Although I fortunately did not have to scrape by on the true, minuscule budget of a young backpacker fresh out of college, I still forced myself to travel frugally and I kept a scrutinous eye on the money I withdrew from ATMs, air fare deals, and my credit card charges. Being primarily cash-only, Southeast Asia makes it quite easy to lose track of where money can go. My goal in this post is to prove how incredibly cheap it is to get by in Southeast Asia. As long as you’re not drowning in debt or attached to excess baggage/obligations, spending a month or two in one Southeast Asian…
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It wasn’t until August 7 that we finally pulled the trigger on purchasing tickets back to San Francisco. We had literally been stalking united.com every morning and evening for at least a week until the desired seats became available (direct flight from Narita to San Francisco, 9 hours, business class “saver” for only 65,000 points) for Monday, August 11. Before August 7 we looked forward to going home, but once the date was set in our calendars, the realization that we were finally going home slapped us hard in the face. Our desire to breathe the Bay Area air, our…
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We left Kyoto on Friday morning en route to Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city by population. Yokohama is not an exciting city by any means, but our sole purpose of visiting was to meet my former host family Koji and Erisa Kawaguchi and their two children from when I studied abroad there one summer 9 years ago. I found this awesome Japanese style hotel/long-term residence for only ¥5500/night, where we spent our final days in Japan. Not only was it equipped with a fridge and portable stove (with cooking utensils available for rent, free of charge), we even had our own, private…
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From 794 to 1868, the historical and cultural city of Kyoto was the capital of Japan and residence of the Emperor. Throughout this millennium an innumerous amount of palaces, castles, shrines, and temples were built for emperors, monks, shoguns, and continue to stand strong as a result of the bombing restriction the U.S. had on Kyoto during WWII. As this city is also considered the birthplace of the geisha, a number of cultural geisha performances continue to exist today for locals and tourists, albeit highly expensive and exclusive. Presently, Kyoto is Japan’s seventh largest city with a population of ~1.5 million and…
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When we arrived in Hiroshima the late afternoon of August 2, I spent a bit more time researching about possible activities within Hiroshima other than the Peace Memorial Park. I quickly discovered the Mazda Museum; apparently Mazda was founded and headquartered in Hiroshima. Mazda also happens to employ a large percentage of Hiroshima residents. The museum offers free daily tours to the public for a limited number of guests; reservations can be made up to one year in advance on their website. There was still availability for August 5, so we decided to stop by Hiroshima on our way from…
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If Hiroshima is on the list of destinations in Japan, then Miyajima must be next on that list. Albeit touristy with not only Japanese flag-waving tour group leaders but also Chinese flag-waving tour group leaders, the variety of activities and beauty of the island amount to an action-filled enjoyable day. I especially looked forward to spending a day in Miyajiima since the day before was filled with remorse and grief at the Peace Memorial Park. We began our morning by strategically relocating to accommodation within the vicinity of Miyajima. Hiroshima is only 25 minutes by train away from Miyajima, but by staying literally a…
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Hands down–this will be my least favorite post. I’m not a military or war buff. I even hate reading about it. I put off this post for a bit because I knew it wouldn’t be fun to write. However, despite how awful one might feel in response to the horrific events in history, it is important to see and learn in order to understand and grow. As appalling as it sounds, the suburban city of Hiroshima is a “tourist attraction” because it was the first city to be nuked by an atomic bomb. The absolute must-see places are the Peace Memorial Park and…
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Our culture shock from Myanmar quickly wore off within the first few days in Hong Kong, so by the time we departed in the wee hours of the morning from Chungking Mansions for Tokyo, we were pretty damn stoked. On a side note, Chris and I were able to fly the $600 4-hour flight to Tokyo for FREE using points. With US Airways, Chris flew economy. YAY for the free flight, but BOO for economy (I know, I know, we’re spoiled). With American Airlines, I flew business class. SCORE! After I finished my delicious complimentary breakfast in the business class…