On International Travel

I actually have a very good excuse for not posting until now. I have been traveling. My husband and I went for a two-week vacation to Japan.

We had been intending to go for years. We've been planning this trip for about 6 months. On 10/3 we went. Yesterday we returned. It was truly a trip of a lifetime!

My husband and I are not uber-experienced international travelers. Yet, we did our homework and had a successful journey. We wanted to see how it "really is" in Japan, so we researched tours and travel companies and found a great company out of Australia called Intrepid Travel. They specialize in "adventures" that get you off the beaten path and get you in with the locals for a destination. Exactly what we wanted.

We took the Lost Japan trip. Turned out, it was a group of 9 of us, with 3 Americans, 3 Swiss, and 3 Australians, including the leader. We got to see places that even natives didn't know about! Travel was primarily by JR train, including the famous Shinkansen, or bullet train. We took a ferry to the island of Ojika in the Goto Retto archipelago west of Nagasaki in Southern Japan. The trip also included a few days in Tokyo and Kyoto, to experience big city life.

I filled an entire notebook of memories and descriptions of our days; I won't post it all here right now! I think I'll post highlights and summaries over the next few days.

But first, a few thoughts on International Travel.

• The plane trips are long and the "economy class" of a 747 is cramped and crowded. Unless you're very wealthy, just get used to it. Bring things to do, exercise well before and after the journey, settle in, and deal with it.
  
• Travel light. Yes, you really can live for 2 weeks out of one carry on. We did. The other members of our groups were envious of our one backpack/suitcase.
  
• Embrace the location. Use travel to get out of your normal way of living. Learn that there are other ways to live in this world. No need to get upset if you can't find coffee, toast and yogurt for breakfast! Try the green tea, soup, rice, and pickle.
  
• America isn't the best at everything. Japan beats our train system - it's no contest.
  
• Smiles and laughter go a long way, even if you don't know the language. But try to learn some of the language and don't be afraid to try it. Expect to make mistakes, and plan to laugh at it.
  

This trip did exactly what we'd hoped - pushed us out of our "comfort zone" and gave us a perspective on going some place where we don't look like everyone else; where we can't read or even sound out the words.

In my opinion, it would be great for everyone to do this at least once in their lives, especially us Americans. We get awfully complacent in our isolation and we get self-centered in our ignorance. This directly influences our foreign policy and international relations....and you know what? We're not the only country on this planet!!