kyoto.

We arrived in Kyoto after our 2.5 hour bullet train traveling at 190 mph. To give you an idea of how fast we were going - it took us 8.5 hours to get back to Tokyo on bus. 

Kyoto is known to be the heart of Japanese heritage and culture. Originally, it was the capital of Japan housing the royal family in the Imperial Palace. It has numerous UNESCO heritage sites and was banned from being bombed during WWII. 

After spending one day in Tokyo, we quickly changed our plans to stay there longer. Unfortunately that meant cutting Kyoto short. We arrived Monday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday night where we took an overnight bus back to Tokyo to catch our flight to Thailand.

Our hostel was the sister hostel of the one we stayed at Japan. It had so much character. The first floor was a coffee shop/bar/restaurant. Very rustic and modern. I really have been blown away with the Japanese architecture and design on this trip. I guess I was expecting more things to look like the standard traditional Japanese architecture you so often see in sushi restaurants in the US.

We had enough time that afternoon to visit the Kiyomizu-dera temple about a 20 minute walk from us. We started our journey walking up a road that slowly ascended through a cobbled street - that I'm sure use to be quaint but now was just filled with tourist traps - all the way to a grand entrance to the Sensojindi Temple. One minute you are in Kyoto and then you walk through the entrance of this temple and you feel like you have been plopped in a tree house in the mountains. The whole site overlooks a forest and a smaller 3 story temple in the distance. Really stunning.

That evening we wondered through the small streets and alleys dressed with street lamps dimly lighting the path. The larger Kamo river to our left and a small stream to our right. We happened upon a little restaurant called Takasegawa Qulio perched on the stream that seemed to be known for their Sukiyaki - pots of broth like dishes with wagyu beef, pork or tuna to fill it among many green onions, white onions and other flavorful goodies. We wondered in to a small room with a seat next to the window and had one of the best meals of our trip thus far. The Sukiyaki was brought to our table in a clay pot on a burner with uncooked veggies and meat. We let it cook for a few minutes, slowly stirring and it turned into the most flavorful like stew. Along with it came an eggplant parmesan - random I know but the Japanese seem to be obsessed with Italian food. The produce in Japan - particularly the eggplant we had was amazing. It doesn't even need seasoning it is so amazingly flavorful. We also had an appetizer of fried chicken tossed in a ginger, garlic, sesame like vinaigrette. But the Suriyaki is definitely one of the best things I have eaten on the trip.

The following day we hit up 2 more temples. Sanjusangen-do Temple - house of the 1001 Buddhas. Unfortunately we could not take any pictures inside so I pulled one from the internet to give you guys an idea. The drama of 1000 Buddhas lined up in perfect symmestry was pretty cool. They were built over hundreds of years by a few specially selected artists under intense training but if you weren't pointed out their differences, you would think all of them came out of a mold they look so similar. 

We walked over to the Tofukuji temple known for its intricate zen gardens. This place was much quieter with few tourists. You sit overlooking a garden of gravel raked in specific patterns with moss "mountains" spread out in a small section. This place really showed how serene and tranquil the temples are meant to be. I felt like I was at a spiritual spa. Anyways I'll stop gushing but I have so much respect for the amount of thought and design that go into these places. They truly are a work of art. ALSO a school of Japanese teenagers were there and asked Christina and I to take a picture with them! Why they wanted to take a picture with 2 girls that hadn't showered in almost 2 days is beyond me but we felt like celebs. 

Speaking of schools, we walked by a grade school walking in between temples and they had a whole set of unicycles! I would be so impressed to see little 5 year olds riding those guys around. 

After the temples we went to the Nishiki fish market and wondered through the stalls of fresh fish, pickled everything - I don't even know what half of it was but it is definitely one of the foods of Kyoto, prepared food stalls and produce stands. We bought some veggies and fresh tofu (another specialty in Kyoto) to make a stir fry for dinner. It was so nice to get back to cooking and eating a fresh meal at home.

