While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and published some of our own.

Because it was so useful to hear from those who have gone before, we want to share some of our recommendations for YOUR trips abroad. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just many of the great things that come to mind when we look back on our year.

Sorry there are no helpful comments here, but we wholeheartedly recommend all of these places and activities linked below (we DID have some disasters and some less-than-ideals, we just left them off the list). If you want the full story, feel free to email us and we will talk your ear off!

GENERAL TRAVEL

AirTreks Round-the-World Airfare

Renault Eurodrive Lease/Buyback Program

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor CityGuides App

HomeAway Rentals

Holiday Lettings Rentals

AirBnB Apartment Rentals

Rick Steves Audio Europe

ICELAND

Iceland Camping Card

Hotel Keilir, Keflavik

Northsailing Whale Watching, Husavik

FRANCE

Hotel Esmeralda, Paris

Le Manoir Quinquis, Bannalec

Cro Bique, rental in Beynac-et-Cazenac

Font-de-Gaume Cave Paintings, Les Eyzies

Beynac Castle, Beynac-et-Cazenac

Transmanche Ferries

ENGLAND

Broadhembury Campground, Kent

Dover Castle, Kent

Farriers Arms Pub, Kent

London Eye

Tower of London

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

Helm Lune Cottage Rental, Bowness

Holiday Inn Maidstone, Seven Oaks

Car train through the Chunnel

BELGIUM

Maison Antoine Frites, Brussels

European Union Visitors Centre

SWITZERLAND

Chalet Im Batzenboden, Wengen

Trummelbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen

CROATIA

Montona Gallery Pizza, Motovun

Perfectly Charming House, Viganj

Antony Boy Camping and Windsurfing, Viganj

Jadrolinja Ferries

ITALY

L’Arcobaleno Apartment, Rome

Il Sorpasso Ristorante, Rome

MOROCCO

Riad Safir, Meknes

Rough Tours Company, Sahara

TUNISIA

Novotel, Tunis

GREECE

Hotel Phaedra

TURKEY

Villa Blanca Rental, Davutlar

Ephesus Archaeological Site, Izmir

Perge Archaeological Site, Antalya

Flintstones Cave Hotel, Cappadocia

Red and Rose Valley Trails, Goreme

Sedef Restaurant, Goreme

Hitchhiker ATV Rental, Goreme

Sahkulu Place Apartment, Istanbul

TANZANIA

Nomad Tanzania Safaris

RWANDA

Solace Guesthouse, Kigali

Kigali Memorial Centre, Kigali

Meze Fresh Burritos, Kigali

MALAYSIA

Petrosains Science Museum, Kuala Lumpur

Novotel City Centre, Kuala Lumpur

THAILAND

Thailand Elephant Conservation Center

Sojos Cafe, Chiang Mai

Khaomao Khaofang Restaurant, Chiang Mai

Free Burma Rangers

Medici Restaurant, Bangkok

Navalai River Resort, Bangkok

Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok

VIETNAM

V’Spirit Cruise, Ha Long Bay

Hanoi Charming 2 Hotel, Hanoi

CHINA

New Day Foster Home Guesthouse, near Beijing

Huanghua Great Wall of China

Olympic Water Cube Water Park, Beijing

Xian HQ Apartments, Xian

Mt Huashan Hike, Xian

Terra Cotta Warriors, Xian

JAPAN

Japan Railpass

Sakara Kyoto Guesthouse, Kyoto

Sakara Gion Machiya Rental, Kyoto

Musashi Sushi, Kyoto

Hiroshima Memorial Park, Hiroshima

Andersen Kitchen, Hiroshima

Toyota Plant Tour, Toyota City

Pepper Lunch, Tokyo

KOREA

Cozy Residence Apartment, Seoul

… AND SOME ORGANIZATIONS WE HAVE GROWN TO LOVE

St. James Muswell Hill, London

Friends of the Lakes District, Kendal, UK

Lakes Christian Centre, Bowness, UK

St. Paul’s Cultural Center, Antalya, Turkey

World Relief Rwanda

Sonrise School, Musanze, Rwanda

Akiba School, Nairobi, Kenya

Light and Power Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

The Ocean Church, Tanzania

Kenya Connection, Kenya

Dave and Lucy Chaves, Nairobi, Kenya

Christ Church Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya

International Justice Mission Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Grace International School, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Free Burma Rangers, Chiang Mai, Thailand

New Day Foster Home, China

HAPPY ADVENTURES TO YOU ALL!

