True North Strong

Gyeongju feels like stepping into a completely different version of Korea. After the coastal buzz of Busan, I arrived here and immediately slowed things down — starting with renting a bike for ₩15,000 and setting off to explore what is essentially an open-air museum of ancient Korea . And I mean that literally. Hills… That Aren’t Just Hills One of the first things you notice in Gyeongju is the landscape — these big, smooth, rolling grassy mounds scattered all over the city.

Hi Everyone! After Japan, I hopped on a ferry from Hakata Port in Fukuoka straight across the water to Busan. The trip takes about six hours , which is just enough time to settle into the ship and begin questioning your life choices when you discover what they call a “10-person cabin.” Cabin is… generous. Picture an empty room with ten paper-thin futons folded along the wall like emergency floor nap kits. It’s essentially a minimalist slumber-party staging area. I never actu

Hi Everyone! Fukuoka itself is a fantastic city — lively, modern, and full of amazing food — but for me the highlight of my time there was getting out of the city and seeing the wild heart of Kyushu island. So I signed up for a bus tour that promised volcanoes, ancient shrines, and dramatic gorges. Naturally I said yes before even finishing my Pepsi BIG ZERO . Our first stop was Mount Aso , one of the largest active volcano systems on Earth. Not just “big volcano big” — we’re

Hi Everyone. Hiroshima, for obvious reasons, is going to be a little different than the others. Before things turn heavy, there’s a stretch in the video of me wandering through the streets — bright lights, sizzling grills, and the comforting smell of things being fried that probably shouldn’t be fried but absolutely should be eaten. It’s lively, noisy, and full of energy. If you dropped into the footage without context, you’d think it was just another vibrant Japanese city d

Hello Everyone! After a few days in Osaka I jumped on the Shinkansen and made a quick stop at Himeji Castle , which might be the single most “yep… that would have been impossible to attack” castle I’ve ever seen. First off, the thing looks exactly like what you imagine when someone says feudal Japanese castle . White walls, layered rooftops, towering above the city like it’s still expecting an army to show up any minute. The nickname is “The White Heron Castle” because the b

Hello Everyone! My first night in Osaka followed a very simple plan: arrive → find food → regret how much food I ate. Naturally, this meant heading straight to Dotonbori Street , Osaka’s neon-lit food carnival. If Tokyo feels like the polished global capital and Kyoto feels like a living museum, Osaka feels like the friend who says, “Let’s go eat something ridiculous at 1 a.m.” and somehow convinces you it’s a good idea. Osaka is famously nicknamed “Japan’s Kitchen” ( tenka

Hello Everyone! After Tokyo, I hopped on a train to Kawaguchiko with visions of postcard-perfect lake shots and Mount Fuji looming dramatically in the background. Reality check: rain. Overcast. Moody clouds doing everything they could to protect Fuji’s privacy. I wasn’t alone—there were plenty of other tourists standing around with expensive cameras, all collectively pretending this was “atmospheric” and “intentional.” Honestly though? Blessing in disguise. After absolutel

Asia Adventure 2026 — Tokyo: Transit Systems, Neon, and Koi Fish Hello Everyone! I finally got some downtime to put together the first video and this blog post! - hope you all are doing well. Enjoy!!! Tokyo didn’t ease me into Asia. Tokyo grabbed me by the shoulders, handed me a transit card, and said “keep up.” And honestly? I loved every second of it. Let’s start with the trains — because if you can figure out Tokyo’s rail system, you unlock a new life skill and +10 confi

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the delays between these posts. Simply put, I have been off enjoying life and continuing to adventure all over the place. Trying to squeeze in as much as I reasonably can without overdoing it and getting burnt out. Truthfully, I have been riding too closely to that edge and I've been exhausted at the end of each day - little time or energy to work on video editing and blog posting. I have still been taking loads of great videos and drone shots that I wi

Hi Everyone! From Rome, I rented a car - a Fiat 500 with a manual shift. Just my size, lol. Seriously though, I fit nicely into the driver's seat, and it had more than enough room for me and my backpacks. The first leg of the car journey was from Rome to a little medieval town called Siena in the heart of the Tuscany region of Italy. I had not even heard of this town until I was looking at places to stay along the road, and many search results seemed to all say that Siena was

