Since this sub was so helpful in planning, I wanted to share my itinerary and trip report! We had an incredible first time in Japan and I can't wait to go back.
Couldn't fit our (very detailed) itinerary in this post, but if you'd like to download it's here.
Medium article version with photos + itinerary is here.
And our shareable Google map is here.
About us:

• We’re New Yorkers in our 30s who have been planning this trip for about 6 months.
• My bf has been learning Japanese for about a year, and I’ve been learning for about 5 months (a mix of Pimsleur and Duolingo).
• Boyfriend is into history and baseball, I'm into skincare and nature, but we’re both big on food so that was our number one priority.
• He has a peanut allergy and avoids all nuts. He learned to say that in Japanese (私はピーナッツアレルギーがあります - "Watashi wa piinattsu arerugī ga arimasu”), and every restaurant and hotel was understanding and careful. Luckily most cuisine is nut-free anyway, but we managed not to have any close calls in 2 weeks which is amazing.

Some overall learnings:

• If I were planning this trip again, I think I would skip Kanazawa. It was a lovely town and the food was amazing, but we wished we had spent that time with a night or two in Osaka instead of just making it a day trip from Kyoto.
• Even if you’re not a baseball fan, Japanese baseball games are so much fun. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
• I packed a suitcase and brought a fold-up duffel bag, and halfway through the trip I moved my clothes to the duffel and just used the suitcase for souvenirs. It was a great idea but we ended up buying an extra suitcase at Donki our last day anyway.
• We both felt a bit underdressed compared to locals, especially in Tokyo. I wish I’d packed more dresses, skirts and trousers and fewer jeans and tees - the only people I saw wearing sweats, athletic wear or cutoffs were other tourists. Obviously you can wear what you want, just be aware you’ll stick out! Also, women are generally more covered up, even on warmer days, to protect their skin from the sun.
• If you go clothes shopping, take your shoes off in dressing rooms. I made a right fool of myself.
• Clothes sizing is wildly different in Japan. Know your cm measurements! Your size here may be hurtful to your ego.
• People line up to get on the train (check the ground for a guide of where to stand) and let everyone off before they get on. This seems obvious, but I’ve been living in New York so long that I wanted to weep tears of joy every time.
• If you’re new to sitting showers: there are two buttons. One is to fill up a bowl of water, and the other is to turn on the handheld shower head. Both automatically turn off a minute after you turn them on, but you can also turn them off manually. You sit on the little stool and there’s usually a mirror in front of you, which is… a humbling experience. There are usually also scrubbing washcloths.
• The worst train station toilet was still nicer than a goddamn Nordstrom bathroom. It was a pleasure to have IBS in Japan.
• At many European and American historical sites, you pay a hefty flat fee to see everything. In Japan, you can usually get into the temple grounds for free, then pay for each individual building you go into. Most were 400-700y/person, which felt really reasonable.
• We came at an almost perfect time (mid-May) weather-wise. Most days it was clear or sunny with a high in the mid-seventies. We definitely got some rain, but less than we were expecting (maybe 3-4 rainy days and 5-6 rainy nights).

Hotel Reviews:
Tokyu Stay Shinjuku Eastside (Tokyo): This was a great basic hotel, close to plenty of transportation and right on the edge of Kabukicho. The buffet breakfast was the highlight - a great mix of Western and Japanese breakfast options, including a great miso soup.Hakone Airu (Hakone): Mixed review here. On the one hand, the in-room onsen and public onsen were both wonderful, and the service was extraordinary. On the other hand, the mix of Balinese and Japanese didn’t quite work, and dinner and breakfast were more confusing than enjoyable.Hotel Alza (Kyoto): By far our favorite stay. I can’t recommend this place enough, and it was definitely worth paying a little extra. They brought us an amazing bento breakfast in our rooms every morning, they had every amenity we could need (they even re-upped the free sheet masks every day), and the micro-bubble bath at the end of a long day of walking was amazing.Koyasan Syukubo Ekoin Temple (Mt Koya): This was a great temple experience. Koyasan in general is obviously pretty tourist-y, but Eko-in still made it feel authentic, and dinner and breakfast were both amazing. Your stay includes a meditation class, morning prayers and a morning fire ritual, and you can pay to attend a cemetery tour, all of which were great.Utaimachi (Kanazawa): We were only here for two nights, but this place was pretty good. Very close to the Higashi Chaya area, where we didn’t actually end up spending much time. Always love tatami mat flooring, and the washedryer was a nice bonus, but we were also right next to the lobby and right under another room so there was some noise.The Gate Asakusa (Tokyo): A great and very Westernized hotel with amazing views of Shinso-ji and the surrounding area. It’s on the top floors of a building right in the middle of all things Asakusa, but is still pretty quiet. And has a wonderful, deep soaking tub with free bath salts.