That evening, we walked across the street from our hostel and wandered into a wine bar called TSK we had been eyeing the past day. We were graciously welcomed and sat there drinking Champagne and red wine that tasted like heaven (we really miss good wine - we have become a bit of snobs for it living in SF). We sat at the bar talking to our new friend Shozo who was such a character. He loved us. He would ask us a question and we would respond by writing the answer on a little notepad so he could process it better. When we told him we were traveling for the next 7 months he was SHOCKED. Another couple from Toronto came in and we chatted with them about American politics - apparently it is their version of a sitcom and enjoyed a few glasses of wine together. Shozo kept giving us plates of different dried fruit including Kiwi, tangerines and coconut bites. We were obsessed - he kept refilling our little bowl bit by bit. We even got the name of where they were from (Tomizawa) and went and bought them the next day. The owner and chef - who's name is TSK - made all of us complementary octopus to end off the night. 

We were supposed to wake up early and go on a hike up to the Futishima Temple but I think the last glass of wine ruined all hopes for that. We woke up and wondered to the Tomizawa shop and bought dried kiwi, coconut bits, banana chips and okra. I have been eating it nonstop since. We grabbed some salads at a market stand and ate along the Komo river. That afternoon, we headed over to Gion - the area of Geisha houses - wondering little allies searching to get a picture of a real Geisha. A ton of people are dressed up in kimonos but you see very few real ones. We found some couples that had recently gotten married and were there taking post wedding pictures.

We went back to our hostel bar and ate dinner. We needed to kill some time before we caught our night bus at 11 PM so we decided to go back and visit Shozo at TSK. He was SO happy we came back. We wrote on a piece of paper what we did that day. He was thrilled we went to Tomizawa. We sat at our same spot chatting with a couple from South Africa and now living in Amsterdam that showed us pictures of their rock and roll wedding from 2 years ago. I think I would be happy going to that bar every night for the rest of our trip sitting in our spot talking to Shozo and whoever else happened upon there that night. 

We made our way over to the bus station and took an overnight bus bus to Tokyo. To my surprise, it wasn't too bad. The seats reclined and we slept the whole way there. 

It's funny the things you come to appreciate while on the road. This hostel had curtains on the bed. I can't begin to explain how amazing that is. I think maybe I am noticing it more because I'm reading Wild and she keeps talking about how much she has grown to love the walls of her tent. Well that's how I feel about a bed with curtains. 

I'm currently on a bus headed from Bangkok headed to Koh Tao for some Beach time. We then will be island hopping to other islands. Bangkok post coming shortly. 

XO

CB

tokyo.

For starters...I blame the length of this post on my dad. He told me to write, write, write and when I think I have written too much...keep writing. So here it goes...

Originally this blog post was written on at bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto with Mt. Fuji in the distance to my right. Since then, my post that I spent over 2 hours writing was deleted. Bahhhh  it was so painful but I promise to try to replicate as best as possible. 

                               

I left off last post boarding our plane to Tokyo. We flew Singapore airlines and I must say they must be stuck in the 50s or just have some old ass designers because the plane was very dated. The flight was long but great. We made it just in time to be greeted by pouring rain - apparently it is typhoon season. After over 20 hours of travel and being awake for 24 hours, we made it to our hostel. The very dry (personality wise and physically) hostess informed us we had to go back out in the torrential downpour to get cash to pay for our entire stay. We made our way a few blocks away to 7-eleven despite the fact that it was raining so hard our umbrellas lost a purpose and our paper map was no longer in one piece. I suppose it is only fitting to have a hiccup on your first day. We made it back and checked in to Tokyo Heritage Hostel. The place was so cute - very traditional Japanese but with a hipster twist. We grabbed our free drink at the bar and made our way to bed.

The following day we woke up early and went to yoga at Be Yoga. I found an article awhile back listing the best yoga studios in the world and Be Yoga was one of them. It also is a goal of ours to do yoga in every country that we visit. The class was dece good but I think more in general a good way to start off the trip. For all the planning we have done for this trip, we really were unprepared for what we wanted to do our first day. We remembered a ramen place recommended to us by our friend Whitney and decided to try it. We wondered over via google maps. On a side note, navigating through Tokyo is quite interesting. There are no street names - it is BEYOND me why one of the biggest cities in the world does not have street signs but they don't. We simply follow this dumb blinking blue dot until we reach our location on google maps.