Big mystery from today in Takayama, Japan:

At 1:30 in the afternoon, we heard music played on — it seemed — a loudspeaker mounted on every other lamp post in the city’s wide valley. Then … a voice began saying something.

Echoes from that voice bounced from loudspeaker to loudspeaker, valley hillside to valley hillside.

Here is a brief clip from the episode, recorded from the hilltop ruins of an ancient castle overlooking the town:

Years ago before a seventh grade math class, a newly sharpened pencil started rolling down my pitched desk. I moved quickly to catch it before it landed in my lap. I missed … the pencil landed eraser end down … and the lead tip dug deeply in to my left palm.

A mark has been inside the skin of my left palm ever since.

I was reminded of the story of that mark today as E was being interrogated by his brothers about the scars up and down his never-stopping legs. “That one,” he explained to his brothers, “was when I fell in a parking lot before a lacrosse game.”

His scars are like a roadmap of sorts. They chart danger and adventure from the twists and turns of his life — and the stories that are generated along the way.

Plus, these story scars trigger additional bits and pieces of stories. That parking lot he mentioned. The lacrosse team. Friends on the team. H, while talking about that day, remembered driving to the game with E and S.

Likewise, the mark on my left palm triggers memories of my seventh grade teacher, Mr. Davenport. He eventually became “Pete,” as S happened to teach with him after she and I graduated from college. Trigger more memories: our first years of marriage, our first apartment, our first dog ….

I love that.

So … our day began today in Takayama, Japan … flummoxed by an inanimate set of luggage lockers and the seemingly impossible amount of coins they needed in order to stow our gear. That’s the first picture in this post.

Then — the boys listened out for me as I hiked ahead, looking for the ruins of an ancient castle in the hills of a city park. That’s the second picture in this post.

Then — we had lunch — always food! Thanks, S! — IN the ruins of that ancient castle. That’s the third picture.

Then — well, we goofed on top of some marble markers that likely outlined where castle walls and rooms once stood.

ALL of these things trigger a million memories.

And I’m thankful to now wear them on my palms … and in my heart.

According to legend, the floors of Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan were crafted to squeak like the song of a nightengale — to warn the Shogun and his bodyguards of prowling ninja.

Here’s a brief clip of the that sound (presented here on the website).

H, W and I visited Nijo Castle this afternoon … in a new world record time of one hour.

Castle, castle grounds, castle wall, and garden in one hour. H bought a Coke Zero in a vending machine. The boys laughed about this and that. We discussed our own ownership of the property — where we would put our own stables, how we would play capture the flag, where Dad would build his recording studio, where we would construct a soccer field. (There was lots of eye rolling when I suggested we should install a library.)

It was a wonderful moment with two of my sons.

It was a moment full of all the beauty of any nightengale’s song — and a moment void of prowling ninjas.

This morning was lazy, unplanned — and glorious. I went for a long stroll along Kyoto’s central river walk.

It was unhindered time. Whole groups of falcons soared in circles above. I passed families eating picnic lunches. A cormorant came in for a landing next to me in the river, a slow glide.

Back at our rented apartment, I turned a hanging wall calendar from May to June. I can’t remember doing that at any other point this year. It was memorable, perhaps, because June is the month we return home.

Eleven months of memories, eleven months of seeds planted. A few weeks remaining for the same. It’s easy for me to be hindered by the fact that the end of our journey is coming … but, I also keep trying to tell myself that much of the Journey remains.

And the seeds, once planted ….

—

Another milestone of sorts this week: S made our FINAL RESERVATIONS … an apartment in South Korea … a rental car in Hawaii … and a hotel for one night in Hawaii (cashing in points!).

While riding one of Japan’s bullet trains between Kyoto and Tokyo earlier this week … S and I employed a tried and true parenting/teaching tactic to get some substantive schoolwork done:

If you write four haiku poems about ANY experience so far in Japan, you can play on the iPad.

