It's close to 10pm on my second night in Korea when we finally arrive at mine and Tim's apartments on Geoje Island. It's felt like a long time coming. Leon first takes us into Tim's apartment, which is in an old building that may have once been a house or maybe a duplex, but is now divided into a four unit apartment building. There is a tall apartment building next door that Leon points to and says, "Kailie apartment." We climb the stairs to Tim's second floor apartment, kick our shoes off at the door and walk into the kitchen. It's got a pretty rank smell, but overall looks nice enough. From the kitchen we're through to the bedroom, which has an awesome bay window, then on to the bathroom, which is also the shower and ... read more

Well hello everyone and welcome back to my travel blog! New adventures have begun and I am very excited to share them with you all! So to start off, it was a blistery, cold Tuesday morning when I headed off to Detroit Metro with Nana, Mom and Dad. We'd gotten about 6 inches of snow the night before, which helped with the whole leaving Michigan thing. But on the other side of things, I was already blubbering by the time we walked out the door and I had to say goodbye to my little cat Oreo. I pulled myself together for the ride to the airport, but before long, the rest of the goodbyes came and it was very tough. I guess every other time I've traveled I've known my return date, where this go around ... read more

Kyoto is a very cool city! Since I was on a group tour in Japan, most activities were with the entire group, but Kyoto was a time for ourselves. Our group leader Axel gave us a rundown on the city, the sights and the bus system. When we got into Kyoto, I went out to eat with a couple of the girls for a nice sushi meal and it was one of my favorites of the whole trip! Then, a group of us decided to go see Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle was built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Edo Shogunate, as the Kyoto residence for himself and his successors. It survives in its original form and is famous for its Momoyama architecture, decorated sliding doors and floors that squeak like nightingales when someone walks on ... read more

We scrambled through the busy train station grabbing coffees, pastries and bento boxes (kind of like take-away, a meal in a box..except they taste good!) then waited on the train station platform taking in the occasional woosh of air as the bullet trains whizzed by. Eventually one stopped, allowing us to board. We had lots of room to kick back in reclining seats, spread out and enjoy our food while traveling at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph) on our way to Himeji. Our final destination of the day was Hiroshima, but we decided to stop in Himeji, the halfway point of our journey, to see the famous Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle is one of Japan's "Three Famous Castles," and is the most visited castle in Japan. It serves as an execellent example of the ... read more

My flight from Singapore to Osaka was wonderful! I had a whole row to myself..the three seats I was in, plus the four middle seats and the three on the opposite side of the plane that were all empty, which made sleeping that much more comfortable. Singapore Airlines is phenomenal! The food was wonderful, I had everything I needed and I was so relaxed. I got a bit of rest, woke up for the most delicious airplane breakfast ever as well as the sunrise, then arrived in Osaka at 8am. Now Japan is a whirlwind! I picked up my bag and immediately changed into pants, socks, shoes and sweater, because I had definitely underestimated how cold it was going to be in Japan in March. I grabbed a coffee to warm my insides and started on ... read more