Pandemic Plan A finally begins!

In 2020, when we had a lot of time on our hands, and were stuck in our house confined, we started dreaming. We were dreaming of an open, expansive life where we could explore. Where we could create a period of time where we could really sink in to being away from work and engaging with new parts of the world. We dreamed of taking time to travel slowly and really learn about places and people and cultures and who we are in relation. And we saved and budgeted and waited for travel to open again.

But, we had an elder cat so even when it opened we couldn’t really go far with her. So last winter we traveled the southwest and Noodles kept rallying and she even made it home and past her 21st birthday. And we worked and saved more and now we can go!!!

Zarah and I got on a plane to Redmond OR to start our journey

We had a bit of a scare the last day. We had been ahead of schedule packing up our personals in the garage and getting the house ready to rent and that is good. We woke up the day before our flight to San Francisco to find it canceled and had to scramble to find an alternative to get down there. The email said they had tried to rebook us but nothing was available for a few days. Just before we were looking for a car to rent and drive 14 hours down there, we got a call back from the nice people at Alaska to get us a weird way to fly there. Phew.

And we toasted our journey, played Star Realms and ate snacks

Our first view of Japan after 11 hours of no land in sight.

We got on the plane at noon and flew for 11 hours where the sun never went down. despite our exhaustion we managed to get a train and get to our tiny hotel room and fall blissfully asleep by 7:30pm.

So Denny’s is really not the same here: Rice porridge with chicken and shrimp, eggplant and spinach and a coffee bar.

We found that coffee shops seem to mostly open at 10-11am. I’m not sure why and we just didn’t know how to get breakfast until we saw Denny’s. It was a good start to the day and we felt better about being lured into an American restaurant once we saw the menu.

13 responses to “Pandemic Plan A finally begins!”

  1. Love you lady J and so happy we’re starting this next journey – together ❤️

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  2. Wooohoo! Have a great time!

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  3. jenniferlblackburn Avatar
    jenniferlblackburn

    Aww, love how you toasted to your new adventure over a game of Star Realms! So glad you’re finally starting your dream trip. I can’t believe you’ve already seen so many cool things and found such yummy food when you just got there! It’s fun to be reading this blog again. ♥️

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  4. I love how you include lots of interesting details along with photos. Enthusiastically waiting for your next post!

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement Leanna!

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  5. We haven’t heard from you in awhile. Did you get coffee?

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    1. Hi, who is this? I only see your screen name… just curious and needing context for your question…

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      1. I was culture shocked and alarmed that coffee places don’t open in Japan until late morning. It’s carolyn

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      2. Hi Carolyn! Your name makes sense once I know. We have got coffee in the morning most days but because it is so hard in the morning, I have to admit we’ve gone to Starbucks several times.

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      3. I have had some really good coffee a few times though! The chocolate in one of my mochas had such depth of flavor, there were notes of fruit. It is super strange that they seem not to want coffee until lunchtime or later.
        I haven’t posted in a few days because the next post is the Hiroshima Atom Bomb Memorial and it’s hard to write.

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