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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 very colorful, musical flag-waving welcome. Ken: This song slaps! 🎶 Me: I can’t believe you just said slaps. Kochi Castle We…
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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 so we could go at our own pace. Sake Brewery Museum We started our day at the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery…
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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 of the safest places to be during an earthquake and tsunami is at sea. So we are just fine. Thank you for checking…
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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 this morning, I tried aloe yogurt. Yes, aloe. It tasted exactly like a skincare product. Ken: “What did you think it was…
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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 ship, so I wanted to maximize our time. Tokyo is the largest city on earth – 37 million people in…
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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 nautical miles – about like going from New York to Los Angeles. Lots to unpack. I will share my travelogues…
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📸 The Great Travel Camera Debate
Here is the situation I find myself in every single time we travel: I own a Nikon D800, a Leica Q3, a Sony RX-10, and an iPhone 17 Pro Max. That is, objectively, too many cameras. And yet somehow, packing for a trip always involves the same impossible calculus: which one(s) comes with me, and…
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📚 Destination Bookshelf: What I Read Before Our Trip to Japan, Seoul & Shanghai
Before we take a trip, I always try to do some reading that connects with our upcoming destination(s). I gravitate toward my favorite genre – historical fiction. For me, historical fiction helps make history more accessible and relatable. Ken is more of a non-fiction guy, but I don’t have the patience to get through A Concise…
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Balkan Wine: The Jan Brady of the Wine World
If I’m thinking about wine, the Balkans isn’t the first region that comes to mind. Heck, it’s not even the 33rd. And yet – Balkan winemaking has roots stretching back more than 6,000 years. Older than Bordeaux. Older than Burgundy. Older than most of the national borders we recognize today. And still, Balkan wine remains…
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🌍 River Cruise Wrap-up, Part II: The Challenges and Rewards of Traveling in Eastern Europe
Last year we traveled through nine Eastern European countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the spring, followed by Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania on our recent Danube River cruise. And the one thing that unites all of them is a chapter that Western Europe simply doesn’t have: the Soviet Occupation Chapter. But…
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🚢 River Cruise Wrap-Up: The Pros and Cons of River Cruising
I learned a new acronym yesterday: BLUF. It stands for Bottom Line Up Front. I like it. So, BLUF: Would I go on another river cruise? No. Not unless I bring my own squad. Then, I would consider it. I’ll explain. Now that I have a grand total of three cruises under my belt –…
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🇺🇸 Some Good Trouble: A Quick Trip to Nashville
Made a quick trip to Nashville last week to meet our good friends – and get in good trouble. The first thing I put in my suitcase was my cowboy boots. I loooooove cowboy boots. But after a few hours on my feet, I quickly remembered why I don’t wear my cowboy boots for any…