Here are some pictures from my trip to Japan in 2009. This time around, I went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, and oh yea, I hiked Mt. Fuji! I went with my buddy Barrie, and we had an awesome time. We got a chance to see Nujabes perform there (RIP), as well as the And1 Mix Tape tour from the US go and kick some butt! We got to see the fires lit into the mountains in Kyoto at the Daimonji festival, check out the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, and also had a chance to catch an Obon festival at Miyajima. Seriously, this trip was full of so many memorable moments – it’s hard to beat all of those experiences in the span of one vacation.

Oh and seriously, if you meet a couple of German girls, it’s never a good idea to impress them with your knowledge of German that you happen to remember from your World History class in high school. They will not be impressed by your knowledge of unterseeboot, kristallnacht, gestapo or blitzkrieg. Seriously, keep it to yourself.

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I just realized that my old travel pictures from Japan and Hong Kong in 2008 were removed from the website. I think it had something to do with hosting the pictures in Flickr and then having my premium (ie: paid) membership lapse and not having access to them anymore. Well, that’s why we host our own pictures! How do you like me now, Yahoo!?

Anyways, these were some pictures that I took when I went backpacking alone throughout Japan and Hong Kong. I stayed in a bunch of hostels along the way –

Tokyo:
Sakura Hostel Asakusa
Asakusa Hostel Toukaisou
Bakpak Hostel

Kyoto:
Bakpak Hostel

Hong Kong:
Mirador Mansions

All of these places were great and I had a wonderful time, meeting all kinds of awesome and amazing people. It was a great retreat where I relaxed, refound and reset myself. Oh yea, don’t stay in Mirador Mansions, even if it is like $13 a night. Well … I guess it’s not that bad – I met some great people there too, but seriously, you can probably do better.

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I went to Mammoth this past weekend and it was awesome! We made it up there in 5 hours and did a bit of hiking and sightseeing. It was beautiful up there – I’d only been there in the winter before, but it is really pretty during summer/fall. I can’t wait to go back!

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I totally forgot to post pictures from our trip to Hawaii last year! I’m not much of a landscape photographer, but I gave it a whirl and I’m pretty happy with some of the pictures that came out.

Here is one of the lookouts past Waimea Canyon on the west side of the island.

Here’s a picture of the actual canyon – I was extremely nervous standing at the edge taking that picture.

I loved these ferns at the top of the mountain, they were so lush!

On the drive up – 18 miles of windy 25 mph mountain roads.

On the drive back down …

One thing that I love to do when I’m traveling around is that I love to explore everything that I can – that includes driving down private roads that say “No Trespassing” and taking pictures of house frames.

You know it’s time to go though, when a pickup full of locals come out from the main residence in your direction. Time to jump into the Ford Focus and take off!

Here is the view from our condo – we stayed at the Westin in Princeville and it was great – multiple BBQ pits, and a kitchen in our unit too.

We also went to Wailua falls, which was really easy to access and quite pretty.

One morning we went down to a beach called Hideaways and it was gorgeous.