Puerto Vallarta is a beautiful city sandwiched between the coast of Banderas Bay and mountain ranges behind it, speckled with hundreds of lavish all-inclusive resorts on the beach. Swimming in the ocean, tanning on the beach, enjoying big margaritas, surfing, scuba diving, and snorkeling are all wonderful choices for this sunny Mexican city.

We spent Christmas 2008 in Puerto Vallarta and managed to do some snorkeling. (a first time for Cathy!)
There are many, many oversized tourist charters leaving from the middle of Puerto Vallarta for Los Arcos offering both …

Last year we welcomed the coming of 2008 at Zojoji Temple, at the foot of the Tokyo Tower in Japan. Thousands of balloons were released into the sky at the stroke of midnight, with Tokyo Tower lit up proudly in the background. It was a spectacular way to welcome the new year!
Well, this year we welcomed 2009 at the foot of Taipei 101 in the heart of Taipei, Taiwan. At the stroke of midnight, fireworks shot from the 4 corners of the tallest building in the world. …

Yokohama is a beautiful waterfront city on the very outskirts of Tokyo. Some of the Tokyo subway lines actually reach as far as Yokohama, which tends to create some confusion among tourists that maybe Yokohama is part of Tokyo. It’s not. And if you spend even a short time in Yokohama, you’ll notice that although it’s located right on Tokyo’s doormat, it marches to an entirely different beat.
Yokohama is probably most famous (among Japanese people) for it’s Yokohama Chinatown. It is said to be the largest …

Kansai in Japanese kanji is 関西. It literally means the west border. Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe are some of the major cities in the Kansai region. (to learn more about Kansai read the wikipedia article here.)
Kanto in Japanese kanji is 関東. It means the east border. Some of the major Kanto cities are Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba and so on. (Learn your geography on wikipedia.)

When we did our June 2008 trip to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo, we decided to take the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. After a quick check …

When our 1 year in Japan was just about coming to an end we decided to do one last trip down south before we left. We had already traveled through all of Hokkaido, visited Kyoto and Tokyo (a few times), so we decided that it was time to see Hiroshima, and revisit the Kansai area.
We booked a tour package through JAL tour which is operated by JAL (Japan Airlines) ((beware, the website requires mad Japanese skills)). It may have been called a tour, but essentially it just meant …