A 3:30 AM alarm is a shock to wake up to, and it’s all good. Our 5:45 AM flight to LAX was lightly attended, and once we made it to LAX, we walked to Terminal 7 to wait for our flight to Hong Kong. While a 4-hour wait is a long one, I’ve always been of the opinion that having too much time to wait is NOT a bad thing when traveling across the globe.

In terms of that travel, I’ve heard a lot about TSA in the past few weeks, AND the process was smooth, and the people were professional. I’m so impressed by this workforce working under challenging conditions to do their essential jobs…a shout out to TSA on this travel day!

Our group is no worse for wear, as you can see, and is prepared for the long day on the plane. Well, I should say as prepared as you can be considering a 16-hour flight. Still, it’s all good as we make the trek to Bhutan.

Our first stop, in Hong Kong, has us stuck with a 14-hour layover. We’re taking the opportunity on Saturday night to visit the Ladies Night Market (photos forthcoming), a market worth visiting. I’ll report on our overnight stay in the city, and at the Regala Skycity Hotel.

May you be happy, may you be well!

Preparing for international travel is a real challenge for those of us who lead students. The last minute checks for boarding passes, visa requirements, and etc can push one over the edge. Even with all of the preparations and planning, inevitably something goes awry.

Sitting in the middle of this gale, resisting the urge to run, I settle into problem-solving mode. Double-checking information, communicating with families, finding out ways to fix anything that arises, the moment can seem overwhelming.

For those planning international trips, the facts are these: you cannot check too often on travel plans, etc. It may feel like you’re committing too much time to the situation, and the reality is that you are not. When you plan, like me, without the aid of companies, agencies, and other systems to help organize your travel, you will find that you can accomplish the task using lists, writing in journals, and talking to everyone involved.

Here, in the evening before the trip, you rely on what you’ve done before this moment. Your experience, your knowledge, your insights.

And so…we depart for Bhutan tomorrow morning, making stops in Hong Kong and Bangkok. We’ll find our way to the Ladies Night Market, to the Chao Phraya river, and ultimately, to land in Paro to experience life in the Land of the Thunder Dragon.

If you’re reading this blog, you’ll find posts on our journey including photos, information about places and people, as well as the unvarnished views of those who are traveling with me. Through it all, I hope, dear reader, you’ll find something of interest, something that captures your imagination, and maybe consider embarking on a journey to the other side of the world. I can promise you an experience unlike any other.

I am constantly shocked at the whole idea of travel bans on countries around the world, and the most recent bans being considered include Bhutan.

Of all of the countries in the entire world to ban, Bhutan is among the most absurd decisions made by any administration.

Bhutan represents the best of what this world has to offer in terms of how we can live our lives with care and conviction. That we can live in harmony with those around us, and that we are a part of this earth and as such must be the guardians of the planet in every possible way.

If you are reading this post, my advice is to make your voice heard request that the United States does not ban Bhutan from travel or exchange (or, frankly, any country).

For more information, please check these sights for information and clarity on the emerging topic: https://apple.news/A6o2MeXOsQw2eXx74xf2EIg

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/BREAKING-Trump-administration-lists-Ghana-24-other-African-countries-for-possible-travel-ban-Report-1987869

https://www.cfr.org/article/guide-countries-trumps-2025-travel-ban-list

I sometimes wonder if my expectations of travel and experience get in the way of just being with the experience? As I reflect on my trip to Japan, I noticed a few things that have stayed with me.

First, throughout my days there I felt at ease by day 3. The drugged feeling I had coming from the U.S. faded and I was able to enjoy spending time doing nothing. When I look back, it was day 3 that I shifted expectations and started to go woith the flow of the moment rather than trying to build some kind of experience from my itinerary or prior decisions on where to go and what to do. Instead, I let things happen. Once I settled into the trip, I just wandered around.

INnmy wandering what I found was myself. I found out more about who I was than anythign else and, as someone has said in some book, poem, or text, I met myself in Tokyo. It was a beautiful kind of letting go.

The one thing that does stand out more than two weeks after my visit was the exhibtion at the Tokyo Museum of Western Art called Does the Future Sleep Here? That exhibition caught me completely by surprise and the artwork and artists statements brought me to a different place in my heart and mind. I found something new AND something in myself. Maybe THAT is the whole point of travel: to be transformed by the places and people we visit, and then carry that experience with us.

I was particulalry struck by Nakabayashi Tadayoshi and his etchings on display at the beginning of the exhibition. His work is fantastical and detailed. The etchings are remarkable in both their detail and depth. They feel three-dimensional and almost pop off of the cream toned paper that he uses.

