travel – Page 2 – Creative Meanderings

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Mar 212022

I love to travel. It seems like an obvious thing to say as an expat, but there are expats who live abroad and see the world and there are expats who live abroad as they would in their home countries. I am of the former.

Despite this love of travel, I detest the process of getting from destination to destination, especially by air. Even before C19 forced a return to isolationist practices and more careful attention to cleanliness, I was not a fan of the security checks, lines for boarding, and sharing of seat or public ‘germy’ 🦠 spaces.

After having been off flying for about a year and a half, I took my first flight last month on a short visit to Malta 🇲🇹. Even after a hiatus, my habit of falling asleep before the plane had even taken off was fully in form. It has been a laughed about trait of mine, as a family tale that most have been impressed with – an enviable gift to be able to quickly fall asleep on any moving form of transportation.

Yet, as age sets in and I become more mindful of the impact of my surroundings and past experiences on my psyche, I think I have discovered why my mind and body reboots.

Ever since reading Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, I have proudly accepted and worn the badge with raised hands – I am an introvert; almost to an extreme. Also, I have accepted that I am greatly impacted by others’ energies, seeing auras in shades of light. Therefore, thrusting me into a small space where sounds abound and strange energies swarm causes an input overload for me. Thus, I feel the need to fall asleep. It’s as if my brain says “nope, cannot process, rebooting now!”

As a test of this, on our recent flight ✈️ from The Netherlands 🇳🇱, I put on my AirPods with noise cancellation mode on and magically, I didn’t feel the need to sleep as the plane started taxing on the runway. The blocking out of sounds and keeping my eyes averted from the energies around me prevented the usual overload so that I did not feel an urge to shutdown.

While I still enjoy a good nap on a plane or being able to catch a few z’s 😴 during travel, I am also feeling more prepared to re-enter the world as it starts to return to a new sense of normal armed with newly acknowledged tricks up my sleeve to be able to interact again with hopefully a bit less stress and anxiety about being amongst others. 😜

~T 🔥🐉♋️

The Netherlands in March 2022

Going Mental 2 Responses »

Mar 152022

When I first arrived in Abu Dhabi, I made friends with some fellow Couchsurfing hosts who are also Asians of Western culture, which at the time was a rare meeting. We stayed friends over the years with a few visits back and forth after they moved on. Our last visit, though, was around ten years ago.

So, when we moved to Europe, I connected with S & Q again.

Finally, after a few planning delays, we were able to make a visit to their home in Haarlem (the original inspiration of NYC’s) and visit Q’s homeland.

We did a lot of walking since my agility on two-wheels is not to be tested for the sake of health and safety. 😛 Overall, I really liked it, but I didn’t love it. One thing that struck me, and I should probably do some research about it, was the fact that much of the architecture seemed very modern. I appreciated the fact that old churches had been renovated to apartments or pubs, but the buildings were mostly contemporary in lot of spaces. This made the place/country feel a little bit sterile or lacking in culture, which is definitely not the case. However, aside from a lot of art museums – which in another phase of my life would have been a massive draw – there wasn’t a lot to show for a country that expanded around the globe, but now only remains on a small land mass.

Anyway, to save on the loading time, here are pics to what I managed to capture of The Hague, Delft, Amsterdam and Haarlem.

I would like to go back when the tulip festival is on (later in March) and to see a few more windmills. So, perhaps another visit will be made in the future!

~T 🔥🐉♋️

A trip away to Malta

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Feb 102022

Now that we are somewhat settled in our house, and public conversations are starting to return to logic with an acceptance that the “C” is not actually going to kill off the human race, we decided it was time to take a holiday.

It was a shock to realize that I had not been on a plane since arriving in Europe 15 months ago. I never would have imagined that I could go so long without air travel; however, thanks to the freedom of movement in the EU, I haven’t been completely one-country-bound. Plus, I admit to having some fear around flying with security measures tightened, people milling about, wearing masks for extended lengths of time, etc. etc. It is not so much that I had any fear around getting sick, but that people’s fear of it would cause an air of extra stress that I didn’t feel the need to expose myself to unnecessarily.

M had said after a few solo flights that everything was really straightforward and easy, so I figured I could test it out for myself. Malta is a short flight from Rome and part of the EU, so it was a good test trip for seeing the process of air travel at the moment.

As promised, it was easy peasy lemon squeezy. Aside from a few extra online forms, which I can manage comfortably, it was actually smoother and less stressful than pre-C days. The only challenging aspect was the early rise to drive to the airport, park the car, and wait for boarding – both directions. So, my travel bug has been nudged again thanks to our little weekend away.

