Stephenie Harrison

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Steph16

Unexpected Delights at Chi Lin Nunnery & Nan Lian Garden

For as long as I can remember, I have been a planner. In the years (yes, years!) leading up to leaving on this journey, I wiled away countless hours reading, researching and dreaming about all the things Tony & I would see and do when it was finally our...
Hong Kong
Steph14

Dim Sum Big Boss Battle in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the land of good eating and features many excellent restaurants. For a country so small, I was astounded (and excited!) by the number of Michelin stars it has under its belt - I believe the free tourist map we picked up one day at Victoria Harbour...
Hong Kong
Steph9

Hong Kong: First Impressions

I’ve never really believed that big cities could be beautiful. Dynamic, electric, inspiring? Sure. But beautiful? Not so much. The essence of beauty seemed far too lofty, too delicate, to allow itself to be captured and entrapped in towering cages forged from steel and concrete.
Hong Kong
Steph36

How Much It Costs to Travel in JAPAN (& Other Handy Advice)

Japan was the first country we visited on our Big Trip, and what a way to kick off our adventure! While many long-term travelers opt to skip Japan for budgetary reasons, we found the country a perfect place to ease ourselves into Asia and learn to travel without training...
BudgetingJapanTips & Tricks
Steph12

What We Ate: Osaka Edition

If there is one thing you need to know about Osaka (other than the fact that it has an awesome aquarium), it is that it has a reputation for being something of a food town. Unlike nearby Kyoto, Osaka is made up of hoi polloi: people who work hard...
FoodJapan
Steph29

Kaiyukan: The World’s Best Aquarium?

You don't have to know me very well to know that there are few things in life I love more than an aquarium. Back during my early graduate school days, a friend and I made a chart in which we documented various bits of trivia that would be apparent...
Japan
Steph31

What We Ate: Kyoto Edition

By the time Tony & I reached Kyoto, we had hit our stride when it came to dining out in Japan. Gone were the meltdowns and apprehension about our lack of Japanese producing an insurmountable barrier for us when it came time to meeting our hunger. It may have...
FoodJapan
Steph11

Unconvering Arashiyama

If you were to rely solely on a guidebook to pinpoint all the must-see spots in Japan, Arashiyama would likely be one of the last places you visited, that is, if you visited at all. A western suburb of Kyoto, the area is not so insignificant that it fails...
Japan
Steph11

Monkeying Around in Arashiyama

There are many legitimate reasons to visit Arashiyama located in Western Kyoto, but I won't pretend we came for any reason but one: the Iwatayama Monkey Park. If you read our post on Nara and witnessed my glee at feeding deer, then you can only imagine my excitement at...
AdventuresJapan
Steph12

Cooling Down in Kibune

It's funny the things we see on travel blogs that capture our imagination and make us want to visit a place. When our friend L'Ell lived in Japan, she kept a fantastic blog that detailed her many adventures in "the land of the rising fun" (as we referred to...
FoodJapan
Steph12

Geisha Gazing in Gion

If there is one thing that stands out clearest in my mind about our time in Japan, it is just how overwhelmingly kind and helpful the people we met there were. Obviously we had a taste of this when we were lucky enough to CouchSurf, but our positive interactions...
AdventuresJapan
Steph21

1001 Temples & Shrines to See in Kyoto

Disclaimer: I am pretty sure I read in a guidebook that Kyoto is the self-professed temple capital of Japan. Whether it actually has 1001 temples and shrines, I don't know. What I do know is that a common affliction suffered by eager visitors to Kyoto is the insidious "temple...
Japan
Steph13

Mountains, Momiji Manju & More on Miyajima

The island of Miyajima has long been considered one of Japan's holiest islands. It is a place so sacred that for many years women were forbidden from stepping foot on its shores, and the elderly were shipped elsewhere to die so as to prevent the island from being contaminated...
Japan
Steph11

Sadness & Serenity in Hiroshima

For most visitors, a trip to Japan is not just a voyage through space, but also one through time. Travel to Tokyo and Osaka and you may feel like you have traveled 20 years into the future; visit a place like Nikko or Takayama, and you may easily feel...
Japan
Steph22

“The People Are the Places”: CouchSurfing in Furukawa

One of the things Tony and I did in preparation for our RTW trip was to sign up for CouchSurfing. At the time, we didn’t know if we would actually ever use the service as we tend to like to do our own thing and weren’t sure how we...
FoodJapan