Training for Travel

I lived in Japan for two years, right out of college. I requested Hokkaido (I wanted to live somewhere as different from Hawaii as possible) and got placed in Okinawa. I'm still not sure what the lesson is from this opposite-land placement, but I do know that I love Japan.

To be clear, I love visiting Japan, not living there. Living in the Land of the Rising Sun, even for someone who looks like they belong there, is tough, especially when you have the speaking ability of a 2-year old. Anyway, visiting Japan is so much fun, whether I'm revisiting a place I went to roughly 15 years ago or going somewhere for the first time.

Just recently, I went to Japan with husband, a pure Japanese local Hawaii boy, who'd never been to the motherland. Needless to say, we had SO MUCH FUN. To prepare for all the walking, my husband and I actually trained for our trip. I wrote about our experience in an article called Training for Travel for Island Scene Online. Have you ever trained for anything? Let me know in the comments below!

Here we are at the Namba train station, not a shrine. That's so Japan!