In any case, let me share in pictures our trip to Malta. We were there for three nights and had one full day touring around with one of M’s old friends, who is Maltese. The sun was shining and there was a lovely vibe all around the place. Although it is a bit run down, we really enjoyed the energy of the country.

We said that we would visit again, but – to be fair – we often say this about places. Next time, we might stay in another area of the island that is a bit more modern, though Valletta is an interesting historical center and beautiful. However, there are so many places to explore now that I cannot say when our next visit will be…. With that said, if you ever have a chance to go to Malta, I highly recommend it – when the sun is shining!

~T 😀

Europe Phase II

Going Mental 2 Responses »

Apr 272021

Six months ago, we landed in France planning to rent for a few months and then finding a place to put down roots long-term.

As life continues to remind me, most things rarely go as planned…. First, there is COVID with lockdowns and difficulties in being able to explore areas. Then, there is a lack of knowing exactly what we want. More importantly, there is the Footner element that requires fluidity and flexibility in any type of planning.

It doesn’t mean that there isn’t eventually follow-through, it just means that the timing and commitment to a decision may not happen as one (I) might prefer/desire/hope/dream!

Therefore, for various reasons, we leave on Sunday for what I’m now calling Phase II of our European settlement adventure.

Where are we going?

We will be heading to a small town in the province of Umbria, Italy.

Why are we going there?

Well, the short answer is because we paid a good chunk of cash to ensure that we can get visas. Although, by some weird twist of fate, M has already gotten his French visa, I have yet to hear anything regarding mine. My “free” 90-days stay has long passed, which causes me a bit of strife even though I do have a registration number and can be here as a former EU citizen’s spouse. However, the complications of Brexit, etc. make me less comfortable with those mere threads of bureaucratic legitimacy, so off to Italy we go where I already have an agreement for a residency visa there for at least the next five years – renewable.

What does that mean exactly?

It means that we have to have a ‘residence’ in Italy to legitimize the visa and all other paperwork and status comes through Italy instead of France, as we had originally planned. Thus, we need to head to Italy for a month or so to get the paperwork done and to move forward with our settling in Europe. We have a place rented, though we may find a larger space as our aim is to have a “winter” home there as well as an address to send our stuff that is still in Japan. There are worse things to plan, I’m sure! 😛

I have made M promise that we are coming back to this area of France as my new friends are here and I don’t want to just disappear. Though, he has put some typically “Footner” twists into the Phase III plans, but since those could change by the time I finish this post, I won’t bother to put it down into print just yet. 😉

So, Europe Phase I has been lovely and definitely worth the Japan departure six months ago. My French is coming along fairly well, though I have started an online class to improve my speaking and listening. I figured it was a good time to do so since I’ll be away from any chance of being exposed to it while in Italy and I don’t plan to learn more than a few words in Italian so as not to get too comfortable!

~T 😀

Mongolia July 2019

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Aug 092019

It had been a while since Mom and I had taken a mother-daughter trip, so with life starting to return to normal, we made plans to reinstate them. With lots of options, we decided on Mongolia.

Many people gave us quizzical looks respectively whenever we mentioned where we were going as it is not a common travel destination – yet. However, this sort of made the journey even more exciting.

We booked an 8-day tour with Amicus Travel Mongolia focusing on being able to see Mongolia’s annual Naadam Festival towards the end of it.

Our tour started in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, with just one night in a hotel before meeting the rest of our group and a driver, who took us all to the airport in the morning. Then, we were left to our own devices to figure out where to check-in and catch the morning flight to Murun (Moron as spelled on our boarding passes – was that a hint?!). Luckily, there were five of us together, so we figured it out. It was a short flight and then we met our tour guide and driver for the first three days of the tour.

A rather long and bumpy car ride took us toward Lake Khuvsgol in the northern part of the country which shares the waterway with Russia. It was a beautiful area with green mountains, herds of animals, untouched lands and fresh air. Actually, just the scenery reminded me of Trillium Lake at home in Oregon, but the Blue Pearl lake is called such for a reason. The water was rather chilly, but it was gorgeous to see.

We spent two chillier nights in the Ger camps, experiencing how the local nomads might live in these homes. It was a bit like ‘glamping’, only less glamorous.

During this time, we visited a reindeer herd and explored the area with a visit to a couple of local families’ homes.

After a couple of days of this area, we then headed back to Ulaanbaatar for another night in a different Ger camp outside of the city area and compared the differences in herded animals as well as culture of the people.

We also experienced a bit of the spiritual side of the country in visiting temples both in and out of the city.

Of course, the highlight was seeing the festival with all its competitions from ankle-bone throwing to archery to horse racing to wrestling and the opening ceremony.

