Category: Personal

April 15 – May 15, 2021 Places we Traveled: Chugoku Region (+):  Hyogo, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, Tottori, Kyoto, Shiga Peaks: We bought a house in the US!! The constant refrain from our friends and family back home was, “the market is SO CRAZY right now.” Luckily, we spotted this place as “coming soon” on […]

March 15 – April 15, 2021 Places we Traveled: Yokohama, Kyoto, Tokyo, Shikoku Peaks: Went to Yokohama to see the Gundam Statue. It was still too early for Sakura blossoms in Tokyo, but there was no state of emergency in place at this time. We took the opportunity on this quiet weekend to get food […]

I ate at the best restaurant in Japan and all you get is this crappy blog post Monday, April 5, 2021 “At DEN we encourage a more relaxed dining manner, we like our guests to enjoy the dishes without rules or metaphoric expression. DEN is our ‘Japanese Trattoria’ – a warm and welcoming place serving […]

February 15 – March 15, 2021 Places we Traveled: Nikko, Yamagata, Mashiko, Gifu, Fukui There is absolutely no denying that we started to feel the pressure of our end date looming in the not-so-distant future this month. In 2019, Andrew’s company decided to send him to Japan for an 18-month rotation in their Japan office. […]

December 15, 2020 – February 15, 2021 Places we Traveled: Tsukuba, Ashikaga, Kyushu, Nagano Well, I fell off the wagon a bit on life updates. In December, I started working part time. Between work and the holidays, I convinced myself I could get caught up on the blog “eventually.” I would hate to disappoint my […]

Dec 15, 2019 – Dec 15, 2020 In honor of our Japanniversary this month, here’s a list of the most important lessons I learned this year. We weren’t able to make all of our wildest dreams come true this year, but we have had the incredible fortune to spend this crazy year in a beautiful […]

October 15 – November 15 Places we Traveled: Akita, Aomori, Hitachi, Okinawa (main island) Peaks: JR East Joyful Train Trip! So, train culture is a Big Deal in Japan. So much so that JR East, the main railway company that operates in our area, has a WIDE selection of “Joyful Trains.” This is the name […]

September 15 – October 15, 2020 Places we Traveled: Fukushima Prefecture (2-day road trip), Tokyo, Niigata & Sado Island Peaks: Fukushima Road Trip! My many, many blog fans will know I wrote a longer post about this road trip. Late summer/early fall was prime road trip season for us, and we really enjoyed seeing some […]

August 15 – September 15, 2020 Places we Traveled: Gunma Prefecture (2 day road trip) Peaks: Gunma Road Trip! I wrote a detailed post about the trip because we had so much more fun than we expected. For reference, I just googled “what is Gunma famous for” and the results were a selection of nice-looking […]

July 15 – August 15, 2020 Places we Traveled: Tohoku Region (4-day road trip), Hokkaido (10-day road trip) Peaks: Tohoku Road Trip! In late July, Japan celebrates two national holidays: “Marine Day” and “Health and Sports Day.” For the holidays, Andrew’s office closes to give all employees a 3-day weekend. To take advantage of the […]