Life Back at Home

 

“Home Sweet Home” is an interesting adage after being on the road for 5 months. We are happy to be back in San Sebastian, yet we enjoyed traveling so much that the adjustment has been tougher than expected. We had no real routine during our trip. Nearly every day was different, which could be stressful, but overall was stimulating and liberating. We were only obligated by accommodation check-out and flight departure times. Having a schedule is a change worth contemplating.

We returned to San Sebastian on March 1. We had a new apartment by March 4. Unlike our original apartment search five years ago, this one was a lot simpler and quicker. Speaking the language definitely helped, but so did a bit of luck. 

Every living space has its advantages and disadvantages. We have settled into a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment located more centrally than our last one. We miss the tremendous amount of natural light in our old place and having a desk, but we are enjoying being closer to yoga, grocery stores, a new gym, etc. We have plenty of storage space and are getting used to working with the new kitchen set up. It is great to be cooking again. I really missed eating salad – it is not the easiest menu item to find while traveling – so we are back to eating a lot of it. The second bedroom has a double bed. Let’s see who our first visitor(s) might be.  

Our “routine” is pretty flexible. We are focused on the gym (and yoga) classes. During our travels we weren’t focused on fitness, although we kept active with tons of walking. But activity is not the same as a good workout and we could and do feel the difference.

Being home also gives us the ability to visit our favorite places, like the La Concha beach and hiking routes on Mount Ulia, and hang out with friends. Most exciting was meeting our newest friend, Alex (Ploy and Carlos’s son born while we were away).

We were fortunate to travel the way we did; we are fortunate to be home.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff

Big Trip Wrap Up

We have been back in San Sebastian for about three weeks now. We will have more about our return in an upcoming post, but we wanted to do a quick "wrap up" post about the Big Trip.

Having written so much about the places we visited and the things we did, we don't have a lot to add about those topics. So, we thought we would provide a bit of overall information about our travels.

The trip covered 153 nights, which we spent in 52 different lodgings including three overnight flights. Our longest stay was in Kyoto (9 nights) and we had 16 one-night stays including the three flights. Our cheapest lodging (not including free lodging in various places) was in Hoi An ($30 a night), while our most expensive was as at the ryokan in Japan ($307 a night). 

We took 23 flights totalling 39,326 miles (63,289 kilometers); by comparison, the circumference of the earth at the equator is only 24,901 miles. Our longest flight was from Rome to Singapore (6,249 miles), while our shortest was from Honolulu to Maui (101 miles).

As for other transportation, we took trains in Italy, Australia, New Zealand and, of course, Japan; metro/light rail in Singapore, Australia, Japan and the US; city buses in Spain, Singapore and Vietnam; ferries in Austrailia, New Zealand and Japan; and taxis in Singapore, New Zealand, Vietnam and Japan. Finally, we rented nine cars between Italy, Australia and New Zealand. We definitely got around.

We honestly have no idea how many restaurants we ate in, but it was many. Our most expensive meal was, not surprisingly, in Maui, while our least expensive was our New Year's Eve pho in Dalat, which cost all of $5.50 for both of us.

Our favorite country by far was New Zealand, and we are plotting our return. Shana's favorite place was Kangaroo Island; Jeff can't decide.

Travelling for so long turned out to be easier than expected. We were never bored, we were sometimes overwhelmed, we were happy and felt fortunate to being doing something we had dreamed about for years. Overall, it was a great trip, and we hope you have enjoyed following along on our adventures. 

We will now return to our normal blog programming, but stay tuned for a possible second big trip coming sooner than we expected, which answers question, would we do it again? YES!

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Stateside in Hawaii and Nor Cal

Before returning to San Sebastian, we made two stops in the US. First we spent a week in Maui – a former favorite haunt – and then we visited family and friends in Northern California.

We didn’t have the best weather in Maui, but rain brings rainbows and we saw a lot of them, including this beautiful double.

We also could see lots of whale spouts from the shore. Maui is busy as ever and it was interesting to see how the beaches have changed with the storms that had passed through. There is even a boat washed up on the beach in Kaanapali:

It was great to stand up paddleboard, snorkel, walk the shore path, eat lots of fresh fish, and just relax after the overnight flight from Japan and traveling for 19 weeks.

We were pleased to celebrate Don’s (Jeff’s Dad) 80^th birthday during our visit to Northern California. It is always good to share happy occasions and it was awesome that Neil & Tracy, cousins from Seattle, joined the fun. Afterall, we needed Neil’s extraordinary selfie skills:

We belatedly celebrated Karyn & Jim’s 50^th birthdays by joining them for a day in their “happy place,” in Pacific Grove. Playing board games with the Holl family is always super fun. And we had a great fish dinner.

We can’t wait to hear which college Jeremy & Ethan choose once they’ve received all their acceptances.

Finally, we appreciated visiting and drinking wine with dear friends. Thanks to Jill & Peter for hosting us!

Our time in the US flew by and before we knew it, we were on yet another overnight flight – this time through Amsterdam to head back to Spain. (Best in-flight movie of the trip: “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”) And here we are, back home. For how long before we’re on the road again is anyone’s guess.

We’ll have an update on our new apartment and future travel plans soon.

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff

Japan Wrap Up

In so many ways, Japan is an amazing country. It is incredibly "civilized" with virtually no crime, no grafitti, not even any litter, and there aren't a lot of trash receptacles. At a recent World Baseball Classic game in Tokyo, Shohei Ohtani hit a home rum, and the crowd passed the baseball all around the stadium so people could take photos before returning it to the fan who originally caught it! Can you imagine that happening in the United States?