Hi Everyone! This leg I visited what is known as the Eternal City of Rome. I loosely go by this rule for how many nights to stay in a given place (coding nerds will enjoy this - I hope): if I have never heard of the place but need somewhere to sleep then 1 night only otherwise, if I have heard of the place and it isn't super well known for sight-seeing and adventures then 1 or 2 nights at the most, otherwise if it is a known tourist destination with lots to see then 2 or 3 ni

Hi Everyone! I rented another car for this leg of the journey as that allowed me to get up close and experience fully both Mount Vesuvius and the meandering drive of the Amalfi coast. Spoiler alert: it was beautiful. Flowers flowers everywhere. Got some more awesome drone shots. There are some sections of the video that are sped up sequences of me driving all over the place so it might get a bit too much/dizziness inducing for some. There were no drones allowed for basicall

Hi Everyone! Today I toured the ancient and suddenly destroyed city of Pompeii. I have to say it was a bit overwhelming being there and getting to see the scale of it all. An entire city lost in moments. I learned (and it makes sense really), that when the volcano was erupting, the people did not realize the imminent danger that was upon them. In fairness, Mount Vesuvius does feel a long way off when looking at it - they had no clue or prior knowledge that something like a py

Hi Everyone! Florence/Firenze is often described as the jewel of the renaissance, and it sure lives up to that standard in my books. Of course, I went to go see the David and took more of those boring pictures of old buildings (yes just for you GRACE!) ;). Most of my knowledge of Florence before visiting was based on the sequel moving to The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal. Basically, a bunch of museums and people sitting around drinking espressos... and the odd cannibalistic

Hi Everyone! Venice is just like it's been depicted to me in Movie and on TV - for the most part. Only canals and narrow walkways. A handful of more open piazzas. Could actually feel a bit claustrophobic for some as it was also a weaving maze of jagged intersections and sneaky paths. Restaurants and boutiques everywhere - it was beautiful and delicious. I needed to investigate and take the water bus to get to the southern island where my hostel was, but that ended up being a

Hi Everyone! I'm officially in the Italy parts now of Italy. What I mean is, it wasn't feeling very "Italy" when I crossed over from Switzerland up in the Alps, but now it's just like what I've seen and loved from the movies. Milan is the fashion capital of Italy and where all the famous brands (Gucci, Versace, etc.) are all headquartered. This goes back 100+ years and makes some sense as this is also where the raw materials and fabrics are created. Milan is an ancient city g

Hi Everyone! After Bavaria I figured I was so close to Switzerland that I better go and check it out. I hopped on a train from Munich first to Zurich, stayed there for about 3 hours, and then back on the train reach and spend the night in Geneva. Zurich was pretty cool. I scootered around the town which was fun and a great way to see a lot in a little time. I could tell this place is used to having loads of snow, so it seemed a bit odd to be there in +28 Celsius. Geneva wa

Hi Everyone! So some of you may know a bunch of this, and others (like me) will have had no clue going into this. Neuschwanstein Castle was the place in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that the baron/bad guys captured and hid the children in. It's also the visual inspiration for the Disney Castle in Disneyland and in the Disney logo/intro to movies. But it's actually the last Castle commissioned to be constructed by Ludwig II one of the last, and certainly the most crazy

Hi Everyone! I'm putting some miles on for this next one. Travelling from Dubrovnik to Split by ferry. Don't worry, it was a safe and barf free journey. Spent the night in Split and then I was back on the main train network. From there I went to Zagreb the capital city of Croatia. The train was very slow and winding. It was beautiful countryside, but it took about 8 hours which felt about 6 hours too long. As you will see in the video, I stayed in what looked like the s

Hi Everyone! Dubrovnik was amazing. Great views of the city, good food, very friendly people. I first went to the nearby Lokrum island to get some good clips of views across to the city and to explore. Lots of outside scenes for Game of Thrones were shot on this island and that TV show has become a major part of tourism in Dubrovnik and on this island. The island had a nude beach but nude only - if you had clothes on you weren't allowed to go and creep on people. From my