After having a few days to visit Kyoto and Himeji, I was moving on to Osaka. Osaka is the second largest city in Japan following Tokyo and is known for being home to Japan’s Universal Studios, Osaka Castle, and the famous tourist area, Dotonbori.
Waking up in a major city, I was excited by the prospects of finding an acupuncturist who might speak even just a bit of English. Towards the end of my time in Korea a friend introduced me to a natural medicine clinic across the street from our apartments and I’ve been a little obsessed with acupuncture ever since. That said, with some determination in my google searching and a few short emails I made myself an appointment for that afternoon.
I had a much harder time finding the office than I’d anticipated, but found a multitude of people who did their best to help me find the hidden annex building. Special shout out to the man working at Toyota car rental who actually printed out a map and drew the path I would need to take, as well as, the woman working at the hospital who knew I was in the wrong place and walked with me down the block to the correct office. I think I’d still be wandering the streets of Osaka had they not offered their assistance.
Finally making it to the acupuncturist we made very brief introductions, and I tried my best to explain that my shoulders and hips were sore from walking and carrying my backpack. She said, “okay,” and we got started.
The acupuncture in Japan was much different than what I’d received in Korea. She put a few needles on my back then after 10 minutes took them out, asked me to turn over, and repeated the process. She also spent about 30 minutes helping me to stretch, which I had never experienced before. That said, it was really helpful. Even now weeks later, I’m still feeling better.
Conveniently, the acupuncture office was just a half hour walk to Osaka castle which was on my list of places to se. And since the castle came up in Google Maps, the walk to get there was much easier.
I spent the next two hours walking around the gorgeous white and green castle and the part that surrounds it. Everything about that castle made me feel like I was living in a fairytale. The Japanese architecture was so beautiful and perfectly complimented by the lush part that surrounds it. There were even people sailing in gold canopy boats through the moat to get a closer look at the structure.
I decided to walk through the park and then journey back the mile and a half to my hostel and explore all of the side streets of Osaka. There is just something about walking through Japan that is so intriguing and yet calming at the same time. The entire country just has this energy that is hard to describe.
Right through my walking path was Dotonbori, another place I wanted to cross off my list. It took nearly two hours, but I’d made it to the flashing lights of the tourist strip. Dotonbori sits along the Dotonbori Canal is filled with shopping, restaurants, street food, arcades, and casinos. It’s most well-know for takoyaki which is kind of similar to a little pancake ball that is filled with octopus and then covered with delicious sauces. I decided to grab a plate from a little mother/son run cart and sit next to the canal to eat. It was interesting just to do a little people watching on this busy strip in Osaka. The perfect way to end the night.
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After a quick and adventurous weekend in Beijing I flew into Tokyo for a two-week tour through Japan. I started with two days in the capital city before moving down to Kyoto for the rest of the week.
Himeji is a city in Japan that lies just a few hours train journey away from Kyoto or Osaka and is home to this centuries-old gorgeous white castle. I caught a late morning train which put me in Himeji in early afternoon; perfect timing for exploring. After buying my ticket I took a self guided tour through the six-story castle climbing up the steep staircases with the rest of the visitors.
We were greeted by a fantastic look out point and beautiful blue skies. I couldn’t have asked for better weather that day. We had about two and a half hours to really explore the wall. It was incredible to walk through some of the fortresses and see the history of the country. One of my favorite moments was seeing a father showing his young son the small windows in the wall and explaining to him how they were used back when the wall was built. While I’m sure the facts that he was sharing are pretty depressing, the moment was sweet.
I had received strict instructions the night before to meet my tour guide at an adjacent hotel down the street at 8:10 a.m., which is where I was introduced to Mike, our tour guide for the day. I’d signed up for some small group tours to try to get the most out of my limited time in Beijing, however, when the van door opened it became clear that I would more likely be intruding on a family’s private tour. With just four of us in the group, I met two lovely sisters along with one of their sons who were touring Beijing and Mongolia on holiday from the Philippines. They could not have been more lovely. We spent the day exploring the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace, with a quick lunch in between.
After the Forbidden City we moved on to the Temple of Heaven. This time Mike gave us a brief overview of the history and then allowed us to explore the temple for ourselves. The coloring of this structure stood out to me as it was blue rather than red which covers most of the structures we visited. As I learned, blue was used to symbolize Heaven throughout the buildings which really made it stand out in my mind compared to everywhere else we visited.
Following lunch we made the drive to see the Summer Palace. It was immense and incredible. We didn’t cover nearly a fraction of it, and that is something I would go back to Beijing to see more of. But Mike led us around explaining to us the history of the 17-arch bridge and the palace itself, happily answering any questions we asked. I have to say I think my favorite part of the day was getting to chat with him about his life in Beijing and his passion for Chinese history.