Once your blinking blue dot arrives at the "destination," it is hardly ever there. You then must search around the block, examine all the floors in a building until 30 minutes later a hangry you discovers the place you have been looking is tucked away on another floor or in some alley. Well along with every other restaurant here - that is what happened with the ramen place. Ichiran was on the second floor of a rather business looking building. We walked up to find a vending machine. We ordered the standard bowl of ramen with a soft boiled egg, green onions and a vinegar sauce. We then walk in the restaurant to sit in a personal booth - the best way I can describe it is like a testing or voting booth. With walls on other side, a curtain in front of me and a tap of water (much to my disappointment - I originally thought it was beer). I see a form asking additional questions on how I would like my ramen made (flavor level, spicy level, noodle consistency). After filling it out, I click  the order button, a hand sticks out from the curtain and grabs my slip and returns with a hot, delicious bowl of ramen. The purpose of this place is to have all sensors focused on your bowl of ramen. I think it's kind of BS as the majority of people in there were sitting on the their phone but I played along. The play is filled with endless slurping and sniffles. They even have a box of tissues behind each station. 

That afternoon we wandered around Taito (the neighborhood where our hostel was located) and found a cemetery and temple. We came across the main local "errand street" - I'm giving it that name because they have everything from aprons to dishwater to fish to cook for dinner and I can't remember what it was called. We found a local stand with all kinds of fried up goodies and picked up a piece of octopus.

We ended up in Ueno Park - a large park filled with museums, temples, a zoo and a lake filled with row boats. On my last backpacking trip, on my very first day in Madrid, I rowed boats in a city lake. It's quite ironic to be doing the same thing on my first day in Tokyo. We decided to splurge and spend the extra dollar for the super duper cute swan boat. We peddled our way into the Tokyo sunset amongst the hundred other Japanese couples.

                                                                    

That evening we made our way to sushi in the Shibuya area. Shibuya is what you would expect of Tokyo. After wandering around quaint little neighborhood we had been asking what hustle and bustle everyone was complaining about. We then discovered the madness of Shibuya. The only way I can describe it is Vegas x 20 - the 10 different massive team screens playing different commercials with sound, so many people, the main intersection that stops probably 25 lanes of traffic for thousands of people that cross through. It's absolute sensory overload, craziness. Definitely not my favorite area but felt like an out of body experience being amongst it.

We managed to find an underground bar to grab a drink. The staff handed us menus that had a table of contents menu but I guess they couldn't seem to complete the translations for the drink names below the titles. We asked the bartender to whip up something with vodka. When a bright blue drink came out, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a deliciously fresh grapefruit drink. I love it when things blow away my expectations...

A friend of Christina's recommended we try Sushi Zanmai for dinner - a local chain that is known to have amazing quality for great prices. We had a bottle of sake, bowl of sushi and miso soft shell crab soup and spent $25 each - not too shabby. The fish was beyond amazing - except I really don't like raw squid - not. one. bit. 

During our walk through Taito, I noticed this wall painted in front of a coffee shop:

Hanging in a shopping neighborhood - Harajuku was on the agenda for Thursday. Harajuku is known for it's many restaurants and shops and the Harajuku girls - Japanese girls dressed in crazy clothes - the only way I can describe it is with a picture.

From the outside this neighborhood appears to be another hustle and bustle type site with main roads flooded with big name stores stretching a few stories high but once you get into the back streets it's a whole different world. Cute streets filled with shops, eateries and cafés. We even managed to find a place that served wine! 

We grabbed lunch at a popular dumpling spot - Gyoza Lou where you can choose between pan-fried or steamed and original or added garlic and leeks. There were a few other sides on the menu but dumplings is there bread and butter and boy do they know what they are doing. Most of the restaurant is a bar surrounding the steamer and fryer. We watched them whip up our meal and chowed down. 

Tokyo is known for their animal cafés - Christina claims it's because people don't have enough space for pets but I think it's just another weird quirk of this wild town. You can choose from cats, to owls to goats even! We found a place that offered bunnies. I paid $6 to play with bunnies for 30 minutes. At first I thought it would be kind of lame but I must say playing with those fluffy goose bears was so fun (minus the endless pooping).

We were referred to a conveyor belt sushi joint in Shinjuku that we tried that night. I wish I could say how incredibly amazing and cheap the meal was but we mostly were super grossed out and unsatisfied. The majority of things coming our way were mayonnaise based seafood concoctions. The one bonus was pineapple. We have not been able to find much fruit over here so it tasted like the nector of the gods. I will let the conveyor belt joint remain nameless as I can't remember and maybe one of you will think its way more fab than we did. 

