A visit to Japan is not complete without spending time in Hiroshima. The number one site there for us and most visitors is the Atomic Bomb Dome on the 31-acre grounds of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. With waking paths, lawns, and trees, its most characteristic feature is the stark and sobering A-Bomb Dome, the …
Author Archives: janie.weeks
Historic Kyoto
Kyoto is said to be the most well-preserved city in Japan with numerous temples, shrines, and gardens. Once the capital of Japan, it is the cultural and historical site in the country. “With over 1,200 years of history, Kyoto is home to beautiful natural scenery interwoven with historical buildings and traditional architecture. At the same …
Last Moments in Tokyo
In our mode of travel, our destinations and their timing are not predicated by local spectacles and events, though sometimes I wish we would make them so. For example, in our France visit last year, we missed the Tour de France by just weeks, in Spain we missed the Running of the Bulls by a …
Thoroughly Awesome Tokyo
I gasped with my first aerial glance of the city from Tokyo’s Skytree viewing platform. Before that sight, just getting around the city hinted to us how outrageously huge and densely populated this city is, but to look out over the city and see nothing but miles and miles of buildings that fill the space …
Mama Said
I know I caught this bug on the bus from the cruise ship to the airport. A lady had that cough, you know the one that sounds all wet. And then on our plane from Honolulu to Kona, there was another person with a bad-sounding cough. Three days later, that disgusting cough blossomed in me. …
Hawaii!
Mountains, lava fields, the beautiful South Pacific, volcanoes, black sand beaches, history, royalty, green sea turtles, pineapples, coffee, macadamia nuts, the friendliest people in the US, feral chickens and goats, and more – that’s Hawaii! The Hawaiian Islands have to be among the most beautiful tropical islands in the world. Compared to the island of …
Cruising
An 18-day stay on a cruise ship may seem like an interminably long time to be confined even on one of the mega-ships now available, but honestly, the time sails by. It seems as if we just boarded this ship, the Celebrity Eclipse, and already it is done. Why? The experience is like having an …
Sydney – One of the World’s Greatest Cities!
I’d like to say that Sydney has not changed a bit, but it has. All the wonderful things we visited ten years ago are just as polished and grand as they were then but this city has been busy! It is even better, more vibrant, and more welcoming. It’s greener than it was ten years, …
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New Zealand Marlboro Wine Country
There are more grapes here than corn in Kansas, and now is the grape-harvesting season. The vines are turning yellow from the bottom of the vines up to the top. Unlike the delicate grapes that make Pinot Noir, for example, and others that must be picked by hand, these green grapes are more sturdy and …
Driving North to the Marlboro Region
Lake Tekapo is barely a dot on the map, a cross in a road, but it’s nice. It is set on the shores of a robin’s egg blue glacial lake bordered by New Zealand’s Southern Alps. People come here in cars, caravans, RV’s, mountain bikes or simply hiking in with backpacks to camp, sleeping in tents, …