Category: Asia
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6 things i learned in the 5 days i spent in china
Credit cards (and cash) are not widely accepted. Not even McDonald’s in the Shanghai train station accepted credit cards. The main form of payment is via AliPay or WeChat app where it’s either linked to a credit card, or you pre-load money onto it and it works like a debit card. Weather at the end…
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how to be a tourist in shanghai
Get a view of the Shanghai skyline at The Bund – if you don’t want to pay for a 360-view in one of the many observation decks, the Bund offers a fantastic (free) view of the skyline – especially if you go at night. I’m sure daytime views has its perks but all the buildings…
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how to be a tourist in shaoxing
Shaoxing is located 1.5 to 2 hours (by train ride) south of Shanghai. We visited the town since we were visiting Ben’s Grandpa. It’s not a major city in China so most tourists traveling to China probably would not be adding this town to their itineraries. But should you find yourself in Shaoxing, these are…
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31 foods you should say konnichiwa to in japan
Not an exhaustive list but these are some of the things I got the chance to try. I didn’t love everything I ate but I feel like if you’re visiting a foreign country, you might as well try it. As Andrew Zimmern would say, “If it looks good, eat it!” Sushi – I feel like…
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9 things i learned in the 7 days i spent in japan
Weather in mid-March is pretty mild. It’s not like March in NYC, when you might still need a coat. In Tokyo/Kyoto, you just need a light spring jacket, and perhaps a scarf. It does get chilly at night so make sure you’re prepared for that. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch some cherry blossoms at this time.…
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flying ana
ANA, or All Nippon Airways, to Japan is like Delta to the United States. However, if you compare the two airlines, it is no contest. ANA is better than Delta by 1000%. We flew ANA from Tokyo to Shanghai. It was a 3.5 hour flight that took off at 10 pm (Shanghai is one hour…
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how to be a tourist in kyoto
Let me just preface this post by saying that two days in Kyoto is definitely not enough. We had only about a week in Japan but didn’t want to stay in Tokyo the whole time, so we chose Kyoto for the last two days – mainly because I wanted to visit the deer park and…
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fushimi inari taisha
You’ve seen it before. The red gates all over Instagram. A quick Google search of ‘red gates Kyoto’ will show you Fushimi Inari Taisha. Out of character, I didn’t really do any research on it prior to our trip to Japan. I only knew that it would be about 20 minutes from our hotel. Since…
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a day in nara
Nara is about an hour from Kyoto, and you can take the JR Nara line. This was more like a half day trip since we had to be back in Kyoto, to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, so that we could catch a flight at night to Shanghai. We did this because our time…
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what it’s like to ride the shinkansen
The bullet train, or Shinkansen is the quickest and easiest way to get from city to city. If you’re planning to travel to multiple cities, it might be a good idea to get the JR rail pass, where it allows you to have unlimited rides within a certain amount of days. Since we were only…
how to be a traveler 