Christina and I are pretty big Anthony Bourdain fans so have been trying to hit up most of the spots he went on his No Reservation episode of Tokyo. We heard from Anthony and other sources about a cool series of streets called Golden Gai filled with over 200 tiny bars stacked on top of each other fitting 4 - 8 guests at a time. This place a is a travelers heaven. Anywhere you go you are bound to talk to anyone sitting there. Our first stop was Bar Albatross (an Anthony Bourdain pick). The bar is 2 stories with a loft - each level fitting about 8 people. A very gothic atmosphere with old religious relics and low hanging chandeliers. The funky Japanese bartender welcomed us with open arms and recommended we order their specialty chili gin drink. Their gin is infused in house with fresh chilies. The minute it hit my mouth, everything went numb. I slowly chugged it down as the bartender laughed at me. We ordered a few more and asked for a rec of where to go next. Our new friend refereed us to his friend down the street at hip. - a bar on the second floor with a path of stairs so steep they might as well have been replaced with a ladder. From there we went to Asyl - discovered from a CNN article of the 5 best bars in Golden Gai. The atmosphere was music focused with Indy rock blasting through the walls. We recognized the bartender from the article even! Also sitting there was a bar regular, business man out definitely looking for a lady friend and a woman that worked for an entertainment company who was planning to stay out all night until she had to go to work the next day! Apparently this is standard for people in that industry. The bartender whipped up the most delicious drink with fresh orange juice and some kind of liquor (can't remember what) - it was one of the best drinks ever though. We went to one final bar that I unfortunately don't know the name. We were greeted by a crew of drunk Japanese friends- one of the guys there we have seen 2 more times on the streets of Tokyo since!!! What a small world! On a quick side note, I also saw a man that was on our flight in Tokyo. So weird how that happens. Anyways, we ended our night sitting in a loft overlooking our new Japanese friends (or at least that's what they thought) below that felt like we had been blasted into An episode of That 70's Show. 

The following day (Friday), we went to an udon noodle restaurant called Tokyo Mentsudan situated in Shinjuku. It was setup similar to a Chipotle. You order what type of noodles you want (we got original in a broth) - a guy picks up a handful of noodles freshly made in house with his hand, then cooks them for a few seconds in a basket dipping them into a massive pot of boiling water and serves them up. You then have the option to add sauces, kimchi, egg...them comes the tempura station with soft boiled egg to seafood to unknown fried things to me. Add some green onions, fresh ginger and broth and your done. It was so amazing.

We wondered around the hipster neighborhood that day called Shimokitazawa. It reminded me of the Mission filled with cool shops and restaurants but still a little rough on the edges. 

For dinner (do you notice I'm only talking about food? Maybe I should change the title of this to a foodie traveling around the world) we went to a local place that served Okonomiyaki called Sometaro. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese style pancake that usually includes cabbage, egg, and some sort of meat. Sometaro was a very traditional setting where we took off our shoes before entering and sat Indian style on the floor. To add to the ambience - the largest sumo wrestler looking man was sitting behind us wearing a kimono. We ordered our 2 pancakes - one with shrimp, cabbage, egg and some other goodies and the other with pork, green onion, leeks, cabbage and egg. We mix up the raw ingredients our selves and then cooked them on a grill in front of us. You then cover them in a sweet almost teriyaki like sauce and top it was mayo and dried seaweed. 

That evening our plan was to continue our mission to follow Anthony Bourdain's footsteps and went to the Robot Restaurant. Set up in the middle of the tourist trap of Shinjuku, you can't miss the entrance to this place with blaring music and tvs. Beforehand we checked out a famous area known as Piss Alley named after the many drunken men that used to use the  bathroom on the streets due to a lack of available toilets. I must say I felt there pain arriving there having to search for a bathroom for about 30 minutes when it had been under my nose the whole time. The proper name (it is def not approp to call it Piss Alley according to our local friend) is Omoide Yokocho. Set up in a similar style to Golden Gai - there are tons of little eateries fitting 10 people or less serving up crazy things like whale, horse, etc. Since we are traveling for 7 months and we don't want to be stuck getting sick the first week we opted out trying the whale. Although Bar Albatross (from Golden Gai) also had a location there and an illegal rooftop bar. We were seated on the second floor where you have to order drinks through a hole in the floor yelling at the bartender down below. Then on to Robot Restaurant - we are guided in and sent up a few floors into the waiting bar area that was definitely my favorite part of the whole night. I really only think a picture can do this place justice - it looked like a bar pulled out of Austin Powers. After drinks, we were guided down to a basement were the show would start. The venue was so small - only 3 rows of seats on either side with the stage in between. Seeing that the whole video game scene really isn't my thing should have been the first sign that I wouldn't enjoy this show. The whole thing seemed like a live video game. They clearly needed to do some amaintenance as all the robots were literally falling apart. And not to sound too pinned up but the whole thing seemed a bit offensive and inappropriate - there was kind of a consistent theme of mocking the Japanese traditions we all stereotype with their culture. Anyways I'll end my rant - I just can't believe Anthony Bourdain of all people went there. 

