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🇰🇷 Incheon: Throwing Elbows for Korean Skincare
Beautiful sunset last night. And then the Incheon Bridge (the longest in Korea) put on a light show. Incheon observation: I have never seen as many densely clustered high-rise apartment buildings as there are here…
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🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea: Shopping and a Protest
We are in South Korea today. Well technically, we are docked in Incheon, which is about an hour and a half west of Seoul. So, we’re taking the herd bus to Seoul this am. It’s…
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🛳️ A Day at Sea: Sportsing on the Lido Deck
Sometime around 2am, our ship went through the Strait of Kanmon, a narrow waterway separating Japan’s Honshu and Kyushu islands. And, courtesy of some lingering jet lag, I was awake for it. So, I got…
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🇯🇵 The Beppu Hot Springs: Welcome to Hell
Steady rain today. ☔️ We’re with the herd this morning. The ship did a great job making sure everyone had an umbrella. A golf umbrella. So, the whole herd is armed with umbrellas, and no one…
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🇯🇵 Kochi Castle: What Goes Up Must Come Down
Ken and I were exhausted last night. Can’t decide if it was jet lag or a Kobe beef coma. Probably some of both. We’re in Kochi, Japan today. Arrived into port this morning to a…
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🇯🇵 Kobe: Sake & Beef, with a Side of Shinto
Today’s theme: Sake and beef with a side of Shinto. We spent the day in Kobe, which is famous for two things: beef and sake. Rather than join the ship’s excursion herd, we hired a guide…
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🇯🇵 Tokoname: Home of the Luckiest Cats in Japan
A quick note before I get started: Many of you have reached out about the major earthquake in northern Japan today. Our current location is in the south of Japan (see map), well away from the affected area. And one…
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🇯🇵 Embarkation Day & What I Learned About Laundry in Japan
Embarkation day. Ken and I were both wide awake at 3am. Jet lag clearly isn’t done with us yet. And once we were awake, we were starving. Emergency granola bars to the rescue. At breakfast…
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🇯🇵 A Full Day in Tokyo: A Watch, a Knife, and a Tea Ceremony
Oh, it’s been a DAY. Buckle up! Slept for 10 glorious hours last night. Like some kind of teenager. Feeling much more human today. We only had one full day in Tokyo before boarding our…
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🇯🇵 First (Jetlagged) Impressions of Tokyo
We just returned home from a 2-1/2 week trip to Asia – a Regent Seven Seas cruise that started from Tokyo, traveled around the southern half of Japan, then to Seoul, and Shanghai. We covered 2,942…
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🥂 In Defense of the Drink: Resisting the Cult of Clean Living
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I love a good drink. I’ve spent over two decades studying wine and spirits, working in the industry, and tasting my way across the globe. Drinks are…
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The Highlight Real: You’re Harshing Everyone’s Mellow
In today’s episode of The Highlight Real: Let’s talk about early flights. I’m not talking about early in the normal human sense, where you set an alarm for 6am and go about your day. I’m…