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 …

Along with our camping trip to Toya Lake last month, we also visited Hakodate.
We enjoyed the freshest (wiggling on our plate) squid that was perfectly clear in color and tasted like heaven. We also had uni (sea urchin) for breakfast. Such a luxury!

It was a gourmet trip. We ate and ate and ate.
During our 3 day stay in Hakodate we managed to visit all the places we wanted to. We also had a little romantic afternoon boat rowing around the Goryokakukoen moat.

We fully enjoyed Hakodate. Being Vancouverites, …

Our trip around Taiwan started on Wednesday. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on a car from Cathy’s dad’s company. It’s a Corolla just like Cathy’s old car, but much cooler equipped with a GPS system. (and automatic side mirror closing device)
We started driving from Taipei down the number 5 highway (commonly known as the “Snow Mountain Express Highway” - 雪山隧道). We started our trip with couple LOOOOONG tunnels and a slightly confusing GPS-miscommunication-induced detour at PingLing (坪林). It took us about an hour to get from Taipei …