We toured the city and saw highlights as a close to the tour.

On the whole we enjoyed the trip. It was fun to see a completely different and fairly unknown country. While the history is rich with stories of Genghis (Chinggis) Khan, there is little known about its current status in the world.

With that said, I do not need to visit it again anytime soon. I might be interested to see its development in another 20-30 years since it is indeed a developing nation. Also, much of the tour was spent in a car getting from locations, which is not as fun. It reminded me a bit of the tour I took in Turkey.

As for recommending it, I’m not sure. I think if one has an interest in Mongolia or seeing a still fairly untouched country, then it is worth it. However, don’t expect the food to wow you or to be overly impressed with the tourism industry.

Click on the pic to see all trip pics!

Still, I’m glad I got to do another trip with my mama and to revive the travel bug in me! Now, the real question is, where to go next…? 😛

~T 😀

Retreating

Going Mental No Responses »

Nov 092018

When the sun and moon align, people gather together to view the phenomenon with the promise of each time being the ~est in our lifetimes. Yet, it is this equilibrium and balance that awes us and, despite all the fanfare and build up, lasts mere moments.

Our life experiences are similar. Though we do not always see the build up or understand the fanfare (aka drama) that we go through, we do live for those mere moments. Yet, there are also times when our focus is so much on the build up and drama that we miss the brief moment that it was all meant for. It is only when we have the luxury of time and reflection that we sometimes find light in the shadows.

In 2017, I had high hopes for life and was on a path that I thought was taking me to a better version of myself and my life. In fact, contrary to my usual avoidance in making New Year’s Resolutions, I set out quite a list of them for that year. Unfortunately, other than managing to finish my RYT500 yoga teacher training, I did very little in terms of the goals I had laid out. (Lesson being I’m probably not going to do that again! 😛 )

However, with somewhat disbelief that nearly two years have passed since our lives were quite different from now, I have been given the luxury of time and reflection to see the light in the shadows of those darker days when it seemed that there was no way out.

When we moved to Japan again, I took some time away from the world of yoga and mindful meditation. I didn’t have time to focus any energy on that as we had to go into survival and rebuilding mode. It was what was needed at the time, and still is to some degree for the foreseeable future. Still, as the Universe and God continue to bless us, some potential possibilities were building up to the forefront of reality.

In an early conversation about possibly getting to the point in our life to again think about traveling or taking some time to decompress at a retreat, my BFF mentioned that she follows someone on Instagram who hosts yoga and meditation retreats in Japan. I took note for later, as we were nowhere near a place to be considering such a thing seriously. Then, proving that the Universe knows, she forwarded me an article that came out interviewing the host of the retreats with more details about it. I again saved it for a later date since the timing was in the summer and we were just starting to touch our feet to the ground again.

Over the months, with the help of some secret-ing, we avoided attracting too much drama and instead focused on the alignment of our lives in all areas, as much as possible. Through this, the Universe and God conspired together to align timing and funding; thus, creating the opportunity to be able to attend the Dairyuji Yoga and Mindfulness Retreat in the very local city of Oga located in Akita Prefecture.

Literally everything aligned.

I was able to leave work early and take the five-hour trip from Tokyo to Oga for a meaningful and refreshing weekend.

Meeting G & K, our hosts, was like reading an inspirational book that reignites a flame of hope in humanity. Their kindness and openness was as fresh as the country ocean air surrounding the Oga peninsula.

For a yoga/mindfulness retreat, this one was an easy way to get my feet wet as a first-time experience. I don’t know about others, but my image of some retreats is more hard-core yoga practice and inescapable focus on being “spiritual”.

Perhaps because of the environment of the temple itself, or perhaps because of the people themselves, there wasn’t a need to be pushy. If anything, they could perhaps have been pushier with a bit more yoga and meditation time. However, if the aim was to provide a relaxing retreat environment with an opportunity to explore mindfulness and try some yoga, this was a success.

As an added bonus, I made connections with people whom I may never see again, and yet I feel were purposeful interactions drawing a nearly full circle from past to present. I think I’ve said before that I believe all connections have meaning and though I may not fully know what they are now, I hold them close in anticipation for a later revelation.

So, I will let the pictures speak for themselves as I consider the next possible, perhaps more hard-core, retreat in the future! 😉

Dairyuji-Oga Yoga/Meditation Retreat_Oct2018 / Google Photos

~T 😀

An Okinawan Holiday

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Sep 232018

The downside of going back to work and working for a business rather than an academic institution is that vacation days are limited. Add to that other life challenges, makes for a bit of a difficulty in taking summer holidays.

However, I’m not at all complaining as life is a far cry (positively) from what it was just over a year ago – still trying to work out how to update on that….

