Lists and Leaving Dos

Thanks for the photo, Azu! Taken at a BBQ outside of Tokyo.

The moment I found out we were going to be moving to Hong Kong, I was stricken with panic.

Why?



Because I haven't been able to do everything I wanted to do in Japan!

Isn't that the way it always is?  We always assume we can push off our grand plans of exploration and discovery to another weekend.  There's always a reason, even very good ones: I should wait and save more money, the weather is terrible, no one is free to travel with me, it's just too hot, it's someone's birthday, etc.

But I guess the good thing about moving away is that it really reminds you to get out there and get it done!  I was honestly waiting for Winter to be over for me to start on my to-do list:

1.  Look for fireflies
2.  See wisteria gardens
3.  Eat expensive fruit
4.  Visit more onsens 
5.  Visit more neighborhoods outside of Roppongi
6.  Visit Japanese vineyards (grapes and onsen): Yonezawa. Yamagata Akayu Onsen
7.  Climb Mt. Fuji
8.  Go to Disney Sea
9.  Eat at one of the best sushi restaurants
10. Road trip through Kyushu
11. Visit Okinawa

That's pretty much as far as I got. The italicized are ones that I actually ended up ticking off before leaving.  Though, I only saw a handful of fireflies (still counts!), I ate one expensive white strawberry, and I did visit Shimokitazawa but I'm just embarrassed that it's even listed as a goal so it probably doesn't really count...

Anyways, I am super happy about our amazing 2 week road trip through Kyushu region (I will post in detail about later). Japan is really a beautiful and amazing country!

Here are some random bits from the past 6 weeks or so before our vacation.  By the way, I purposely limit my social photos of friends and colleagues because...well, I want to make sure people are ok to have their photos posted these days.

One of the best maguro sushis we had before leaving. It was in a tiny shop in Meguro!

Firefly action out in the boonies.  It looks like there are several, there was actually, like...two.

Packing up the apartment

Only part of the huge stash of food we had to give away.  We weren't allowed to pack any food with the movers.

Our highly prized hoard of fruit roll ups also had to be given away!

Team drinks in celebration of our quarter.

I'll get started on those Kyushu Road Trip posts!