✍️: Erin 📸: Jan & Erin
One of the best parts about backpacking is the surprises you find during a detour from your detour. Friends: If you are ever in northern Japan and don’t go to the onsen we found, you’re dead to me.
✍️: Erin 📸: Jan & Erin
Lesson: If you’re heading to a massive, internationally known city that people rave about, plan! We decided to wait until we arrived in Tokyo to do any serious planning, which wasn’t the best strategy. The city has a ton to offer, and knowing what you want to do and what areas of the city you’d like to visit can save you a ton of time (and money).
That said, we had a great time in Tokyo. We drove go-karts through traffic to see the city above ground; kind of figured out the sprawling train system below ground; ate everything, all the time; and were mesmerized by robots and futuristic technology.
All this while being awed by the efficiency, cleanliness and quiet of a city that’s home to nearly 14 million people. That’s almost twice the size of New York City.
✍️: Erin 📸: Jan & Erin
Imagine a Las Vegas casino meeting Pokemon on steroids in an IMAX theater. Then crowds of people, seemingly oblivious to the aural abuse, quietly weaving around each other and occasionally stopping to look at frying, fragrant seafood. Or maybe a purse or socks.
This goes on for blocks, in all directions, in one of the open-air street markets in Osaka, a port city of nearly 2 million people on Japan’s Pacific coast. But then, suddenly, a tourist’s reprieve.
Thanks to a midlife crisis, we are married, unemployed and homeless — and we couldn’t be more excited. We have one-way plane tickets across the Pacific. Our plan is to travel the world for a year with a couple of hefty backpacks (hence the *oh so clever* blog name) and a loose itinerary.
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