Anyway, we were finally able to manage a trip away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo life over a long weekend.

Both of us needed the bit of rest that the beautiful blue waters and sun of Okinawa provided us.

Most of our time was spent on the beaches as we tried out most of the popular ones thanks to being able to drive around the main island. The weather was absolutely perfect and so here are the photos that say it all!

~T 😀

Okinawa / Google Photos

Golden Week 2018

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May 062018

It’s the end of “Golden Week”, which is a bit of a misnomer because you don’t actually get the whole week off unless you take the two days in the middle of the week as vacation. However, it has been nice to have a bit of a break from the usual routine.

We started the ‘week’ a bit early with my work trip to Nagoya last week. M came down the last day to meet clients and then we had a free day to hang out and explore the city a bit. We came home for the three-day weekend that technically starts “Golden Week” and were able to relax even though M worked the Monday-holiday. I got the beginnings of a cold, I ended up relaxing most of the day and my body tricked me into believing I had gotten off easy and the cold had gone away.

During Tuesday and Wednesday, I was at work dealing with some position transition stress on top of trying to get a textbook updated – which is not done despite my best attempts. Although I brought it home with me, I decided against starting that habit….

Anyway, after a great night out with my BFF on Wednesday, I knew that the cold was coming back. Still, I fought through as I was determined to do our day trips as planned.

Thursday’s visit to Kamakura was lovely and the big ol’ Buddha didn’t give me the same eepy-creepies as it used to in my younger days.

Although I think I may have climbed Mt Takao before, it was fun to do it with my crazy hubby on Friday. It was especially nice to be out in a natural environment with some fresh air away from the city grime.

Unfortunately, pushing myself made my body tell me more strongly that I needed to rest. So, despite planning a beach trip on Saturday, the 2.5hr train ride was enough to convince us both that a day to relax was probably best. Still, we were not idle, we headed in to Tokyo and wandered the streets of Omotesando.

Today being the last day of the long weekend, we have done our household chores and I am catching up on writing whilst preparing mentally for the new week ahead. My cold is on its way out, but my body is still telling me to rest up.

Therefore, our first “Golden Week” has been a much-needed rest from daily life and a chance to just enjoy the days.

I have finally just started to be able to think a bit more clearly and to piece together thoughts that I have put off or been distracted from lately. My tech-detox has returned (aside from using the computer to write) for the day. If I have picked up my phone it has been to make connections with real people rather than just mindlessly surfing the Internet.

Lately, I have felt like I have been drifting through time and space. So, I need to read more pointedly and write more regularly. The weather is amazing and I am determined to appreciate it fully.

Life is truly good and ‘golden’!

~T 😀

Sooooo Excited!!!

Going Mental No Responses »

Mar 192017

Tonight I fly on my first proper holiday since December 2015! It’s been a crazy year and although it might not be the wisest thing to do – going on holiday now – I am going to be joyful for the opportunity and ability to do it anyway.

I think I have done it as cheaply as I can with using Airmiles to buy my ticket and saving up portions of my yoga and tutoring sessions to pay for the fun there. While I may have to be a bit more frugal than I would like, it is still going to be amazing! 😀

So, I’m working on last minute things to catch up on before I go. Thankfully, I can do quite a bit whilst at J’s place, but I also hope to relax and enjoy!

Yippppeeeeee!!!!

~T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Bergen, Norway

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Sep 062015

Back to my updates on summer travels – it is fun to look back at all that I did in such a short time!

So, our last stop in Norway was Bergen. We took another ferry from Belastrand to Bergen. It was a fairly chilly ride, so we stayed inside for most of this one. Plus, the joy of seeing the fjords was lessened after taking it all in the day before.

Bergen was by far the coldest place we visited despite going through snowy mountains. Since it is a harbor town, the sea winds blew in during the late afternoon to drop temperatures, so we were not as keen to be out in it for too long. Therefore, most of my souvenir shopping happened here. 😀

Bergen’s street shops are quite famous in photos – maybe you’ve seen them before and are just as picturesque in person.

24-Jun-2015 15:32, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 50.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100

View at Picasa

J and I walked around the town exploring. It’s not a big city, but a good size town that took us about two hours to walk around. Then, we took the funicular up to the top of the hill, which many people like to walk (crazy!), for a view of the area. It is quite beautiful to see.

24-Jun-2015 15:25, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, ISO 32

View at Picasa

We had a pretty good time and ate a really nice meal here, but we were definitely happy to skip out on the cold!

Here are all the pics from Belastrand to Bergen:

Scandinavia 2015: Belastrand to Bergen

More to come,

-T 😀

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