From Me To Udon

[yourraggedyway]

2017 will be my year of travel! One trip per month with 11 vacation days

[yourraggedyway]

2am in Tokyo and still too soon to call

Thoughts from my first night in Tokyo: I feel so lucky to have grown up just outside DC cause of all the major cities I've been to it's still my favorite. DC is like a bunch of suburbs that grew up on top of one another, it's always easy to find some back yard or alley that makes you feel like you're not in the nations Capitol (a phrase I've grown to hate). But in Tokyo there's no escaping that you're in a city. Every building is a skyscraper, every road is a highway. Even the roads that seem like they're pedestrian only are busy roads. But I do love their attitude here. It's like they have so much technology they scoff at it. We get a new phone and we go crazy. They're like iPhones? Yeah we've got iPhones, who cares? The bathroom mirror in my hotel has a square in the middle of it that won't fog from the steam, that's progress.

[yourraggedyway]

[yourraggedyway]

The only up side to 12 hour flights is once they invent ultra fast air travel I can complain to my kids that when I was their age it took me 22 hours to get from DC to Tokyo.

[yourraggedyway]

I do not know enough Japanese to get you out of jail...

Prof. Jenkins

[yourraggedyway]

Cherry blossoms in DC

[yourraggedyway]

American squirrels are fascinating

[yourraggedyway]

Act II: In which From Me to Ewe becomes From Me to Udon

I’m sitting on a bench underneath the cherry blossoms on peak day surrounded by tourists taking pictures of squirrels. In two months I’ll be the tourist taking pictures of Japanese squirrels (red pandas?) I’m taking a three week sketching course in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto (landing on cherry blossom peak day there) so I decided to revive my old travel blog. Japan is awesome and has cheap pocket wifi so I’ll be making constant posts and I have to keep a city planning related journal so you can read plenty about mixed use development, open space and TOD. In the next two months I’ll be learning how to use chopsticks and how to say “I’m sorry I don’t speak Japanese do you speak English?” I also have a daylong layover in Paris on my way home so suggestions on things to do with one day in Paris would be greatly appreciated. Requests for souvenirs will be considered but no promises until I know how much space I have in my luggage

[yourraggedyway]

I doubt anyone is still reading this but I've been having flashbacks all day. In lab this morning my TA came over to answer my question and she smelled like starbucks. There wasn't any coffee in Fiji but it seemed suddenly like I was just there. Listening to this song made me feel like I was in Wellington at my desk in Everton but I didn't hear this song until a month after coming back home. I'm itching to travel again. Beirut, La Tomatina, and Loi Krathong are top on my list.

  I love when he realizes he made a mistake

[yourraggedyway]

[yourraggedyway]

[yourraggedyway]

My first day in Wellington was the first day without TEAN planned activities for us. Everyone was tired and lazy but after doing so much traveling and sight seeing it felt weird to sit around and do nothing. So I went grocery shopping and was feeling a little sad and home sick so I bought a snickers because evidently I'm an emotional eater and snickers cure all. But when I got back from the store some of the girls I was traveling with invited me to watch a movie with them so I figured I'd save the snickers for another time when I was really sad. All semester my sad snickers has been sitting on my shelf and I'm now enjoying as a celebratory homecoming snack. 38 hours til America!

[yourraggedyway]

my favorite part of traveling is recognizing places I've seen in movies

[yourraggedyway]

Queenstown was amazing! South Island is completely different from North Island. Everyone was so friendly and everywhere I went had an awesome view. One day I accidentally walked about 10 miles trying to walk around Lake Wakatipo which turns out to be a lot bigger than I thought. I spent $2.40 on a stamp to send my absentee ballot. I love when I go to mail something and the person has to pull out a book to look up how much it'll cost. I met a couple really nice Korean girls who've convinced me to visit Korea and its "cute small mountains". I'm making plans for my last week here and slowly realizing that this is my last week here. Botanic gardens on Monday, Zealandia on Tuesday, red rocks on Wednesday, day trip to Picton on Thursday and hopefully Makara beach on Friday then a weekend of shopping and packing.

[yourraggedyway]

[yourraggedyway]

Heading to Queenstown in the morning!

[yourraggedyway]

DOOOOOOOOONE WITH SCHOOL! also done with my internet contract, so I'll be spending a lot more time at school for the free connection