Coming to you LIVE from Paris, France! Yes, we've made it safely from the gastronomic delights and ancient architectural wonders of Italy to...the gastronomic delights and ancient architectural wonders of France. Wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, though. Our flight from Milan flew from the low budget airport a bit outside of town, and the … Continue reading Paris on Fumes
I know Rhys has covered our previous destinations in Italy already, but I wanted to step back for a moment in time and provide my thoughts on them, mostly Roma, before moving on to Venice. Before this trip, I was not really "widely traveled" - I spent a lot of time in Japan, and visited … Continue reading Amore
Florence was the city I was least impressed with on my first visit. This time, as an older and more mature person, I appreciated it a lot more. What makes this revelation bittersweet was that we only had one REAL day to experience it; other days were travel days. Augh! On top of that, poor … Continue reading Renaissance Man
Day II of our Rome experience took us to what is arguably the most famous ancient ruin on the entire planet. Needless to say, we were excited and set out early. Our first stop was a small collection of ruins near the last tram stop on our line, Argentina. I didn't think much of it … Continue reading Genesis of Modern Civilization
Being back in Italy again is a strange feeling; one I'm sure Indi knows all to well from being in Japan after so many years. For those unaware, I spent 10 days on a quick guided tour of Italy back in 1995 with some other kids, visiting Rome, Asisi, Florence, and Venice. We only get … Continue reading So Much Past Inside My Present
11/1 - Takoyaki: Bits of octopus fried in doughy balls with MOLTEN insides. Tasted a bit like extra-rubbery shrimp. Not a fan. 11/2 - French Fry Chips, Udon: The french fry-shaped-and-flavored chips were bizarrely accurate, and salty. Liked 'em, as you would have guessed. Udon are super-thick noodles that I enjoyed somewhat, but not tremendously. … Continue reading Rhys’ New Foods List – November
You may (or may not) have noticed that almost all of the Japan blogs were written by Rhys; this was intentional, as his eyes were new for Japan, so I felt he would be able to write more interesting blogs. However, it was an interesting perspective to revisit the same areas (and many new ones) … Continue reading Japan Redux
Our last day on the Shinkansen took us to Kyoto. We spent the day touring various temples, seeing a dry rock garden, and looking at the magnificent colors of the leaves. Kyoto is known for the red maple trees of autumn and we caught the start of it. We also met an engineer from Boston … Continue reading Kyoto and Leaving Home Again
After visiting Hiroshima, we desperately needed a happy jump-start type day to bounce back. Luckily, we had purchased tickets to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and took the Shinkansen there two days ago. Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio founded by the famous director Hayao Miyazaki and has produced absolutely wonderful animation for … Continue reading Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo
In final preparation for going to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo yesterday, I loaded my iPhone up with these two films to view in the bullet train to/from various points in Japan, hoping to get them viewed in time. And I did! Laputa - Castle in the Sky I'll start this off by … Continue reading Double Review: Laputa – Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
Rhys' Pieces 