As the exhibit unfolded, it openly questioned the whole purpose of an art exhibition and offered the idea that a static display of art takes the art out of the context of the artist, making it isloated and missing a sense of humanity and connection.

I left with a wonderful sense of fulfillment and a slightly lighter step as I walked back into the light rain that permeated my days in Tokyo. I walked back toward Asakusa and followed some narrow roads and alleyways through the neighborhoods that fill this part of the city. As I walked, i was gaining a real sense of the expansiveness of the city and the distances between the various parts of Tokyo. I could feel the differences between the parts and something of the nature of life in various locations. Away from the bustle of a tourist attraction, families went back and forth to school, work, restaurants, and the tasks of daily life. The thing that always strikes me is the deep quiet of the city walking through these streets. One block away from a main street and things are much much slower.

Experientially, I learned more Japanese than I learned in my work at home and I still struggle to initiate conversations. I do know the language will come and I do know that as I gain confidence, that change will unlock more of what I’m looking for in Japan.

I’m waxing philosophical, so I’ll bring this all to a close with some photos of this recent visit. Looking forward to my next visit in June 2025. In the meantime,

May you be happy, may you be well.

When I decided to visit Tokyo, I planned for chilly weather AND I did not plan for multiple days of rain and clouds. The lack of unfiltered sunlight was not in my original plan. This weather pattern that covered much of the Kanto plain during my time in Japan made me alter most of my plans. For example, I had planned to hike a series of trails in Chiba and near Kamakura. When I traveled to the trailheads, the trails were very challenging to hike. Rain made some of these trails impassible. In one case, I walked upstairs to the beginning of a trail only to find the path of a slick, mud-filled trek. After a few minutes and soaking wet shoes, I turned around, gingerly descending to solid ground.

In the face of these altered weather conditions, I fought to desire to head indoors and, for the most part, traveled all over the city. I visited so many parts of the city I had never seen and spent time just seeing the built environment of Tokyo. While I took many photographs, none of them really captured anything new or unique. Many are just quick shots amid a light rain.

It’s easy to be disappointed in these circumstances and I worked through the challenges to find something in the city. These photographs capture some of what I saw. As always, I wish I had more time and had visited more places. AT the same time, I did what I could do with the time I had available.

It’s easy to get lost in this sprawling city as you wander through neighborhoods and business districts. Still, I was determined to walk through this city with feet firmly fixed to the ground, looking around the small streets and wide boulevards seeking out what makes Tokyo, Tokyo.

This particular approach to travel is a bit unusual in the age of finding somekind of unique place and then publicizing it all over social media. My waanderings, instead, were meant to find anything per se. They were a way to be a part of the physical environment and along the way find images that captured my particular attention. On these days, I was drawn to the many alleys and small spaces that are everywhere in this city (and many others around the world). So many small places tell us something about the people who live in this metropolis.

In most alleys in the city, you don’t find people. They are spaces that are representative of lived places without people actually present. I guess that’s not surprising; alleys are often places people pass by and occasionally go through.

In most cases, as I walked past alleys, I found people doing some form of labor. Cleaning, hauling, tossing trash, or working on some aspect of dail life. These moments were sometimes fleeting, and I often missed the photo as a group of workers (almost always men) were moving through the place.

Some alleys offered access to businesses and homes, and, in mamy cases, both. Storage containers were often part of these locations and plastic “milk crates” or cans filled with all kinds of material sat along these tiny thoroughfares.

Still other alleys weren’t alleys at all, but tiny streets filled with people going from place to place. These small walkways were fascinating in the amount of people and shops that filled the spaces. In some ways, they were more populated than main streets all over Japan.

In some places, an alley was the home to vehicles of all kinds. Cars, motorbikes, and bicycles. In small towns outside of Tokyo, I found vehicles in alleys most common.

Many alleys in Japan start with small trinkets or ceramic objects. Most common were small hedgehogs in a kind of human-form. These various objects were almost always at the entrance to an alley.

These street and alley scenes in Tokyo offered a glimpse at less obvious characteristics of this city. I found in these places a kind of authentic view of life in the city. In these places, I found something about Tokyo that I didn’t find in the historic sites and more tourist-centric places in the city. At the same time, I’m not valuing one part of the city obver another; I just found something equally interesting and scenic in this huge metropolis. I also found that even in a place that is so huge, small spaces dominate and make up the physical structure of the city. Maybe it’s in these alleys that Tokyo lives ad breathes.

May you be happy, may you be well.