🌸 Greetings from Osaka, The first blossoms are beginning to open against blue skies, such a contrast to the snow from only a week ago. This month I’ve been taking a food writing course, and there's one idea I keep returning to when the rest of the world feels too heavy to be writing about something like food or travel. Writing about food is rarely just about the food. It opens into culture, history, language, identity, power. It is a way to stay curious and connected. During Mahina ʻŌlelo...
13 days ago • 5 min read
👋 Greetings from Tokyo! The start of this year has already felt so heavy in many ways, and I know many of us are feeling the need to consciously look for moments of steadiness and light where we can. It’s said you have to be lucky to get a clear view of Mt. Fuji, so I took it as an good sign when I got this view from the Shinkansen on my way back to Tokyo. For me, being in Japan and spending time connecting with the language and culture over the past few weeks has offered up many moments of...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
👋 Greetings from Kyoto! It’s that liminal space between Christmas and the year’s end where I often forget which day it is. Do you feel it too? When traveling, this effect can be magnified. Without routine, daily habits can be harder to stick to, and there’s always something happening, somewhere to go, or someone to meet. This past week in Kyoto was a reminder of how important being social is for me when I travel solo, even at this stage of life. Somewhere in the middle of all the hustle and...
2 months ago • 4 min read
👋 Greetings from Tokyo! It feels like conversations about cost of living are everywhere right now. Housing is more expensive, travel feels harder to justify, and a lot of people are rethinking what’s actually sustainable. Ten years ago, I shared country-specific cost breakdowns during a long-term trip in order to be transparent about what life on the road actually cost me compared to staying in Hawaii. I’ve been getting similar questions again lately, so this time around I’ve been keeping...
2 months ago • 4 min read
👋 Konnichiwa from Tokyo! Late in the evening on Monday, I was jolted awake by the feeling of the room shaking. Having lived in Hawaii and Turkiye, where earthquakes are quite common, I thought I knew what was happening when I felt the shake. I started to hear murmurs of conversation around the usually-silent capsule hotel room. "Was that an earthquake?" I started to hear the word for earthquake in various languages as heads poked out of the capsules. Sure enough, it was! I checked my...
3 months ago • 5 min read
👋 Konnichiwa from Tokyo! I have just started settling into the rhythm of the city and trying to stop my brain from reaching for Turkish phrases every time I need to say something in Japanese. It's been wild how many Hawaii people are traveling in Japan these days! Last week over Thanksgiving dinner in Honolulu, my friends Melissa, Laurie and I realized we were all headed here on the same flight, yet a day apart! Of course wherever Melissa goes, amazing foodie experiences follow! Yesterday...
3 months ago • 5 min read
👋 Hello from Honolulu! I wrapped up my time on Maui with an early Thanksgiving with my family (including a special trek upcountry for our favorite pumpkin pie from Komoda Bakery) to cap off a few weeks of delicious memories. I hope that you and your loved ones also had a nice holiday! Next I headed to Honolulu for a special Thanksgiving dinner invitation to finally try Istanbul Hawaii! I've been following Chef Ahu & Chef Nili eagerly from Turkiye, and watched as their restaurant came to life....
3 months ago • 4 min read
👋😎 Aloha from Maui, I finally made it to Maui after being stranded in Portland for two days by the Alaska Airlines IT Outage last month. I'll be working on a post about what I learned and what you can do if it happens to you. (Besides taking a train instead if, ha!) In related news, Travel + Leisure reports on the withdrawal of compensation requirements for flight delays in the US. I'm so jealous of the requirements in the EU where passengers actually do get reimbursed! I'm still waiting for...
3 months ago • 4 min read
😎 Hello from the edge of Sequoia, Earlier this week we celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which reminded me that I’d mentioned Owamni in last week’s email but never shared the details. The modern Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis, founded by Chef Sean Sherman, ended up being one of the most memorable meals of my travels. My Instagram post (also on Facebook) about the experience seems to have struck a chord with people and has more than 32,000 views to date since the chef shared it too! If...
4 months ago • 4 min read