I arrived in Shanghai yesterday along with seven others who were on the pre-trip in Taipei with me. Our trip leader, Jenny met us at the airport. (Her real name is Zhang Zhuo. Zhang is her family name and Zhuo is her given name, but we just call her Jenny because it is much easier.)…
Because of Typhoon Champi, three days in Taipei had to be compressed into one. Of course, what that really means is a lot of the itinerary didn’t happen at all, and some things had to be rushed. But Alexis, our trip leader, managed to squeeze a lot into our day. And now I’m going to squeeze…
I got to Taipei on Wednesday afternoon, and I had a free day yesterday. Today is the day my tour of Taipei was supposed to begin. But Typhoon Champi had other plans for my group. I am hunkered down in my hotel as most all of Taiwan has canceled school and work today.
I have about 90 minutes to write this before I head to the airport for the next part of my adventure, so this will be a brief overview of the last three days in Hiroshima. We arrived early on Sunday afternoon, so we got going pretty much right away. Then Monday was a free day,…
There are seventeen UNESCO World Heritage properties in Kyoto. Okay, so they are not listed individually. They are grouped together under a single listing: Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. Sometimes it felt like the whole world was here to see them. I didn’t see them all. Not by a long shot. Our group visited just…
We left Tokyo on Tuesday and traveled to Toba, with a stop in Ise. Both cities lie inside Ise-Shima National Park, which encompasses a stretch of coastline with numerous inlets as well as a densely forested interior. We had the chance to experience the maritime heritage of the region as well as one of Japan’s…
After spending four nights in Tokyo, we have moved on to Toba, where we are staying two nights in a lovely Ryokan overlooking Ise Bay. But I’m not going to try to catch up on my blogging just yet. This post will be about Tokyo and our day trip to see Mt. Fuji.
This is just a quick post to touch base, since I’ve been in Tokyo for two full days and haven’t written anything yet. But I want to share some general impressions. I’ll write more detail later.
No, I didn’t make it to North Korea, but yesterday we went to the DMZ and looked across the Jo River to get a glimpse while enjoying some Starbucks. We also had a chance to meet with a defector from North Korea and hear her story. It was a fascinating way to spend my last…
Yesterday we visited Oeam Village, about 90 km south of Seoul. This was like taking a voyage back to a time of quiet, simple, traditional life. And when we got back, I still had time to visit another museum. So it was a good day for me.
We have five nights in Seoul on this tour. It seems like a lot, but five nights is just four days. it’s amazing how quickly the time is going and how little I feel I’ve seen and experienced halfway through my time here. Since I’m trying to cram as much as I can into the available…
After our three days in the Gobi Desert, we came back to Ulaanbaatar for four nights (three full days). Here’s a rundown of the things I did and saw and experienced.
