TravelBio

The weekend following my trip to Kanazawa I again left Tokyo, this time for a closer get-away: the Izu Peninsula. The peninsula is located about 100 km southwest of Tokyo and is a popular spot for Tokyoites to enjoy seaside cliffs, beaches, and numerous onsen (Japanese saunas).  Japanese Google map of the Izu Peninsula, with Tokyo top right. Ito is between Atami and Shirata. I had been to the Izu Peninsula twice before--once to Atami on a solo day trip from Tokyo, and again on an overnight road trip with a few friends. This time I went with my girlfriend. Girlfriend, you say? Yep, I know I'm usually the single guy, but we met via mutual friends over the summer, one thing led to another, and by October we were officially dating.  I normally don't like to divulge many personal details online, so I'll keep it short! We both wanted to take a trip together, but as I mentioned previously, as of November I still thought I would be staying in Japan longer, and I wanted to save up m

One of my friends sent me his photos from our trip to Kanazawa, and I wanted to add a few of them to the blog. Blogspot is being difficult with editing right now, so instead of tacking them on my previous post about the trip, I'm creating a new entry. I'll keep the text short and sweet. Enjoy! A classy drink with plastic cups on the Shinkansen (bullet train)  from Tokyo to Kanazawa Friday evening Driving from our friend's apartment in Kanazawa to Toyama on Saturday Riding the Tateyama Cable near Mount Tate in Toyama prefecture We didn't spot any bears during our walk! After the trip to Tateyama, we drove back to Kanazawa and went out for dinner and drinks with our host (we were staying at the Japanese French guy's uncle's apartment, and his mom came out with us as well). What we saved on accommodation we certainly spent on food! Below are a few pictures from dinner: After a late night out, we slept in and then explored Kanazawa Sunday afternoon. I included some

Although I'm now back in the US (see my previous post), I wanted to give you a short rundown of the trips I took in Japan prior to the move. In the spring and summer I was able to explore Tokyo and the surrounding areas, but Covid-19 kept me from traveling further afield. After an uptick in new cases in Japan toward the end of the summer, the daily case count fell to around 500 during September and October. Life had somewhat returned to normal; people were again going out to shops, restaurants, and bars--not like pre-Covid times, but the city was far busier than the spring. Graph of the daily case count; compared to the spike at the end of the year, the rise in late July / August seems minor, but at the time it was a big deal. By October, daily  new cases had fallen to only around 500, one hundred times less than the US Unfortunately none of the generous 17 Japanese public holidays were in October, and Culture Day, on November 3, fell on a Tuesday. My next holiday was Monday, Novem