This week’s Photo Friday (#FriFotos) theme is VILLAGES.  Pictured is a small (and very wet) village near Tonle Sap Lake, not far from Siem Reap Cambodia.

Photo Friday: Village near Tonle Sap Lake, outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

Question: My husband and I are taking your advice—we’re going to campervan through New Zealand!  We’re flying in and out of Auckland, and we’ll have 10 days total.  Your blog post was very helpful, but I have a few additional questions. 

• Do you recommend your campervan company?
• How did you know where to go?  Did the campervan company provide a concierge or planning service?  Is it easy to find the national campervan parks?
• How did you book your excursions?  Which excursions/activities would you recommend doing?
• Which places/towns/sites do you recommend visiting?
• We are planning to only tour though the north island, since we don’t have too many days.  Do you think this is a mistake?
• What supplies do you recommend we bring?  Is there anything you wish you brought with you?  What can/should we buy for the campervan once we are there?
• What problems did you run into, if any?
• Did you feel safe?
• What did you do about music?  Did you hook up your iPod to the car stereo—did they provide an adapter, or did they at least have an input for one?  (this question is from my husband!)  

Ask Chris: Renting a Campervan, New Zealand is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

Get your free February 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper!  Pictured are snow monkeys soaking in the baths at Jigokudani monkey park in the Japanese Alps.  Choose the size that best fits your screen resolution.

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Next wallpaper coming February 29!

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February 2012 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

I knew that Hello Kitty came from Japan, but I never realized how cat-mad the Japanese were until I saw images of Maneki Neko – the lucky Beckoning Cat – all over the country.

Once you notice one Maneki Neko, the white or gold cat statues that you’ll find in store fronts and restaurants, you’ll start seeing more. Sometimes the Maneki Neko has a waving paw, sometimes it will have kittens. In all cases, it’s a symbol to entice prosperity.

Why do the Japanese think that cats “beckon?” One guide explained it to me like this: In Japan, people beckon others to come to them with an overhand gesture instead of underhand. Cats make this same motion with their paws when they wash their faces. Thus, cats are seen as friendly.

But Maneki Neko wasn’t the only cat experience I had during my 12-day trip.

In Onomichi, we met Shungi Sonoyana, an artist who has created a tourist attraction called “Cat Alley,” featuring rocks painted as cats.

Shungi started as a painter in the town’s Buddhist temples. He first painted the cats there, he said, because the animals played an important role historically bu guarding the sutras (Buddhist texts) from rats and mice. The stones caught on, and he began to leave them in the town’s narrow alleys to attract attention. He makes more than 3,000 lucky cat stones annually.

Cat Alley would be a footnote if it wasn’t for a popular Sony ad that brought the stones into households across Japan. Now the cat rocks have been sold around the world, and Shungi has made quite a business out of it.

He’s also made a star out of his own cat, Coume (small plum, in Japanese). When I asked him if he had a personal affinity for cats, however, he said that he preferred dogs. Guess those don’t sell.

Our last cat encounter took place in Tokyo, where we visited the Calico Cat Cafe, a place where people who love animals can pay to play with them.

It costs 1,000 yen (about $13) for an hour with the cats. The patrons can feed the cats, take pictures, and generally enjoy the benefits of pet ownership without the hassles.

 What I found interesting about the cafe is that one of the workers, Yumi Ehata, told me that business at the Cat Cafe has been up since the March 2011 earthquake & tsunami. ”They cannot have cats in their house,”  Yumi said. “All cats have healing powers. It calms them (the patrons) down.”

I couldn’t leave Japan with buying my own beckoning cat. I chose one that’s also a bank. That way, if the cat doesn’t bring prosperity, it’s no one’s fault but my own.

My trip to Japan was sponsored by several hotels and government organizations, but my opinions remain my own. 

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Japan in Jan: Maneki Neko, the Lucky Cat is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

Shepard Fairey mural at Wynwood Kitchen and Bar, Miami

Question: I rarely get a chance to travel and I am considering a trip in February, the 20-26. I am not really bent on going any place in particular, but I really want an experience where I will be comfortable and occupied while travelling solo. I am a painter and printmaker and had thought an Art vacation could be fun, but they all seem to start in March and beyond. Do you have any thoughts? My budget is not huge so I kept checking travel deals and packages, but am wary of signing up for something that could be a mistake.

