One of my greatest fears when traveling to Asia anytime from summer through fall is being there during typhoon season. In 2018, I was in Seoul when Typhoon Kong-Rey slammed Busan, the southern part of South Korea. The day it hit, what was supposed to be a pleasant outdoor walk around a palace quickly turned…
Continue reading ➞ Postcard 40: Surviving Typhoon Hagibis in Japan
After a memorable past few days in Okinawa, we were now ready to fly to Tokyo for the second half of our trip! The next few days would entail stops at Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea -- in the Chiba region -- followed by a weekend in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo. Little did I…
Continue reading ➞ Postcard 39: Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea
One of the attractions I had been looking forward to visiting the most in Okinawa was the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. Now, you might be wondering why a girl from Hawaii -- who's surrounded by marine life and has the Honolulu Aquarium and Maui Ocean Center right at her fingertips -- would be interested in going…
Continue reading ➞ Postcard 38: Whale sharks at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
If you would've told me I'd ever touch a snake in my lifetime, I would've said you were crazy. But that's exactly what I did in Okinawa. After visiting the Shuri Castle and then grabbing a quick udon lunch in Naha, my family and I boarded our private tour bus and traveled roughly 8 miles…
Continue reading ➞ Postcard 37: Okinawa World’s snakes and cave
A few weeks ago, as I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, a former NHK TV personality tweeted that Shuri Castle, one of Okinawa's main tourist attractions, was on fire. He was joking, I thought. Either that, or he was talking about some other castle in Okinawa -- not the Shuri Castle I just saw…
In 2013, I took my very first trip to Japan, a country that had long been on my bucket list since before I can even remember. Though I barely scratched the surface, I was still fortunate to have gotten a well-rounded tour of the country, getting just enough of a taste of everything it has…
Out of State • Out of Mind 