In saying goodbye to life in Korea, I’ve said hello to an exciting three months of traveling throughout Asia before returning home to Chicago. The first flight out of Incheon brought me to Beijing where I would have approximately 60 hours to explore all that I could of this dynamic city.
Anyways, back to Beijing. So I opened the door to the hostel and was amazed. It was beautiful. White walls were adorned with wooden beams and strong pillars in the center of the room. Worn wooden tables were dressed with bright pink flower arrangements and surrounded by mismatched, yet complementing chairs. The whole space was filled with lush greenery hanging from the ceiling and sprouting from planters along the walls. GORGEOUS. And exactly the breath of fresh air I needed as I was officially feeling overwhelmed from traveling and being away from my home away from home. Mind you it had only been about 6 hours since boarding the flight to leave.
Following our 
After a couple of subway transfers we got to our stop and followed the crowds to help lead us to our destination. Once we saw the mystical white clouds of steam rising from the water we knew we were in the right place. A stone pathway allowed us to walk right over the crystal clear cyan water, getting just close enough to feel the heat and lean over for a quick steam facial. We were lucky in the fact that it wasn’t terribly busy for a holiday weekend and we were able to peacefully enjoy the hot spring. I’ll chalk that up to the Lunar New Year and so many people being out of town to visit their families.
Now it was time to journey out to visit Jiufen. We’d come across this day excursion via a couple of blog posts which had compared the small Taiwanese town to Santorini as it too sits cozily on a mountain next to the water. We spent the next few hours exploring all of the back roads of this small mountain village, trying different foods, popping into different shops and wandering a temple. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon out of the hustle and bustle of Taipei. We explored just long enough to catch the sun setting behind the mountain and see the blue sky fade from yellow to red to black, at which time the city began to light up. I couldn’t have asked for a better day in Taiwan.
The weekend started off with a great flight from Korea to Taiwan and an easy bus ride from the airport to the hostel that my friend and I would be staying at for the weekend. After arriving in the center of town we ventured off for a quick dinner and explored our new surroundings into the evening. Something that Taiwan and 
Once we had our fill of the square we decided it was time for lunch. Something we weren’t expecting about traveling during the main weekend of the Lunar New Year was that most of the city had gone back to their hometowns to be with their family. This meant that the city was unimaginably peaceful, but it also meant that a lot of storefronts and restaurants were closed for the week. Luckily for us we found an incredible restaurant tucked away on a little side street that served absolutely delicious dim sum.
As the evening of day two was approaching we wanted to explore one of the markets that we’d researched. A lovely taxi driver dropped us off at Raohe Night Market which was supposed to be where any locals were likely to be on New Year’s. In theme with the weekend, we were surprised to see just how calm the market was. Nonetheless, we did a bit of shopping and grabbed some street food as we started to find our way to the subway to head home.
As we exited the temple we found ourselves moving with the crowd into the main strip of the Raohe Night Market. We crawled along with the thousands of other visitors slowly taking in all of the shops and stalls along the market until we found a crêpe stand that we couldn’t pass up. We hopped out of the shuffle where we were handed our strawberry Nutella crepes and reluctantly decided it was time to head back home for the night. in preparation for the following day.
As a peninsula, Korea has countless beachside towns and cities that offer the perfect escape from the busier areas of Seoul and Incheon. One of my favorites is the city of Busan. Busan is just a quick three hour train ride away and offers the opportunity for the perfect weekend getaway. It still has all of the conveniences of city life with countless cozy cafés and western restaurants, however, it sits right along a beautiful coastline housing various beaches to relax.
This sweet village offers such a juxtaposition to the traditional setting of Korea which is, for the most part, filled with tall office and apartment buildings and generally follows a gray color scheme with hints of green roofs. We couldn’t have been happier to experience this pop of color for a weekend and explore an entirely new part of the city we love in the country that has been home for nearly two years.
After our busy 
A three-day weekend in Korea called for a quick getaway across the East China Sea where we landed in Honk Kong. It only took about 24 hours for this country to captivate my mind and soul. Hong Kong is the ultimate combination of eastern culture and western convenience. It reminded me of being in New York, but then we would simply turn a corner and be in the middle of a night market. I was hooked.
A cable car took us to the top of the mountain where we walked along a shop and restaurant lined street on our way to the stairway up to the Buddha which is where we discovered the Po Lin Monastery also sits atop the mountain. We wandered our way to the Buddha and slowly made it up 268 stairs to the top where we stayed for nearly an hour soaking in the view from the peak of the mountain and snapping countless photos of the Buddha and the surrounding statues.
Once we were back at sea level we took a long yet relaxing train ride to the Tsim Sha Tsui part of Hong Kong which would be home for the long weekend. We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and exploring the city until late into the night. We ended our day at the famous Temple Street Night Market which lived up to all of the reviews of good shopping and great street food.
bbm travels 