Off to the Land of the Rising Sun

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This my first travel blog. The reason being is that I'm a bit old school. Call me odd, but I like my travel experiences to be mine, not the Interweb's. I'm that solo female traveler who has my eyes focused out the train window, taking in the passing landscape. Searching for the perfect song on my iPod. Once found, the hard-copy journal comes out and I start writing. And then I write some more. It is in that moment that I find myself the happiest.

My solo travels allow me to be fully present. To connect to my surroundings. To observe. To reflect. To just be.

However, this trip is different. This time, I'm headed East...Land of the Rising Sun East. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm unprepared but yet I'm totally ready. On this trip, I'll have my itinerary, my hard-copy journal, my new iPhone (being I'll be in Tokyo and Seoul, I felt a technology upgrade was essential)...and my 79-year old Dad. Yep, I've shed my solo ways for this trip. I'm tagging along as part of a trip my Dad has been noodling over for some time.

My Dad was a soldier in the Korean War. A war that he felt the U.S. never gave much "props" to. When I was little, my Dad showed me his army box. Once opened, I immediately envisoned him "fighting on the front lines." However, this belief was quashed in high school. After asking what combat was like, he replied, "I was never in combat. I failed the eye test. I was a mail clerk." I thought to myself "mail clerk?" So much for my Dad being the next Patton. I gave him a look which received the following response, "Gretchen, while I wasn't part of the front lines, it wasn't as though I was on vacation, there was a war going on." Oh. Righto Daddy-o.

Being this will (most likely) be my first and last trip to Japan and Korea, I figured the Interweb should join me. My Dad and I will be boarding a flight bound for Tokyo on Thursday. While a blog may replace my hard copy journal this time around, rest assured, I'll still have my eyes focused out the train window.

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