2018 Road Trip in Central Japan

20 Feb 2018

Duration:
12/29/2017 - 1/13/2018

Destinations:
Tokyo - Karuizawa - Kusatsu - Kanazawa - Shirakawa - Kyoto - Osaka

I won’t pretend that this was a just a casual trip. In fact, I never thought I would have a chance to go on a road trip in Japan before 30. I didn’t know Japanese. I barely do now. It’s really a dream come true.

I was excited after arriving from a 12-hour long flight, Japan Airlines’ JL7 (BOS - NRT) on Dec 29, two days before the New Year’s Eve. It’s not my first visit to Japan, it certainly won’t be the last one (who knows), but it would be my first road trip. I knew it would be fun driving in Japan.

But driving in Tokyo? Not so much. Expensive toll fees and parking problems could be painful, not to mention the heavy daily traffic. Plus, Tokyo already has probably the most convenient (and sophisticated) metro system in the world.

Tokyo

I had a wild plan of staying for more than 6 days in Tokyo - it’s great knowing what to expect. But[...Click title to read entire post]

Our Vermont trip in 2017 Fall

30 Oct 2017

Be it Airbnb or a vacation house where we would stay, we had high expectations for Vermont in early October. It didn’t disappoint us.

But before all that dreamy foliage thing…We visited the Teddy Bear factory in Burlington VT to put ourselves in retrospect for a little while.

After the Teddy tour, we enjoyed the sunset at Waterfront in Burlington downtown. A very peaceful and relaxing place.

Our vacation house was in Waterbury, not far from Stowe which is a famous town for skiing and sightseeing. It’s very convenient to buy things from local markets so we didn’t bring too many food materials this time. When we woke up the next morning, the view was astonishing even just from the inside.

Posted in photography, travel, newengland

My Airbnb Experience In A Maine Forest

12 Sep 2017

I tend to avoid Airbnb when I go on a vacation since its risk is always higher than chain hotels, but after my recent airbnb trip I just realized how much fun I had missed because of this.

Two weeks ago we (me and my friends) spent a fantastic weekend in Newry, Maine where we rented an Airbnb house and drove all the way from Boston for 3 hours - just to taste a bit of nature.

This place, although in Maine, was actually quite close to the White Mountains area in New Hampshire. Acadia was naturally our initial plan, as most of us had never visited this famous national park, but it was too touristy (and far and expensive) for a group of 10 who spend most of the time together playing board games. Yes, we drive more than 200 miles to find a place for playing board games!

The house was recently renovated so it looked incredibly new. Unfortunately, it had irritating chemical smell upon our arrival. We opened all windows and doors for a while, then the odor was gone[...Click title to read entire post]