where i've been
and what I took from it
It's not really about sightseeing. The part that stays with you is seeing how people live and realizing that everything you've always taken for granted, they've always taken for granted something completely different.
I grew up in Texas. At sixteen, learning to drive wasn't some milestone you earned. It was just what teenagers did. The beach was Galveston. If you know Galveston, you know. Then I went to Japan and walked everywhere, took trains everywhere, hills, mountains, lakes.
look at the difference 🤦♂️
On my second trip I asked my tour guide where her favorite place to travel was. She lived in Osaka. We were in Tokyo. She said Yellowstone was the most beautiful nature she'd ever seen. Her favorite city was Bangkok. I just sat with that. Because my favorite city is Osaka. That's where she lives. And she wants to be somewhere else.
Everyone treats their own country like the default. You don't figure that out until you go somewhere and find someone thinking the exact same thing about you.
Been twice. There's an obvious reason everyone is drawn to Japan: the anime, the food, the aesthetic, and one more thing I'm not putting in writing that explains a disproportionate number of very enthusiastic guys. What actually gets you is how functional it is. Like New York in the sense that everything is at your fingertips, except it's clean and there's no part of the city where I'd feel like I need a gun. Most places are either organized or beautiful. Japan is both. That's almost rude.
Went at 12 on a student ambassador trip with no parents. Sydney, Great Barrier Reef, Auckland. First time somewhere that didn't feel like a version of home, and I didn't have the framework to understand what was different. Still not sure you're supposed to.
Amsterdam, Paris, London, Zurich, Strasbourg. European cities weren't built around cars and you feel that immediately. You're inside the city instead of passing through it. American cities, especially in the South, feel like they were designed for you to leave as fast as possible.
Zurich was expensive in a way I wasn't prepared for — I could barely afford to eat. Amsterdam I could have stayed longer. Strasbourg doesn't look like France. The architecture is German. That's not an accident.
Went with a coworker, Minjae, who grew up there. I didn't know a single word of Korean, not even hello, so having someone who also knew which places were for tourists and which weren't changed every decision. Best way to describe Seoul: Tokyo if New York got involved. I liked the people there more than anywhere I've been.
In Seoul I had to figure out the T-card, pull out cash, and download Kakao Maps because Google barely works there. In Japan I loaded Suica onto my Apple Wallet and used Google Maps the whole trip. Small gap, adds up.
Tulum, Cancun, Cabo, the Dominican Republic, Cozumel. All kind of the same experience. Good for two or three days before you've seen enough of the pool. None of them show you the real version of where you are, the whole economy is built around not doing that. Best lesson in supply and demand I ever got was being quoted $60 for three bead bracelets. You come back more rested than you left, which isn't nothing.
The US is big enough to be multiple countries. New York has transit. The West Coast has kombucha. The South has its own history, humor, food, and way of showing up for people. People are warmer down there. Not performatively. Actually warmer.
The food alone is worth the internal travel. Memphis BBQ is not Carolina BBQ is not California BBQ, and all of them wish they were Texas BBQ. Hawaii doesn't fit anywhere in my mental model of what the US is supposed to look like.
Japan again, May 2026. Third trip. This one is more focused: more time in Tokyo, fewer places on the list. The goal is to just live like a local for a few days.
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have recommendations? places i should go, restaurants i shouldn't miss, things worth doing? send them through!