Their work was impressive and delightful … though we’ve only secured permission to share some of it if the authors identities remain anonymous.

So, here are three anonymous haikus … with two additional anonymous haikus thrown in:

Creepy alley way

Inside, there is light and warmth

Cozy, little home

—

Subway exit stench

Fish market all deserted

Vendors cleaning up

—

Wind gathers off sea

Blows by boats heavy with catch

Reaches market, me

—

The atomic bomb

Destroyed Hiroshima town

Ended World War Two

—

Creased and tearing map

Tangled, jumbled subway trains

Ditch for iPhone app

When our Kyoto landlord asked W, H, and E this week about some of our trip traditions, they told him about what they have come to call “forced marches” — required journeys and hikes and walks through beauty or history or both.

Their description of the phrase got a big laugh … but the boys would be the first to admit that some of these forced marches have also been some of their trip highlights.

This week’s journey to Hiroshima is one of these highlights — for all of us. I wrote about the scattered emotions of the day in a post titled “Baseball in Hiroshima.” The experience from that city has stayed with me … and I pass along this second reflection:

Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park was overrun by Japanese school children during our visit. Wave after wave of chaperone-wrangled groups passed by our family in a wonderful jumble of Japanese-like order — school uniforms or colorful, matching hats on kids walking in single file or two-by-two … and the universal signs of field trip chaos — loud, irreverent chatter chatter chatter, groups of disinterested boys hanging back, and chaperones trying to keep a lid on the remnants of control.

It was fun to watch — and that’s how our visit to Memorial Park began … on a park bench, watching groups of children roll by. (The scene is pictured in the above panorama, with the preserved carcass of a building in the background.)

Our family conversation on that bench turned from people watching … to the atomic bomb … to war … to how war begins … to how war ends … to good, evil … to Presidents … to decisions … to life … to death … as we sipped bottled water and snacked on food S had packed in her backpack.

It was awesome — a small moment to discuss the past, present, and future … as a family … on a park bench … with snacks … without a schedule.

Seal that memory in gold.

Later — pictured in the second photograph, above — a Japanese school girl waves at my family sitting on another park bench. We’re all visiting the Peace Park on the same day to reflect on the catastrophic events of August 1945 … but we’re also living out our lives, now … together … in a wonderful mix of cultures past, present, and future.

Since last July, our three boys have lost a total of 13 teeth.

E lost our latest Wild tooth yesterday — after visiting Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple.

We celebrated with ice cream.

I had the most beautiful ice cream cone the other day. The rain was just stopping, and the Kyoto street colors were accentuated by the wet. Red lanterns, dark wood, carefully arranged potted plants, flocks of bright umbrellas.

As I savored both the green tea color AND flavor, I remembered other brilliant and meaningful colors from our year. Each of these colors is packed with memories and emotion — of growth, joy, loss, wonder, hope, friendship — that Benjamin Moore would covet to create.

Here are just a few of my ColorFull encounters (clicking on any thumbnail will launch a larger gallery):

So thankful to have these ColorFull memories added to my palette for my NEXT year.

A memory of my maternal grandmother, who used expressive words and expressive gestures to carry everyday conversations so well:

Mama Liz often worked in references to music in her stories. She would say something like “Dah dah dah dah dah” in a particular rhythm, and her hands and arms would sweep back and forth … keeping time in the air like a conductor.

Her daughter — my mom — accompanies phrases like “careening onward” with a rolling hand over hand motion, keeping time with some great story symphony.

It’s interesting that I remember HOW these stories were told — and are told — more than I remember the stories themselves.

In the same way, this is largely how I remember our time today in Hiroshima, Japan. How else do you connect a visit to the blast site of the world’s first wartime atomic bomb … with a visit to a raucous Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium cheering on the home team Hiroshima Carps … and everything else in between?

For me, it’s all connected by a memorable collection of words. Gestures. Emotions. Moments. Even sounds, like these:

In this clip, Japanese school children sing songs of peace, in formation, facing Hiroshima’s Children’s Peace Monument.

Hours later, a Hiroshima Carps batter belts a home run over the left field fence — about 20 seconds after the beginning of the clip.