“Round the World” Asia Trip 2014
Flying around the world, only to end up in Asia again
Just some weeks ago, with a cheap mistake fare, my college friend Chiarng and I embarked on a two week journey around the world spanning New York, Milan, Florence, Prague, Sapporo, and Tokyo.
The plan was perfect until we got into a suffocating traffic jam, and missed the check-in at JFK. Entering crisis mode, we inquired airlines what their flight prices are to various destinations as we weighed our options to get out of New York City.
As we still have unused one-way tickets from Japan to San Francisco, our priority was to be in Asia to hopefully salvage the existing hotel and flight reservations in Sapporo and Tokyo. Our salvation came in forms of a $424 one-way ticket to Taipei. A fare cheaper than even a return ticket to San Francisco at the time.
So home we went. Without telling our parents until landing, of course.
Catching up with friends, spending time with family, the trip was pretty bread and butter for a visit back in Taiwan. What is different this trip is the big elections spanning all jurisdictions. While elections is not something unique to this island, Taiwanese elections have a special festive quality to it. It even sparks tourism from across the straight.
Not only are billboards and banner ubiquitous, candidates also hold rallies that rivals large concerts.
The rest of the trip spanned across Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan renowned for its natural beauty and exceptional produce, and Tokyo.
Our main objectives were to shoot sceneries in Hokkaido, and to meet with friends in Tokyo. Chiarng was especially serious about landscape photography, and even rented a car so we can reach remote destinations.
As a result, I have a new-found fascination with landscape photography. Indeed, finding perfect moment of temperature, weather conditions, and light can be a gruesome exercise, but the photos in the end makes it all worth it.
Captions will be minimal. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
Omitted are the various delicacy we had on the trip. For that, I will make a separate post. As for Hokkaido, my photos don’t do justice for a lot of places we visited. I will come prepared next time.
Until then,
