Hi Readers,
Every year I take 2 weeks off from work to go back and visit my parents and my sister, who all live in Taiwan right now. I am currently in day 2 of my annual family vacation. We choose someplace different to go together every year, and this year it's the island of Hokkaido, in Japan. This is supposed to be a wondrous place, full of wildlife, nature, scenery, and good food. The only catch? We happened to book our flight for one of the weeks when there was a typhoon (Asian hurricane) hanging out over the entire Hokkaido area. It has rained nonstop for the entire time that we've been here, which is a good (opposite?) change from the eternal sunshine that we get in California.
I guess that we are lucky in the sense that the typhoons typically don't pack much punch in terms of wind. Generally speaking, the rain causes all the damages. Because of that, our tour group is continuing the tour through Hokkaido, through all the torrential rain. I told the tour guide that this is a refreshing change from the nonstop sunshine that we get in SF, but I kinda lied... It's only the second day, and I'm already tired of it. Despite so many people trying to convince me that I would tire of the eternal sunshine in California, it's already been 2 years and I'm not even close to being tired of it yet.
The island of Hokkaido is not at all what one would imagine when thinking about Japan. It's probably what the main island of Japan would have looked like 100 years ago. There's so much wilderness here, it could easily pass for rural Colorado or something, except cars drive on the left side of the road. But because it is so wild, there's a lot of down time everyday on the bus as we drive all around the island. Right now, all the people on the entire bus (as far as I can see) are passed out. I'm taking advantage of this time to write this quick blog post. This reminds me of the long bus rides that we took in Africa, when I would also blog the entire ride too. Traveling can be such a cathartic experience (is that the right word?)
So far, I am having lots of fun with the family. It's been so long since I've seen them, and everything is going well so far. I'm hoping the rest of the trip will be the same way. Though, maybe a little less rain.
Cheers,
FCDH
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