Answer: Do you like architecture? Palm Springs has its Modern week in February, although it might be over by the time you get there. Miami is known for its art galleries in the Design District and Wynwood neighborhoods, plus there are Art Deco tours on South Beach. Nearby Palm Beach also has some nice museums.

As far as other arty cities go, Scottsdale has been having a Fine Arts Expo this year (and Tucson, which has a lot of Native American galleries, is not far away, so you could split your time between several cities). I would say New Orleans – I love the galleries and artists there – but Mardi Gras is on Feb. 21 so it will be more expensive and crazier than usual.

Otherwise, I’d pick a city that you’d like to visit – Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC – and really dive into their museum and gallery scene. February is busy in LA because of awards, but the other cities are relatively quiet during that time. Chicago has great museums too, but the weather in Feb. is pretty dicey.

Any art lovers out there have more recommendations for this reader? Leave them in the comments!  

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Ask Chris: Recommendations for Art Travel? is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

In Japan, I was told that there are three things that you must eat in Tokyo: Sushi, Wagyu beef and tempura. In less than 24 hours there, I managed to consume two out of three.

First, beef. We had spent our first few days in the country being served gorgeous, but often inedible, kaiseki meals that contained oddly textured fish and tofu dishes that you’d never see in a Japanese restaurant in the United States. We were ready for some red meat.

The meal came at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, which became internationally famous back in 2003, when a small film called Lost in Translation was filmed there. I watched the movie again on the plane ride over to Japan, so while I knew the hotel’s bars and skyline views were touristy, I was looking forward to seeing it in person.

Our dinner took place in the New York Grill. This was the only place on our 12-day trip where Westerners outnumbered the Japanese, and one of the only hotels that seemed full. I kept glancing around to see if any celebrities were in the mix.

The waiters brought cuts of raw meat to the table for us to choose. I’m not much of a red meat eater, but I had Wagyu beef once before and knew how different it would taste from your garden variety steak.

And we weren’t disappointed. The steak came out, and although it was more medium than rare, it still blew other cuts of meat that I’ve had out of the water. It really does melt in your mouth. Our sides included whipped potatoes, creamed spinach, and macaroni & cheese with leeks. Absolutely decadent.

The rich food and red wine meant that I fell into bed in a meat-induced stupor. All to soon, my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m., preparing me for my next indulgent foodie outing.

Shinji Nohara, the Tokyo Fixer who has set up meals in Japan for a constellation of food writing stars, met me at 4 a.m. for a trip to Tsukiji Fish Market. The bad news was that visitors were forbidden to visit the market’s famed tuna auction. The good news? We’d be among the first in line at Sushi Dai for breakfast.

As we waited, Shinji told me a little bit about the history of sushi. The practice of eating fish and rice wrapped together started in early Tokyo (when it was known as Edo). It appealed to the working class, who ate it from stalls run by food vendors.

Sushi Dai isn’t the only sushi restaurant open at Tsukiji Fish Market, but it’s one of the best, as evidenced by the lines. Doors open at 5 a.m. and the lucky first 13 file in for breakfast, greeted exuberantly by the staff.

Shinji pointed out a few differences between American and Japanese sushi restaurants. For one, the rice is served warm, not cold, and it’s always made fresh. The pieces are put on the bar directly, as soon as they are created. And you don’t use chopsticks; instead, you pinch the sushi with your fingers and eat it. There’s even a saying, Shinji said: “Let’s go pinch some sushi.”

I was still full from my meat indulgence the night before, but I started to get hungry while watching the chefs at work. It’s hard to turn down fresh fish.

Shinji did the ordering, and the pieces kept coming. I did decline sake; at 5 a.m., it seemed like it would be a little hard on my stomach.

The piece de resistance? A clam so fresh, it arrived writhing on the bar. I laughed, and bit right into it. It tasted crisp and briny, not chewy as clams often do in the States. Shrimp was also a revelation – so much sweeter and better than you’d find here.

Besides clams, Shinji encouraged me to taste a few other species of fish I hadn’t had before. I tried sea bass, which came slightly salted with pink rock salt, jackfish with ginger and scallions, and Japanese gizzard, which is a type of fish, not innards (it’s pictured above).

