I’ve always wanted to do what every tourist dreams of doing when visiting Vietnam: traveling the country from south to north and hitting all the must-see cities along the way. This post describes my journey with Dave, a once-random stranger I met at a hostel in Ho Chi Minh City, who quickly became a close […]
Vietnam Across the Country – HCM, Mui Ne, Da Nang and more | June 2023 Read More »
When I planned my trip to Yamanashi in February, I saw an opportunity to combine that with a short vacation with my friend Lanny as we always wanted to travel together and Japan is one of our top must-visit places. She was immediately excited but the timeframe did not match up with her schedule. We
Finally a Japan Vacation Trip | April 2023 Read More »
On the last day of our trip, and i have to admit, seemingly everyone was feeling the effects of the past few eventful days. Our destination was Shizuoka and we were to be picked up by a bus at our accommodation. To our surprise, our teacher was not the only one there to greet us
Yamanashi: Day 9 – Shizuoka, company tour and farewell Read More »
As part of the program, we were of course not supposed to enjoy ourselves too much but also needed some educational output, hence today we created posters, which described what we learned and experienced with our tandem partner at Yamanakako. On our way back home, we then passed Oshina Hakkai, a touristic village between two
Yamanashi: Day 8 – Oshino Hakkai and Barbecue Read More »
The morning after Karaoke was not as exhausting as expected and the breakfast, provided some welcoming nutritions, albeit not as high in variety as you would expect it from a hotel. Our plan for the day was to visit Lake Yamanakako, located southeast of Kofu City, which would take us about an hour to reach,
Yamanashi: Day 7 – Yamanakako Read More »
Today was a planned rest day from the Yamanashi culture exchange program. Originally, Sorn, Joram and i planned a spontaneous one day ski trip at a nearby area, however unfortunately the forecast predicted a rainy morning, which is why we chose to plan an alternative activity with the girls. Our teacher informed us, that currently
Yamanashi: Day 6 – Aeon mall and Karaoke Read More »
Saturday. Officially we would have had classes, however we needed the time for organizational matters especially concerning the upcoming days to form groups, assigning local students and managing hotel room. Joram, Sorn and i formed the group Flying Fish, while the girls containing Celine, Pam, Antonia and Maria formed the group Frying Pan. After lunch
Yamanashi: Day 5 – Furoshiki and Okonomiyaki Read More »
Today classes started at 10 am again and our lectures was discussing about what our interests are and what we would do in our spare time. In the afternoon calligraphy classes were introduced to us, instead of the previously planned wagashi (candy) making. Calligraphy in general was already hard, but i felt like drawing with
Yamanashi: Day 4 – Calligraphy and Kofu station Read More »
Today, our class started in the dormitory due to an emergency meeting that our teacher had to attend at 10:50. Our class started at 9 am and ended at 10:30 am after which we hung out in our accommodation until we had to move out and meet up again at 1 pm at the university.
Yamanashi: Day 3 – Winery Tour and Izakaya Read More »
For the time period of the exchange program our teacher would stay at the same accomodation as we did. So we all started our first day together by walking to the university. When we arrived, we had to clear some organizational procedures before we could receive the scholarship of 80,000 Yen. This took much longer
Yamanashi: Day 2 – Campus Tour Read More »