After another gorgeous train ride up the coast, I checked into my Seattle Airbnb in the neighborhood of Hillman City, which is quite far south of downtown. My time in Seattle was split into two distinct halves; I would alternate
After saying goodbye to friends in SF and Oakland, I left the bay area by hopping on a late night train to Oregon. Okay, that’s a lie, because the train was over four hours late, so it didn’t leave until
Knowing that I wanted to be in the bay area for about a month, I had hunted for a sublet on Craigslist before leaving my brother’s place in Delaware. Among my findings were a studio flat in Normandy Village, a
Philadelphia Just as my time in Delaware was winding down, my brother and his wife left on a trip to Europe, so I spent the last few days housesitting, catsitting, finishing up some tasks, and watching a lot of World
Given the welcome screening I had received in Japan, I was expecting a long wait and a moderate amount of questioning when I returned to the States. Instead… nothing. No questions from immigration and I walked right through customs without
I’ve been putting this post off for a while because I’m not quite sure what to say here. Maybe to get things rolling, I’ll talk about boring logistics and what resources I used, if only because this could be useful
Taking the train back to Tokyo on a Friday afternoon was a great feeling; while it was certainly pleasant to spend some time in the countryside, there’s nothing quite like traveling to a major cultural city (especially Tokyo) for the
While Andrew and I had very much enjoyed our time in Kyoto and Tokyo, we wanted to get out of the cities a bit, experience some more relaxed Japanese culture, and maybe even catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. We
Armed with a bit more boots-on-the-ground knowledge of Japan, Tokyo got off to a much smoother start than Kyoto. After exiting from the shinkansen, we switched to one of the local rail systems (there are several in Tokyo) and rode
Our first day in Japan wasn’t under the most ideal circumstances: out late in Hong Kong until about 2:30, then up at 6:00 to pack and catch the train to the airport. I don’t think I have to tell you