Hiroshima
December 6 – 9, 2024, Japan. We had a long day of travel from Koya to Hiroshima, over 6 1/2 hours, from bus to cable car to Shinkansen, the fast […]
Monthly Archives: March 2026
Koya
December 4 – 6, 2024, Japan. We were on our way to the . Shawn had been jonesing to go after a BBC special on the mountaintop village. We took […]
Nara
December 2 – 4, 2024, Japan. We were sad to leave Kyoto, but still had 10 days left of the trip. We said goodbye to our Airbnb hosts, who let […]
Kyoto
November 25 – December 2, Japan. Another tough goodbye. I had fallen in love with Takayama and didn’t want to leave. Of course, next stop was Kyoto. As it was […]
Takayama
November 23 – 25, 2024, Japan. I dropped my bags at the bus station in Shirakawa-go and walked back to the village one more time before leaving. I walked the […]
Shirakawa-go
November 21 – 23, 2024, Japan. From the snow monkey park in Nagano to Shirakawa-go in Gifu prefecture. On the way we stopped in Kanazawa, where Shawn had hoped to […]
Yamanochi
November 19 – 21, 2024, Japan. We took the 20 minute shuttle from Hatch-no-Yu to the parking lot, then waited almost an hour for the bus, then another 2 hour […]
Hatcho-no-Yu
November 17 – 19, 2024, Japan. Hatcho-no-yu was a mountain retreat with natural hot springs not far from Nikko as the crow flies, but because it was in a remote […]
Nikko
November 16 – 17, 2024, Japan. We said goodbye to the cozy house in Shimoda and hauled our things back to Rendaiji Station. It was a weekend, which I hadn’t […]
Shimoda
November 14 – 16, 2024, Japan. Saying goodbye to Kamakura was hard. Shawn said it reminded him of Santa Cruz. I thought it was more like Carmel. But either way, […]
Kamakura
November 11 – 14, 2024, Japan. We had booked an Airbnb in the house of an older couple in Kamakura. We had some stressful times getting there, as Shawn misheard […]
Tokyo
November 4 – 11, 2024, Japan. (I’m writing this travel log based on memory 1 1/2 years after the fact.) This was my first trip to Japan. My boyfriend Shawn […]
Homeward Bound
September 25 – October 2, 2024, Mexico to US. I hated the checkpoints I’d encountered in Sonora and Sinaloa and wanted to avoid them on my return home. I contacted […]
Puebla
September 21 – 25, 2024, Mexico. I was reluctant to leave Tlaxcala, as I had a wonderful Airbnb and a great experience wandering around the historic city. But I wanted […]
Tlaxcala
September 17 – 21, 2024, Mexico. I had a relaxing few days in Tlaxcala. My AirBnb, the most comfortable and spacious I’ve yet stayed in, was centrally located a few […]
Chingnahuapan
September 8 – 17, 2024, Mexico. It was hard to leave Kari, Oskar, and Cohan. They had taken me in, given me their own room, and treated me like family. […]
Exploring Vancouver Island
July – August, 1985. I left Paul Song’s OrcaLab on Hanson Island to try my hand at hiking the West Coast trail. Paul gave me a ride across Johnstone Strait […]
Meeting Orca
June – July 1985, Vancouver Island. I had been selected as one of several undergraduates to assist two marine biologists doing research on social behavior of orcas in Alert Bay/Telegraph […]
Lisa Karpinski 