McKenna's Map

  This time I was home for 48 hours before leaving for another trip: My parents very kindly invited me to join them and my sister on their spring break trip in Florida so they paid for my flights to and from Florida from Phoenix (I always want to be truthful when I don’t pay for things, because the rest of the travel on here is self-funded thru income) To make the most out of this and use up my Frontier miles, I tacked on a trip to the Virgin Islands to visit the national park. I had 2 horrible layovers and airport sleeps in Orlando and Puerto Rico on the way there (shorter on the way back) so I’m glad I brought my sleeping pad. I paid for this leg of the trip (including an expensive hostel and groceries) and really enjoyed the change of scenery and experiencing the unique culture of the Virgin Islands. I took $2 safaris (shared open air taxis) to get around and stayed on St Thomas but made 2 day trips to the national park on St John via the ferry ($16 round trip). I didn’t want to...

I was home for a grand total of 12 hours before leaving for spring break! Visited 7 national parks in 9 days over spring break: White Sands: basically a huge playground! Carlsbad Caverns: stunning! (Make sure to reserve a time slot for self guided tour - natural entrance) Guadalupe Mountains: great for hiking and summiting the highest peak in Texas Big Bend: I loved this place way more than I thought I would! We enjoyed the hot springs and swimming in the Rio Grande (while watching ppl buy tamales from a grass shack across the border by passing them over the river) and we enjoyed a bit of hiking/viewpoints throughout the park. The weather was absolutely perfect when we were there and we camped near Santa Elena canyon which was beautiful Great Sand Dunes: very snowy and cold when we were there but fun to climb the dunes Black Canyon of the Gunnison: very snowy so couldn’t access most of the park but did some snowy hiking around the visitor center and enjoyed stunning views of the canyon...

 Flew from Osaka to Misawa to visit Oma (a remote area on the Shimokita peninsula), which I was really excited about. However, I was unknowingly carrying a bed bug from my hostel in Tanabe. I always ctrl + F bed bugs in the reviews whenever I book an accommodation but they arrived at this one in Tanabe between when I booked and when I stayed (so lesson learned to check again the day of arrival). I was really stressed about spreading them to my home so I stayed up all night researching solutions. I first inspected every inch of my belongings in the bathroom of my hotel room in Mutsu and Tyler ordered vacuum sealed bags so when I got home we put all of my belongings in bags outside and put them in the freezer below 0 degrees F for 10 days. Scientifically, bed bug eggs, nymphs, and adults cannot survive 4 days of 0 degrees F. I also swabbed my electronics with alcohol and put duct tape over the ports.  I was going to stay at a minshuku in Oma but didn't want to expose the family ...

Hiking the Kumano Kodo Buddhist pilgrimage on the Nakahechi route!   Left Nagoya after an early morning meeting and took a train journey to Shingu - did a lot of schoolwork on the train. Ate some ramen at a small, family owned shop and visited the Kumano Hayatama Taisha (one of the 3 major Kumano Kodo temples). Sat on top of the hill at Shingu Castle Ruins to enjoy the view and picked up my dual pilgrimage credential booklet for the Kumano Kodo and Camino de Santiago (World Heritage sister pilgrimages). Went to my accommodation in Kii-Katsuura and took a rest day the following day.  Visited Hotel Urashima (walked thru a maze of tunnels to get there) to use the cave onsens overlooking the ocean for a day. I started by messing up due to not researching enough ahead of time. I didn’t realize that to complete the Nakahechi route in full, you only need to start at Nachi, not Kii-Katsuura. Most people take a bus to Nachi Taisha (2nd of the 3 main temples) but I walked from Kii-Katsu...

 After the temple stay in Minobu I continued on to visit my friend Rebecca (met in Vietnam) in a suburb of Nagoya where she teaches. I stayed with her for several days and we did some fun day trips over the weekend. First, a snowy trip to Gero. Tyler and I went here last summer so it was cool to see the town in the winter and the outdoor onsens were perfect for the cold but sunny weather. Bought the 1,500 yen onsen pass to gain access to 3 onsens of our choice, limited by visiting hours (typically only available to ryokan guests). The next day we walked a section of the Old Nakasendo (an ancient highway between Tokyo and Kyoto) between Magome and Tsumago. Stopped for some tea on the way and enjoyed pleasant walks in nature.   

  Took an $80 flight to Vancouver and had the best time visiting my friend Sophia!! Lots of laughs, beautiful hikes, and good food! Then hopped back over to Japan (apparently when I said I wanted to go back I meant within the year) bc if ur already at an airport with budget flights to Japan you’re actually saving more money than if you hadn’t gone at all…right? I went back for several reasons but one was to experience less touristy parts of Japan that I did not get to experience the first time around - plus I wanted to take advantage of being fully remote for work and school this semester! I worked on my paper for my master’s most of the 10 hr flight to Tokyo, then took the bus from Narita to Tokyo station and hopped on a couple of long (but cheap) trains to Fuji (the city by the ocean, not up next to the mountain) It was a lot colder than Vancouver and the desert has turned me into a baby so it was quite a shock, but I walked awhile to a few outdoors stores that were still open to...