The meal cost about 7,000 yen (about $95 US) for both Shinji and I. That may be a lot for breakfast, but it’s nothing compared to what you’d pay in the States for fish that fresh.

After my sushi breakfast, I returned to the Park Hyatt where I indulged in a swim and hot bath in the hotel’s spa. The workers at the pool were very adamant about swim caps, while the spa attendant chided me for wearing my bathing suit in the spa.

Next time I go to Japan, I’m going to schedule more time in Tokyo, just for eating. I’ll return to Sushi Dai, visit one of those tempura places that Shinji talked about and hit up some ramen shops. The city is a playground for food lovers, and I need another play date.

My visit in Tokyo was sponsored by the Park Hyatt Tokyo, but my opinions are my own. 

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Japan in Jan: Eating Tokyo, Sushi & Wagyu is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

This week’s Photo Friday topic (#FriFotos on Twitter) is EXOTIC. I immediately started thinking of all the exotic fish species I saw at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.

I went through the market with Shinji Nohara, the Tokyo food fixer. He’s guided some illustrious names in the travel/foodie world, including Anthony Bourdain, Alan Richman and Adam Platt. He got me through an AMAZING sushi breakfast at 5 a.m., but more on that later.

I didn’t get to see the famed tuna auction because it’s off-limits to tourists between Dec. 1 and Jan. 22, the busiest time of the year. Even when the auction is open, you need to plan ahead;  only 120 people are allowed in per day. You apply at the Osakana Fukyu Center (Fish Information Center) at the Kachidoki Gate, starting at 5 a.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis.

I saw only a handful of other tourists when I walked around the market with Shinji. No matter, I was too busy checking out all the different and unusual species. The market handles more than 400 types of edible sea life, from seaweed to monster tuna to geoduck to things that I found unidentifiable.

The sheer volume is also staggering. Shinji told me that about 200,000 tons of fish move through the market every day.

If you’re going to Tokyo, don’t let the early wakeup call deter you from visiting Tsukiji Fish Market. It’s one of the city’s most famous tourist attractions for a reason. And who knows, maybe it will inspire you to try a variety of seafood that you’ve never had before.

My trip to Japan was sponsored by several hotels and government organizations, but my opinions remain my own. 

Want travel updates in real time? Like Chris Around The World on Facebook!

Photo Friday: Tsukiji Fish Market is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

I’m bad at crafts. As in famously bad. And it turns out I’m particularly bad at traditional Japanese arts that require full attention to detail, such as paper cutting.

On my 12-day trip to Japan, our group made several attempts at traditional craftwork. At Hoshinoya Kyoto, we put together small incense bowls. Our teacher was precise and orderly. We….weren’t.

And at Hoshinoya Karuizawa, a hot springs resort town about an hour northwest of Tokyo, we took a stab at origami. And believe me, stab is appropriate terminology because we really mangled those cranes. #CraftFail.

Better to leave it to the experts, such as paper cutting artist Chiharu Mizuguchi. We met Chiharu in Shuzenji,, a hot springs resort town in the Shizuoka prefecture (located about an hour southwest of Tokyo, near Mt. Fuji).

Chiharu, 28, had mad cutting skills. She grabbed a piece of paper and scissors as she talked to us, and within minutes, churned out a silhouette of a little girl holding a flower.

What’s even more special about Chiharu is that she’s self taught, in a field that’s traditionally been dominated by men. Her work is starting to get recognized; we saw fans and other papers with her designs in stores around Shuzenji.

We were all so impressed that we ordered custom art pieces from her. I asked her for a piece with snow monkeys on them. She came up with a lovely cut out that I plan to frame, and it only cost me 3,000 yen (about $45).

But Chiharu pulled out all of the stops for Val D’Elia, who asked for a larger piece of artwork. By studying Facebook photos of our trip, Chiharu cut out a complex, multi-scene page that not included Val with her camera, it included the sights that we had seen throughout Japan. And she only charged 7,000 yen (about $90).

We all left feeling that Chiharu could charge a lot more for custom pieces and paper cutting classes. Once her English gets better, she’ll be adept at taking commissions and having a real online business.

My trip to Japan was sponsored by several hotels and government organizations, but my opinions remain my own. 

Want travel updates in real time? Like Chris Around The World on Facebook.

