Year: 2026

Miyama Ouan Kyoritsu Resort Review – Hirayu Onsen Stay

During our winter trip to Japan, we knew we wanted to visit an onsen town after skiing in Hakuba.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to travel very far as the mountain village Hirayu Onsen was just a short trip away via a train to Matsumoto and bus transfer to the mountains.

For this visit, we decided to have a bit of a splurge and booked a premium annex room with open air bath (onsen) with breakfast and dinner included for a complete resort experience. We are so glad we did.

While expensive, Miyama Ouan Kyoritsu Resort was one of the best hotel stays we’ve had in recent memory, and for those who want a high-end onsen experience, this one is sure to please!

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How to Visit the Tuna Auction at the Toyosu Fish Market

Ever since my first visit to Tokyo in 2010, I’ve always wanted to see the famous tuna auction. Back then, the market was located on Tsukiji, and, although I got to visit the market later in the day, the tuna auction was out of reach due to poor travel logistics so early in the morning (but more on that later).

When we returned to Tokyo, the market had been moved to a massive new facility nearby and renamed as the Toyosu Fish Market. Much like our first trip, the logistics made it tricky for us to try to go to the tuna auction, and we only visited the facility in the afternoon once sales had ended for the day.

But on our third trip, we were staying nearby, threw our name into the lottery to score tickets for the auction, and won the chance to view the tuna auction the very first morning of our trip. Being five minutes away and winning the tuna auction lottery? You couldn’t ask for better luck.

So in this one, we wanted to share what you need to do to win tickets to the tuna auction, more about those pesky travel logistics, and share additional details to keep in mind- including that you can still visit the auction even without winning the lottery!

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How To Fix a Hole in a Backpack in a Few Simple Steps

Not but three weeks into our year-and-a-half-long journey around the world did I realize my backpack had a hole in it.

Not just a tiny hole, one that you’d see after it was scraped against something sharp, but a big gaping hole along a seam that was only going to get bigger with each passing day.

Although my pack was almost 5 years old at the time, I was surprised that this had happened so quickly.  Not only that, it was at the bottom of the bag, one of the worst places it could have occurred.

Cue panic.

After a few minutes composing ourselves, we figured out a rather robust repair that lasted the duration of our trip.

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How Many Days Do You Need on Easter Island?

Ahu Tongariki on Easter Island

When it comes to helping others with their trips to Easter Island, we seem to get one question over and over again. 

It is simply this: how many nights do I need?

Considering Easter Island is only about 60 square miles and you can drive around it in a few hours, you may think you only need two or three night there.

But in order to truly see it all, we have determined that the magic number is five nights to visit Easter Island, and we have a very good reason for it.

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