Starting tomorrow for the next 8 weeks, I will be backpacking solo in 5 different countries in Asia: There will be many train rides in Japan, hiking and camping along the rim of an active volcano in Indonesia, multi-day hill tribe trek in Thailand, wandering through pagodas in Myanmar, and finally wrapping up at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
In addition to exploring new places, my goal is really just to be present, spontaneous, and to interact with people from all walks of life.
To properly document this experience, I will be doing a travel blog here on Wix, which I plan on updating once a week whenever I get access to the internet.
The why is clear and the time is now. I am certainly grateful to the company I have been with for the past 9 years for giving me the flexibility to travel on my own terms!
First stop – Japan.
Monkey Park.
@Arashiyama嵐山
Bamboo Grove.
@Arashiyama嵐山
View of Mount Fuji from JR train to Kyoto.
@Fuji富士
View of Mount Fuji from Shizuoka.
@Shizuoka静岡
I am a backpacker. I pack light. I have exactly one pair of jeans and a couple of T-shirts. I do laundry on the road. I don’t buy souvenirs because I have no space in my backpack. I have my travel experience and photography work as my souvenirs. I believe in creating memories than owning things. I love ramen.
@Arashiyama嵐山
MBA graduates from Taiwan, and language school students from Indonesia / China / US.
I spent most nights in hostels during my stay in Japan. Hostels in Japan (the J-Hoppers brand) are inexpensive, well-located, and extremely well-run. More importantly, hostel stay offers the perfect opportunity to meet people from all over the world. I have met travelers from over 20 countries just from my hostel stay alone. Pretty incredible.
My 1st meal in Japan after getting off the flight from Taipei.
During my 2-hour wait freezing in front of this place called Sushi Midori, I got a chance to speak with a businessman from Spain who has been traveling to Japan for his TV business every year for the past decade; then I got seated and had another conversation with this Korean guy from Sacramento sitting next to me who was having an interview in Tokyo the next day, applying to Stanford Business School!
@Yurakucho有楽町
Temple stay.
@Koyasan高野山
Temple stay.
@Koyasan高野山
My kimono.
@Koyasan高野山
Oh deer.
@Nara奈良
Oh deer.
@Nara奈良
One of the things I wanted to do in Japan was to go where the locals go and eat where they eat. Last night when I was in Shinjuku I checked out Golden Gai, a small area makes up of a few main alleys and a bunch of even narrower alleys, with dozens of shanty-style bars and eateries.
While I was walking in the area I saw a group of locals, all lined up in this very narrow, dark, cold alley. The alley was about two feet wide, just enough for a single person to walk through. I had no clue what they were lining up for, as the line cut off at the opening of the alley that led to nowhere. But I figured I wouldn’t go wrong with a bunch of locals, so there I was, lining up with them, without knowing what I was lining up for.
After 30 minutes freezing in this dark alley overhearing some Japanese conversations (and understood absolutely nothing), a Japanese girl led me to a steep set of stairs to this tiny flat upstairs. Turned out it was a ramen place and she had me pick a soup base and toppings. The entire place was just over 100 square feet with 8 chairs, no table but a bar counter. This was probably the smallest eatery I’ve ever seen, and the experience was pretty amazing.
@Shinjuku新宿
One of the things I wanted to do in Japan was to go where the locals go and eat where they eat. Last night when I was in Shinjuku I checked out Golden Gai, a small area makes up of a few main alleys and a bunch of even narrower alleys, with dozens of shanty-style bars and eateries.
While I was walking in the area I saw a group of locals, all lined up in this very narrow, dark, cold alley. The alley was about two feet wide, just enough for a single person to walk through. I had no clue what they were lining up for, as the line cut off at the opening of the alley that led to nowhere. But I figured I wouldn’t go wrong with a bunch of locals, so there I was, lining up with them, without knowing what I was lining up for.
After 30 minutes freezing in this dark alley overhearing some Japanese conversations (and understood absolutely nothing), a Japanese girl led me to a steep set of stairs to this tiny flat upstairs. Turned out it was a ramen place and she had me pick a soup base and toppings. The entire place was just over 100 square feet with 8 chairs, no table but a bar counter. This was probably the smallest eatery I’ve ever seen, and the experience was pretty amazing.
@Shinjuku新宿
One night I decided to do eatery-hopping in Shinjuku-nishiguchi. 1st stop, ramen.
@ShinjukuNishiguchi新宿西口
Going straight from the ramen place I decided to try out this place that got no chairs! Eat while standing.
@ShinjukuNishiguchi新宿西口
After being surrounded by a bunch of naked people during onsen in Arashiyama, I ended up chilling in their common room for 2 hours reading Dragon Ball, like the good old days!
@Arashiyama嵐山