Japan in Jan: The Art of Paper Cutting is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

Just as 9/11 changed many aspects of American life, so, too, has 3/11 – also called March 11, the date that the tsunami decimated the Sendai coast, affected Japan.

In Tokyo, more locals, particularly young women and couples, have been seeking out places with “healing powers,” such as the Calico cat café, where people pay up $13 an hour to pet animals.  People ask sushi chefs where the fish is from, check labels to make sure produce isn’t from the north and worry that the government isn’t telling the truth about radiation.

For tourists, who have steadily been trickling back into the country, the post-3/11 landscapes mean that you’ll find value adds at luxury hotels and ryokans, and fewer crowds at some of the country’s famous museums, sites and temples.

During my two week stint in Japan this month, we saw very few American tourists. Granted, January is  the off-season and the Yen remains very strong against the dollar. But it seems that fears over the fallout from the country’s nuclear plants linger almost a year later.

At the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, which ranks very high on TripAdvisor, more than half of the hotel’s guests used to come from overseas, with Americans being the highest percentage, said Ken Yokoyama, the hotel’s general manager. Since March 11, that figure has dropped to 20 to 30 percent, he said.

The hotel is trying to counter the drop by promoting Kyoto, the country’s cultural center, as a destination, Yokoyama said. They’re also adding value-added packages, such as 50% off the second night of a two-night stay, or a third night free. Transportation to and from the city’s train station is also included.

Those are great deals, particularly in a country that’s never been cheap to visit. Yet I saw very few international leisure travelers in Kyoto while I was there, although there were plenty of Japanese taking domestic trips for the New Year. It will be interesting to see what happens at cherry blossom time in April, a traditional month for Westerners to visit.

There’s more than 500 miles between Hiroshima in southern Japan and Fukushima, where the affected nuclear plants were. Yet international tourism to the city, which draws people who are interested in its tragic history, has dropped by 50 percent, said Ryoji Okue , a tourism official with the local government.

To counter the drop, the city is inviting the media (my group were the first American journalists to come since 3/11, he said, and a local TV news crew covered our visit) and travel agents, as well as attending travel shows. “We are presenting that we are safe and doing ordinary stuff.”

Still, filling rooms is an uphill battle when you’re fighting a difficult situation such as radiation exposure. While I had no problem visiting the country when invited, I’m not sure I would feel the same way if I was traveling with children. If I had kids, I would have certainly spent more time asking restaurateurs where their food came from, and been cautious about the seafood they consumed.

(As it was, I consumed plenty of raw fish and seafood on my trip, as fishing from Sendei has been halted. Grocery stores also label the prefecture where produce and livestock come from, and most people I talked to said they paid close attention to make sure their food came from the country’s western coast).

Then again, the level of risk that you’re willing to take as a traveler is always personal. “People have different comfort levels in terms of travel,” said Bodhi Fischman, an American owner of the Kyoto-based Plus Alpha Japan, which arranges luxury experiences throughout Japan. Most of his company’s high-end customers cancelled their trips after 3/11, but are now rescheduling their visits, he said.

A resident of Kyoto for 11 years, Bodhi said that even though his adopted city wasn’t affected physically by the earthquake or tsunami, the emotional fallout did spread far from the disaster’s epicenter in the following weeks and months.

“It’s been a very soul-searching time here in Japan,” Bodhi said. “It’s been a very difficult year but it also feels like it’s brought people together.”

My trip to Japan was sponsored by a variety of hotels and organizations, but my opinions are my own.  

Want travel updates in real time? Like Chris Around The World on Facebook!

Japan in Jan: Post-3/11 Tourism is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road

This week’s Photo Friday (#FriFotos) theme is HAPPY PLACES.   In late 2009, Chris and I traveled to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, my favorite Caribbean destination so far.  During our trip, we boarded the Friendship Rose, a 101-ft dual mast schooner for a day of sailing to the Tobago Cays, with the final destination being the Tobago Cays Marine Park, a protected marine life preserve.  The experience of chilling out for a day-long cruise with rum punch and island food, and arriving in a serene setting filled with sea turtles, rays and great coral areas for snorkeling is a HAPPY PLACE for me.

Photo Friday: Tobago Cays Sailing is a post from: Chris Around The World: A Journalist's Travels on the Road