On the other hand, the Japanese in general are still very insular (we recently read that only 10% (!!) of Japanese have passports). They don't really like foreigners living in their country and, although they are fine with foreign tourists, they do not generally exhibit the genuine warmth and openness that we saw so often in Australia, New Zealand, and especially Vietnam. 

The best two things about Japan were the toilets and the food. Yes, the toilets. Once you have experienced a Japanese toilet with their heated seats, it is difficult to go back. Remember we were there during winter! Plus, any toilet with a control panel that looks like it belongs in a fighter jet can't be a bad thing. The majority of public toilets even have these feautures. Public toilets are also easily found and clean. What a concept.

As for the food, we have discussed many of our great meals in earlier posts, but just the fact that you can get such high-quality food so cheaply makes Japan one of the best places in the world to eat. And, of course, you can also spend a lot of money and eat truly world-class food. Definitely the best of both worlds. Even the snacks are great -- the variety is amazing. It's fun to walk into a Lawson, Family Mart or 7-11 and browse what is displayed in each. 

We were also impressed with Japanese public transport, especially the high-speed Shinkansen trains. The trains run on time, the systems are easy to follow with signs in English, and as long as you avoid rush hour in Tokyo, they are comfortable to use.

On the other hand, the lack of English, even among people who work in tourist-type places, did surprise us, and made our trip a bit more difficult. And, our experience getting stuck on the train in Kyoto showed us how insular the Japanese can be, and generally how little they care for outsiders.

We enjoyed visiting Japan, and we especially had a great time seeing our friends and spending time with them. But, I am not sure if we would put it on our list of places that we have to return to anytime soon.

Sayonara,

Jeff and Shana

Last Stop: Tokyo

We apologize for the delay in getting to this post. We had so much fun with our friends in Tokyo, relaxing in Maui, and then running “to and fro” in Northern California, that putting together a blog post just didn’t happen. And then things got crazy as we quickly found a new place to live here in San Sebastian. So let’s get back to it.

While Tokyo was not our actual “last stop,” it was our last stop in a new place. We enjoyed the smooth and fast Shinkansen trains that took us to Tokyo from Hiroshima and were able to navigate our way through the subway system to get to our hotel in the Ginza area of the city. One immediate impression of Tokyo is that it is more impressive at night when it is all lit up.

At this point in the “big trip,” our capacity to pre-plan anything had begun to wane. And considering Tokyo has so much on offer – it is the biggest city (by population) in the world – we knew we could only cover so much in our week there. We focused on a few key highlights and spent as much time as we could with our good friends, Atsuto and Rieko, and their daughter Luna.

We explored several Tokyo neighborhoods walking around, people watching, and soaking it all in. Ginza is a busy modern shopping district, which is not our style, but made for a great location to stay. It is also home to a beautiful Kabuki theater.

Akihabara is known for busy arcades and maid cafes. To us, the vibe was odd. The arcades are full of young men playing video games of all kinds. Outside the cafes are young women dressed to look like teenagers in maid outfits. Inside they will call male customers “sir” and even "master".

We also walked through Shinjuku and Harajuku, but since we’re not into shopping for electronics or fashion (or much else for that matter), we were underwhelmed. We did enjoy the Tsukiji fish market area a lot – lots of unique and unknown foods to investigate: dried fish, scallops cooked with a blow torch, and there’s always a temple nearby:

The history of the Tsukiji Hongwanji Buddhist Temple is impressive – dating back to 1617, the current temple was rebuilt in 1931, with an Indian architectural motif, making for an unusual sight. This temple allowed photos to be taken inside, if there are no ceremonies happening.

We confirmed that our sweet spot in almost any city is history, culture, art, and architecture. We enjoyed the scenery in and around the Imperial Palace and East Garden, and saw the Yasukuni Shrine dedicated to Japan’s war dead.

We learned a lot and enjoyed the displays and sculpture at the Tokyo National Museum and the Ueno Toshugu Shrine.

And we experienced a shortened Japanese tea ceremony.

Without a doubt, the best part of Tokyo was seeing our friends. Rieko was kind enough to invite us for lunch to their apartment in Kawasaki, where we enjoyed catching up and entertaining Luna.

We all went to the Ghibli Museum, to step in to the world of the famous animated movies.

Together we journeyed to Kamakura, the medieval shogun capital, where we saw the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and the Great Buddha at Kotoku-in Temple.

And, of course, we ate! Eating with locals was a treat. They knew exactly what to order. We could not have successfully ordered anything at one restaurant we ate at because there was no English at all. The sushi was beautiful. And it was great having your own chef at a yakiniku restaurant. They even made us a reservation at a yakitori place (serving entirely skewers of chicken parts) place, which otherwise we would not have gotten into.

It is always amazing to be so easy and comfortable with good friends even when you haven’t seen them for years.

Sayonara,

Shana & Jeff

A Quick Update from Home

We arrived yesterday in San Sebastian and the Big Trip is officially over. We are behind on blogging because our time in the US was extremely relaxing (Hawaii) and busy (California). Although we had a great time doing nothing in Hawaii and seeing family and friends in California, we don't really have much to say about those several weeks. We still have two posts, however, to come about Japan and probably a full trip wrap-up as well. So, stay tuned for a bit more about our trip, and our return to "real life".

Thanks for reading.

Jeff and Shana