = awesome! Restaurant = opposite of awesome! Guilin reminded me of Halong Bay in Vietnam just without the water. Just beautiful mountains that looked like camel humps all over. We took a bamboo ... read more

What a beautiful country! Traveling northward up the coast next on our tour was the darling city of Hoi An. It is a charming city with lots of shops, restaurants, bars, tailoring shops, markets & friendly people. A bunch of us had clothes made & I got a beautiful Vietnamese dress & pant outfit made. We also stayed at a resort which was fabulous -- laying out by the pool was wonderful. After Hoi An we got to travel by bus to the former capital of Hue. The scenic drive was a great opportunity to see Vietnam's stunning coastline. In Hue we got to take a rickshaw ride around the citadel. This was the home of the Nguyen Dynasty emperors 1802-1945 (I am currently looking at my itinerary...didn't memorize everything). Much of the citadel was destroyed ... read more

I was very focused when I went to Cambodia--I wanted to see the Temples of Angkor--period. I planned this short jaunt (only 2 days) well so that upon arriving in Siem Reap, I went straight to the temples with a car & a guide. I wanted to make the most of my 2 days: I landed, straight to the temples, hotel, next day--temples then back to the airport! They are gorgeous! I kept thinking about what the guidebooks had said about the temples of Angkor being the 8th Wonder of the World while touring. They combine both Buddhism & Hindusim & are a delight to explore. It was extremely refreshing to have a driver with an air conditioned car to jump into between temples though as it was a bit sticky. There are so many temples ... read more