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 …

Eastern Hokkaido Roadtrip - Akanko, Kussharoko, Abashiri, Shiretoko
We took a camping/onsening/feasting roadtrip through eastern Hokkaido- known to have absolutely nothing to offer but breathtakingly beautiful scenery.
We took along with us our friend Michael Tripp who also is a former Hokkaidoite. Our final destination was Shiretoko but we planned on stopping in at many other places along the way.

Furano

We left bright and early on Friday morning. Our first stop was Furano. Hokkaido people live for Furano in the summer. It’s something that you hear over and over for a few weeks …

16.

Cathy and I had been tossing around the idea of where to go for Christmas / New Years for a few weeks. We had considered going down to the tropical southern part of Japan, Okinawa, or maybe driving around Hokkaido, soaking in the wintery goodness. We ended up deciding on something very much in the middle (both on the map and the thermometer), Tokyo! Seeing how we live in Japan, it’s almost necessary to visit Tokyo.

Looking into our travel options, we found a hidden jewel of the Japanese …

Konnichiwa!
We took a trip to Sapporo last weekend with our gaijin friend Matt (We’ve only known Matt for a few weeks, but he’s been around to help us with many things, as he is the only foreigner who A) works at city hall B) is fluent with both English and Japanese). The purpose of the trip was to go to the Apple store in Sapporo to make Steve Jobs happy by purchasing an Airport express (Which has apparently now been renamed the Airmac express, odd.) It’s interesting that every single …

Well- we made it!
After more than 6 months of planning, freaking, packing and stressing, we finally made it to Japan! (On top of that, we flew business class from Taiwan to Japan… in case you are wondering)
If we’ve kept you horribly out of the loop, we are living in a quaint little town of 45,000 people called Takikawa, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It’s 45 minutes away from Sapporo by driving. We are here to teach English to a group of students of all ages. It’s a private …