Japan Rail Pass Fabulosity

I’m guest posting today over at Less Than a Shoestring about why tourists going to Japan should consider getting a Japan Rail Pass: Save Money and Travel Freely with a Japan Rail Pass. Go check it out, and peruse all of Hilary’s other excellent budget travel advice.

Read Full Post »

The Great Japan/China Trip: Beijing, Part 2

On our fourth day in Beijing, the main activity of the day for K. and I was a trip to the Great Wall. The host university provided us with a driver, which meant a lot less hassle with cabs. (I forgot to mention the lesson learned while leaving the Summer Palace: don’t take the black [...]

Read Full Post »

The Great Japan/China Trip: Beijing, Part 1

On Day 7 of the trip, I made use of my jetlag superpowers once more to heroically get up at 5:30am without enormous effort, in order to check out of the hotel, take a cab back to Tokyo Station, take the Narita Express back to the airport, and get back on an international plane after [...]

Read Full Post »

The Great Japan/China Trip: Tokyo, Day 2

On our second full day in Tokyo, I met my boss and her family in the hotel lobby at 9am to get started on seeing as much as possible. First, we did as all tourists must do, and went to view the Imperial Palace, conveniently located only a few blocks from Tokyo Station. Although I’ve [...]

Read Full Post »

I’m It!

I was tagged for a meme by Jennie. I promise I will return to the trip after this.
Rules:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting [...]

Read Full Post »

English Education on the Train

As a brief break from my trip log, I would like to report (and complain about) an ad I saw on the train in Tokyo. First, some background for those of you who haven’t been spending any time on the Yamanote line recently: Above the doors in all the train cars, there are two small [...]

Read Full Post »

The Great Japan/China Trip: Tokyo, Day 1

Our first full day in Tokyo wasn’t very action-packed for me, since I was waiting at the hotel for Kamiyama-sensei and Tomo to come, but that was a nice change after feeling like I needed to be doing something ever since we had landed at the airport. When I woke up that morning, I decided [...]

Read Full Post »

The Great Japan/China Trip: Kyoto, Part 2

The second day in Kyoto was probably my favorite day in Japan. My boss said she felt confident enough about figuring out how to get around Kyoto now, and her husband was back with them, having discharged his talk duties the day before, so I was free to wander around by myself for the day. [...]

Read Full Post »

The Great Japan/China Trip: Kyoto, Part I

Where was I? Oh, yes, our emergency hotel in Tokyo. As I mentioned, though, one of the best things about this hotel was its proximity to Tokyo Station, so the next morning it was no problem to get up bright and early, check out, and walk over to the station to catch one of the [...]

Read Full Post »

Interruption: Fourth of July Beach Trip

Sorry for the four day interruption in my trip narrative, especially after leaving you with the teaser of just the first day, but it was for a good cause. I had to go to our family beach cottage at Nags Head for the weekend, because it was Fourth of July, and I am supposed to [...]

Read Full Post »