KayKo

My brother told me about a photo booth in Iwakuni where teenaged girls cosplayed as different characters come frequent. Knowing that there are no shortage of photo booths in Japan, this peaked my curiosity. And for good reason! It is a standing photo booth, big enough for a group of 4 or 5 people! There is a big circular beauty lamp in front of you, to give you flattering lighting (almost like a professional photo shoot). Then, using my crude Japanese translator, we saw that for 300 yen, you get to take 6 photos. Before you start, you choose a couple options. First, you pick your eye enlarging option. We didn't know what that was at first, so we picked one at random. We ended up with big anime eyes as the final product! You then ... read more

Ohayou Gozaimasu! Yesterday was my first full day in Japan. And it was a fantastic day! Due to some work constraints my brother is unable to travel really past the Yamaguchi prefecture. So I will not be hitting up the main tourist spots around Tokyo, Okinawa, etc etc. Am I disappointed? Hell no! There is so much to do here! And so much to absorb. I love wandering into obscure, less traveled areas. You can really get a feel for true culture – not watered down for tourists. That is not to say I do not enjoy some of the American comforts of staying on an American military base. It is quite nice actually. Feels like a little slice of home, even though I am so far away. Vacation is not an excuse to turn into ... read more

Konnichiwa! So unlike my trip to Europe, where I flew solo, I am here in Japan with my brother. He is stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. This gives me the luxury of being with someone who is familiar with travel and with the general area. Lucky for me! And it is great to have company. He was running late to come get me, so I sat in the Hiroshima airport for awhile. I saw my first Japanese toilet. The ones I have only heard about. Bidet and all. I know that seems like such a silly thing to blog about, but it was fascinating to me. As soon as you lift the lid it made a toilet flushing sound (not actually flush). I assume this is to allow you to be discreet as you ... read more

Konbanwa! And greetings from my Kayko cave in Oklahoma. There has been a huge break in my travel blogging. I never even finished my European blog (gomen -_- )! And since my last entry I have been to many places and have seen tons of sites. Life caught up with me I suppose. But I told myself, no excuses Kayko. You will archive THIS trip. I have been wanting to visit Japan since I was a little girl. I studied Japanese as a youth, and I formally studied it in college. I have a laundry list of places to see and things I want to do. And it has been growing for years. I will only be able to tick off some of the things on my list. That is okay though! Every moment counts and ... read more

221323SEP2015 So I fell very far behind on my blog. I apologize for my delay. Between traveling, Wi-Fi issues, and sheer laziness...I failed to update the blog daily. Good news is, I am at the Leonardo di Vinci Airport in Rome nearly 9 hours early. So now I have nothing but time to organize photos and update the blog. Along my drive from Zermatt to Rome I made audio notes of topics I planned on talking about. I realized I did not just want to do a day by day play by play (like the rhyming?). I decided to break it down into more. Specific observations, or places. I thought it would make my notes about my trip more dynamic. I need to backlog my adventures in Abu Dhabi and Dubai as well...I have some work ... read more