Huangshan, China (March 2003)

Few snapshots....

Costa Rica (August 1999)

I decided to visit Costa Rica partly because it's the 
cheapest airfare I could find to Central America. 
These are pictures I took during the summer of 1999. I 
stayed with a local family near San Jose and met some 
really interesting people. It was my first time to 
Central America so I didn't know what to expect. I 
remember arriving at the airport with only a physical 
description of my host family's house: "white with 
two trees in front of the yard". With my pathetic 
Spanish somehow I managed to find it and the house 
turned out to be blue. Ticos and ticas have a great 
sense of hospitality. This country is visually 
stunning and absolutely breath taking. Hey, I even 
survived few earthquakes and aftershocks!

Beijing, China (December, 1999) 

Burrhhh, it was cold! I especially bought a heavy 
down jacket for this trip but only to be taunted by 
Suj and Wilson constantly because I supposedly looked 
like Frosty the Snowman.Like the usual tourists, we 
climbed the Great Wall, visited the Forbidden Palace, 
and the usual sites. Suj caught most of the attention; 
everyone wanted to see the Indian girl who spoke 
perfect Mandarin (we are talking about curled R's 
here, which I have yet to mastered). Here are some 
pictures from Hong Kong. I didn't take any picture 
of my hometown GuangZhou (Canton) because it is such 
a mess! 

Italia (January 2000)
Roma    Firenze    Pisa    Venezia 

Michelle and I spent two weeks in Italy before we 
headed to Shannon. Our route began in Venice, then 
Florence, Pisa, and eventually Rome. That's one more 
check on my long list of things to do. 

Ireland (Feburary-May 2000)

Here are some pictures I've took while I was studying 
abroad in Limerick. It is strange to go abroad to a 
place where English is spoken. Don't feel like I am 
quite foreign but at the same time, we are worlds 
apart. And I didn't spent all my time in pubs. The 
best partof my stay are my housemates: Germans, a 
Canadian, and bunch of Americans. The best conversations
are carried out in the backdrop of Buffy the Vampire 
Slayer and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.   

Seattle (summer 2000)

Here are some pictures I told while I worked in Seattle. 
I was shocked at how polite seattlites are. I've even 
gotten into the habit of greeting my bus driver EVERYTIME! 
People just don't do that in New York. The sight of 
Mount Ranier is breathtaking. I have to climb it one of 
these days.  

London 

Flew to London for a weekend when I was in Limerick. 
All I could remember was that it was sooooo expensive! 
I believe the taxi ride from the airport to city center 
cost more than my round-trip airfare. Big Ben was cool. 

Swarthmore College 

Swarthmore has one of the most beautiful campus in the 
country. Swatties tend to forget that. As the saying goes 
- "please stop and smell the flowers!". 

NYC, New York

Where I used to lived and still livingat the moment.

My Travel Wishlist

Ecuador
Egypt
Silk Road
Mongolia
India

To all you travel bugs out there, drop me a note if you 
are interested in traveling the Silk Road summer of 2001. 
At moderate pace, it should take about six weeks. I 
have yet to map out a route, I would love suggestions! 

Take a look at http://www.centralasianvisa.com/akihito.