Saturday, we rolled out of bed at 6 am and dragged ourselves to the Tsujiki Sushi Market. Some arrive there as early as 4 am to watch the daily auctions to pick their tuna for the day. Apparently many people just go straight from being out at the bars. I finally felt I like I was starting to get my jet lag in check and decided the 3 am wake up call wouldn't be worth it. We heard if you get there before 7 am, you can still eat at all the best sushi stalls. So we opted for more sleep. There are a few top places we read about - the best is supposed to be Sushi Dai where people wait over 3 hours to get there 8 am sushi fix. We also read that Daiwa Sushi was great so we grabbed some beers at a nearby stall and waited in line for about 45 minutes. Once it was our turn, we were seated at a small bar that fit about 10 people. Sushi chefs all seem to be so happy - I suppose I should read about this bc they are always yelling and laughing. We ordered the chefs rec set menu. I had read that as he hands you a new piece of fish you are supposed to eat it right away for optimal freshness. As he handed us piece by piece I couldn't really keep up but it was so amazingly fresh. Highlights included fatty tuna, barbecued eel, grilled shrimp head and uni. We polished off our second beer and were ready to go right back to bed. 

The Sanja Festival is going on in Asakusa (neighborhood very close to where our hostel was and also the location of the largest temple in Tokyo - Sensoji Temple). It is a religious festival/crazy party held by the Shintos where different townships/temples prepare their own shrine to honor the 3 men that founded the Sensoji temple. Our neighborhood was working on their shrine right outside of our hostel and having there own ceremony were kids played the drums and flute and did a special dance. They were the cutest little nuggets. 

We walked to the Sensoji temple where there were thousands of people dressed in what appeared to be their local kimonos (each township was matching). Everyone was drinking beers in the street or the local restaurants getting rowdy. Once in the temple, you could see from above, each town carrying their shrine into the temple. 

Sunday was our last day in Tokyo. We had one last neighborhood that we wanted to check out - Daikanyama. It's a shopping district known to have a more western influence. It felt like LA to me. There is a really popular bookstore - Tsutaya Books - made up of 3 buildings, each 2 stories high there was every section you could imagine in all different languages. I could get lost in that store for days. The decor was very mad men, retro modern. We went to the cafe and enjoyed a cappuccino in a plush set of chairs and discussed the rest of our plan for Southeast Asia. 

We decided to splurge and check out the New York Bar Sunday night at the Park Hyatt. It is located on the 52nd floor overlooking all of Tokyo. We had a seat right at the window, drank a martini and watched a jazz band play right next to us. Almost too much of a tease to have a taste of luxury but well worth it.

That leaves me to here - on a train to Kyoto. I LOVE Japan. I honestly could live in Tokyo. Usually when I travel to a foreign country I have that feeling of oh shit I have no idea what's going on or what these people are saying but strangely that didn't happen in Tokyo. It was a rather easy transition. 

It's definitely a city with its quirks. You can tell how much everyone works here by the fact that the basic dress code for leaving your house is business casual. I would say 75% of the men are always wearing suits - any day of the week including Sat and Sun. Needless to say we started getting a little self conscious about our backpacker attire. At 10 PM, the metro was still packed with people commuting home from work. The face masks are also everywhere. We asked if they were for something specific or just to protect against general germs on our Golden Gai bar crawl. The bartender informed us that they protect them from the Hay Fever caused from a pollen in the air. Seems a little intense if you ask me.  

I am now ending this blog on Wednesday. We are headed off on an overnight bus back to Tokyo tonight and the fly to Bangkok in the morn! You will hear from me then. Ciao ciao!

Xo

CB 

And so it begins...

Welp...I am sitting at the San Francisco International airport waiting to board my flight to LAX from where I will jump on another flight to Tokyo, Japan. I will be starting a 7 month journey around the world hitting Japan, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, India and Nepal. 

