TDM
-
Takayama & Cherry Blossoms [Japan Road Trip #4]
We wake up early to enjoy our ryokan’s onsen before breakfast. Indeed, the onsen is only open until 9 a.m., and breakfast is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. This travel diary is part of a series on our road trip in Japan. If you missed the previous episodes, here are the links: the itinerary, diary #1, #2, #3 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 3 of the road trip: After a hot spring bath, we’re hungry. But breakfast is right on time. As usual, it’s hearty and full of local specialties. In the middle is hoba miso, i.e., miso (fermented soybean paste) placed on a…
-
Matsumoto Castle, Cherry Blossoms, Wasabi Farm & Ryokan [Japan Road Trip #3]
We woke up rather late today, checking out at 9:45 am. Our hotel in Matsumoto doesn’t offer breakfast, but there’s a large lounge where we can help ourselves to free hot drinks. My parents also bought and brought along plenty of pastries. This travel diary is part of a series on our road trip in Japan. If you missed the previous episodes, here are the links: the itinerary, diary #1, #2 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Day 2 of the road trip The hotel owner asks about our plans for the day. I mention Matsumoto Castle. She recommends a hill covered in cherry blossoms,…
-
Mount Fuji by car [Japan Road Trip #2]
Now that my parents have arrived safely in Japan, the whole family is together, and we can start our road trip by car. This travel diary is part of a series on our road trip in Japan. If you missed the previous episodes, here are the links: the itinerary, diary #1 Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Car rental We left bright and early to pick up our car from Sixt. Initially, we thought about doing part of the trip by train and part by car, but after seeing the reasonable rental rates, we figured it was worth doing the whole thing by car. We…
-
3 days in Tokyo [Japan Road trip #1]
We were supposed to travel with my parents to Turkey, but our schedules didn’t match. So instead, we invited them to Japan, just after hanami and before the Japanese Golden Week (Japan’s big holidays). Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal We had to get to Japan from Chile, and the journey was very long: an 8-hour flight between Santiago & Atlanta (USA), a few hours of layover, then a 14-hour flight between Atlanta and Tokyo. Luckily, by choosing seats at the back of the plane, we each had an empty seat next to us, making the trip much more bearable. Those long hours on the…
-
How to get cash (for free?) from ATMs in Japan?
Although card payments are widely accepted in Japan, it’s still essential to have some cash on you at all times. Street food stands and the machines used to order at restaurants are often cash only. Withdrawing cash from ATMs outside the eurozone always needs a bit of planning, as you can quickly lose a few percent on each withdrawal if you don’t optimize. The first step is to make sure your bank doesn’t charge you withdrawal or currency conversion fees. This is the case with many neobanks: N26, Revolut, Boursorama, Fortuneo, etc. (still, check the maximum “no-fee” amounts). If you don’t have a neobank account, ask your banker. Most traditional…
-
Car rental in Japan: how to get a translation of your driver’s license?
Since Japan is not like other countries, I made sure to check the conditions required to drive a car during our road trip. Good thing I did! While in the vast majority of countries, an international driver’s permit is sufficient, that’s not the case in Japan! To have the right to drive in Japan, you’ll need your national driver’s license, accompanied by a translation certified by the JAF (Japan Automobile Federation). The translation request can only be made from within Japan and requires a stated processing time of about two weeks. I tried to cheat by connecting to the website with a Japanese VPN , but nothing doing… it’s impossible…
-
Itinerary: 8-day road trip in Japan (Spring 2024)
Here’s the itinerary I’ve put together for our upcoming road trip in Japan. If it helps, you can access the itinerary via this link. Note: this road trip is by car, not by train.
-
Back on Easter Island in 2024 (Chile)
We went to Easter Island during our first round-the-world trip (gap year), a few days’ stopover between Tahiti and Santiago. We never thought we’d go back a second time, and yet… this year, the opportunity came up, and to make the most of it, we spent a week on the island. Now, the official name of Easter Island is Rapa Nui, no longer “isla de pascua” or “easter island”. Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Measures against overtourism Even though the island is in the middle of nowhere (between 5 and 6 hours by plane to the nearest destination), it suffered from overtourism in 2018-2019,…
-
3 days in the Sud Lipez desert (Bolivia)
I usually write my articles “while the iron is hot.” In this case, I’m writing it three months late. Since I didn’t note down the name of each stop and my memory is far less reliable than Anh’s, this article won’t be very precise. Sorry 😀 While we’re in Uyuni, I finally decide to book a 3-day/2-night tour to discover Sud Lipez. I hesitated a bit because Anh, due to her sensitivity to altitude, doesn’t want to do this tour. So I leave her in Uyuni for 3 days. There’s no shortage of tour agencies in Uyuni; they all offer the same tours at a similar price. We chose one…
-
[Behind the Scenes] A blog post translated into Chinese and published in a book!
In the 8 years (!!) this blog has been around, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing it cited in other travel blogs several times. It’s always very rewarding to learn that we’ve indirectly contributed to other travelers’ adventures. The problem is, they never tell us! So I’ve gotten into the habit, every now and then, of doing some research to try to identify new mentions. And today, big surprise! Through Google Books (a service that digitizes physical books), I discovered that our blog is cited in a book. And not just any book: a practical French-Chinese translation manual. It’s “Manuel pratique de traduction chinois-français/français-chinois: B2-C1” by Pascale Elbaz and Linlin…
