Travel

After a month and a half after I post-processed these photos I finally have a proper internet connection to upload them. Thank you Sydney. But seriously Australia, you’ve got to do something about this. I’ve stayed in hotels and hostels around the world and nowhere was the internet as universally bad as over here in Australia. Also, charging for Wi-Fi in hostels and hotels? Ridiculous.

Links:

• Brisbane and Noosa: https://goo.gl/photos/HeiTavFXHsUQ9kjB9

Hokkaido, or as I call it, the not-so-frozen frozen north, is the largest northern island of Japan. And it was a place I hadn’t gone to yet. To me that meant it was high time to change that. Now, going at the end of summer and the start of autumn meant it was a lot colder than Tokyo (by about 10 degrees at least), but it was all still pretty green. Only some of the leaves were starting to change color. It was still one of the coldest places I’ve been to yet, similar to Iceland a couple months ago.  One day I’ll have to come back in winter for the snow festival in Sapporo, as well as some areas more to the east of Hokkaido which were either closed or impossible to reach due to typhoon damage.

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Tales of Japan, Volume 3, Episode 2 – HokkaidoRead More »

After Iceland Hokkaido was the coldest place I’ve been to on this six month trip so far, but the hot springs and the natural splendors made the cold bearable.

Link:

• Hokkaido: https://goo.gl/photos/Tdga6nYqJBwYqWHy5

Playing catch up with the photos I’ve posted on Google+ of my travels so far.

Links:

• Seattle: https://goo.gl/photos/X5XNv9PiyEp1MUJa7
• Portland: https://goo.gl/photos/vKW41kNLDR2LTKmc8
• San Francisco: https://goo.gl/photos/PpqAiUNuKWpeTMpQ6
• Yosemite: https://goo.gl/photos/wGeutNwzSTFgvyTCA
• Las Vegas: https://goo.gl/photos/bBa7CEapj5sQFoY99
• San Diego: https://goo.gl/photos/LXmLovXMmrAX1wh97
• Los Angeles: https://goo.gl/photos/4f9LhW57fjiy1wjj8
• Tokyo: https://goo.gl/photos/FLHFEREiU4iimC5z9

This was my third time visiting Japan, and after the last two I’d already done most of the touristy things and major attractions. I was once there in the summer, going to all the summer festivals, or Matsuri as they are called in Japan. I’ve been to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Kagoshima, Yakushima, Sendai, Aomori, Matsumoto, Hakone, and more. So why, after having done all those things, did I want to return a third time?

Well, couple of reasons. For one, I love Japan (hence having already been there twice before) and there’s always something more to see, something more to do. For another, and this was the main reason for coming back to Tokyo as well, it was to visit new and old friends.

I split my stay in Tokyo in two, staying for a week at the start and then another week after I’d gone to Hokkaido (but that’s something for another blog post).

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Tales of Japan, Volume 3, Episode 1 – Tokyo ReduxRead More »

Los Angeles is another divisive city, like Las Vegas. You either love it or hate it. I am leaning a bit towards the hate it part, because it is too big, too spread out, and the public transport is abysmal. Getting anywhere takes way too long and once you’re there it’s all a bit…anticlimactic really.

That’s just how I feel.

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American Manifesto, Volume 2, Episode 11 – Los AngelesRead More »

San Diego is a pretty relaxed city on the west coast of California and after Las Vegas this was going to be my place to sleep in and relax. At least that was my plan going in, but in practice it didn’t work out that way at all.

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American Manifesto, Volume 2, Episode 10 – San DiegoRead More »

What can I say about Las Vegas? It’s a place of blisteringly hot madness and decadence, and I liked it (if only for a little while), but it helped that I spent most of my days touring outside the city. I am not a gambler, so that takes away much of the appeal the city has, at least to me.

If I ever return I think I would try one of the hotels, rather than a hostel. Specifically, rather than the hostel I had this time, which was one of the worst I ever stayed at. Staff was nice, but the kitchen was too small, every building (rather than rooms each dorm was a small building with beds and a bathroom) was packed with too many beds. The bed I had was the lower bunk in an alcove, affectionately nicknamed ‘the cave’ by one of my roommates, and I agree with that assessment wholeheartedly.

I’ve also never felt as unsafe as I did in that neighborhood.

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American Manifesto, Volume 2, Episode 9 – Las VegasRead More »

This blog post is about the number one spot I really wanted to visit on the west coast of the United States: Yosemite National Park. And I apologize in advance, but this is going to be a long post.

TLDR version: Highlight of my time in the US, hands down.

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American Manifesto, Volume 2, Episode 8Read More »

“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” – Mark Twain (supposedly)

The human body is an interesting thing, it can get used to pretty much anything, which is something I experienced close hand after arriving in San Francisco. I got off the train in Emeryville to a crisp 17 degree, grey, overcast, morning. And I was freezing. My body had gotten used to temperatures twice that high, with 28-30 degrees being very comfortable, and 30+ being the norm. To suddenly go somewhere so much colder was a shock to my system.

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American Manifesto, Volume 2, Episode 7Read More »