But before we get too caught up on the future, let's rewind back a year where it all started... For years I have been badgering Christina to go on a trip around the world. You all should know who Christina is by now but if you need a reminder...she is one of my best friends from high school, member of the Crew, back packed through Europe with me, moved to SF the same week and we have lived together ever since (including a studio apartment with a bed in the kitchen). We did want to stay in Europe during our last trip and become bar crawl guides...instead we opted to go be grown ups and start our careers but with a promise that we would go back before we were 25 - we just barely made it! For those of you who have been concerned, we can stand long periods of time together, have similar travel interests and both share a passion for food, wine and cheese. Some like to refer to her as my wife. Follow her blog at www.shatzysays.wordpress.com! Anywho...as we sat in the Opium Den one afternoon feeling the typical Sunday blues, we made a promise  - We would go backpacking around the world within the next year. From there, we would start planning...researching where to go, what we needed to do to prepare, how much money to save, etc. We spent hours and hours planning this trip. Months went by and we finally booked our first flight to Tokyo. 

We made a visit to the SF travel clinic and met our girl Lisa, a travel nurse guru. We walked into that office ready to spend $400 and be in and out in a split. Instead Lisa broke the news we would have to get over 8 shots that would cost $1500. I think our shocked faces broke poor Lisa's heart. Despite our disappointment, Lisa became our go to travel guide.  Having lived all over the world, she had a lot of great tips. I think she was quite amused with these 2 girls that you may not have expected to be the type to backpack around the world - we looked like the blind leading the blind going on this trip. We bombarded her with a thousand questions every visit - the best including Christinas endless curiousity of how shots work and go in your body. Lisa - if you are reading this (which she probably isn't but I like to think she is), we love you!! I will dedicate a post on travel vaccines to you down the road. 

We took this last week to pack and get organized. Randall came up to visit for the week and we put him and Sam to work with a list of moving tasks that needed to be complete.They were my saviors helping getting everything done! My dad decided to make an impromptu visit to help finish the move this weekend and drive us to the airport. On a side note, he and my mom have been my number one supporter to do this trip. They have pushed me to make this move and I would never have done it without their blessing. It only seemed fitting that he would be the one to see me off.

My dad dropped Christina and I off at the airport. Tears were shed by me of course and the minute my Dad drove off we fell into a hysterically laughing fit. A similar question of what the f*** are we doing was repeated several times. I was laughing and balling crying at the same time. It was a feeling of such relief and trepidation I suppose. After getting through security, we decided to do one last ridiculously SF thing and hit up the yoga room and squeeze in a quick 15 minute practice....yes I already sound like a granola wandering hippy....

I know you all must be sitting at work reading this and thinking how you wish you were heading off to Tokyo right now. But I must express how surprisingly hard this has been. A year ago I would have thought it all would be easy - pack up, say cya and board our flight. I felt my first wave of fear walking into my presidents office to tell him I'm quitting my job. Although the fear subsided - a week went by and then came a wave of relief...one more step closer to the adventure of a lifetime. As I began to tell more people, the more real it became. I continued to get more and more excited. But this past week has been filled with sadness and anxiety. Packing up my life in SF was hard. I love this city. I want to spend the rest of my life here. I have made so many amazing friends. SF is a city full of transplants so your friends become your family. They are your people that you call when you need anything - leaving that was the hardest part. Then came the question of what the hell am I doing???? I have no income, I just sold everything I own, what if I run out of money?? Lots. Of. Tears. Were shed this week. Although, I knew deep down that all I needed to do was force myself on that plane and from there just take it one step at a time. 

So here we are. Sitting on the plane to LAX. Thinking about what the future holds. This may have been hard to get here but I already know it's the best decision I have ever made. I can't wait to meet new people, taste new food, explore a new outlook on life, learn so many new things everyday. 

Our itinerary is Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal, Morroco, South Africa, Namibia, Nepal (maybe :/) and India. If you have visited any of the places and have recommendations, we would love them!! We also are open to visitors! I plan to keep this blog up the rest of the trip sharing all our experiences as we go along. 

Love all of you guys out there - especially my amazing parents and SF crew that  have been so supportive and helpful in getting us ready for this trip. Talk to y'all in Japan!

This post was written last week - hoping to post about Japan today for everyone to have something to enjoy on their Monday morning! 

XO