Tuesday: Arrival, Shinjuku

1 PM: Arrival at Haneda
We got customs and immigration forms to fill out on the plane and everything went fairly quickly. Picked up some cash and Suica cards, went to see about taking the Airport Limousine bus ($10/each) but we should have booked in advance because there wasn’t one for another hour. We ended up taking a taxi (about $50) to our hotel in Shinjuku.
4 PM: Arrival at hotel - Tokyu Stay Shinjuku East Side
We dropped our luggage and went to a nearby eel restaurant, Shinjuku Unatetsu. The eel was incredible and not too filling. Wandered Kabuki-cho for a bit, I dragged my bf through all 4 floors of Don Quijote (I had a list of beauty items to pick up), then rested at the hotel.
7 PM: Dinner in Shinjuku (Tsunahachi)
We went to Tsunahachi for dinner and got some amazing tempura (I wish we had sat at the bar to watch it being made!) and then crashed by 9 pm, because we are young and cool.

Wednesday: Harajuku, Meiji, and Shibuya

7 AM: Hotel breakfast
Up early for hotel breakfast, which has convinced bf to start making miso soup every morning.
9 AM: Shinjuku Station - Pick up JR Passes
We went to Shinjuku station to pick up our JR passes, then spent 30 minutes finding the place where we could get them before 10 AM. There was a long line (staff shortage) so we waited about an hour but we got them and headed to Harajuku.
11 AM: Meiji Shrine & Yoyogi Park
We walked to Meiji Shrine, stopping at the gardens along the way (well worth the 500y entrance fee, especially on a beautiful day). We were lucky to come across a wedding at the shrine. Then we walked around Yoyogi Park a bit.
1 PM: Lunch (Gyoza Lou)
Walked into Gyoza Lou and were seated right away. Incredible gyoza as well as beer and bean sprouts with meat sauce - maybe 10 bucks total for 2 people.
1:30 PM: Shopping/museums in Harajuku
We split up so I could do some shopping in vintage stores - Flamingo, TAGTAG and Kinji (my favorite), and bf could go to the Ota Memorial Museum for their Cats in Ukiyo-e exhibit (which he loved). I walked down Takeshita street to meet him and managed to get a green tea, strawberry and red bean paste crepe from Marion Crepes.
3 PM: Shibuya Scramble & Hachinko Statue
We grabbed the train to Shibuya, saw the scramble and the Hachinko statue, then entered the maze that is Tokyu Hands. I got some onsen powders for gifts and some more cosmetics. My boyfriend checked out the Bic camera store and I went to Gu, which is like the love child of Uniqlo and Primark. I immediately undid all the “light packing” I did with new clothes.
7 PM: Dinner Reservation - Shinjuku Kappu Nakajima
I got us a reservation a few months ago at Shinjuku Kappu Nakajima. It was probably one of the best meals of my life. The omakase came out to less than $100usd each, which felt like a steal.
9 PM: Golden Gai bar (Bar Araku)
We wandered Golden Gai and went into a bar where the entrance fee was waived for foreigners called Bar Araku. It was very small but had great vibes, highly recommend. I drank too much sake, which will be a theme.

Thursday: Shinjuku

4 AM: Earthquake
The phone alerts are insanely loud! We rushed down to the hotel lobby and the only other people there were fellow foreigners - apparently Japanese people at the hotel knew a 5.1 is okay to sleep through.
9 AM: Shinjuku Gyoen
We strolled around in the sun taking photos for about 3 hours. Today is a lot less planned than yesterday - I kind of wish I’d switched the itineraries after how long getting the JR Pass took. We did go to the fancy Starbucks, of course.
12 PM: Lunch (Kaiten Sushi Numazuto)
We tried to go to a nearby sushi place but it was full, so we walked up to Kaiten Sushi Numazuto. We were a little disappointed it wasn’t actually conveyor belt sushi (the conveyor belt was for show and you ordered from the staff). Stopped in Bic camera afterwards for a bit.
2 PM: Ninja Trick House
We tried to go to the Samurai museum but learned it closed a few weeks ago. A good excuse to go to the Ninja Trick House instead. You’re thinking: “Isn’t that place for children?” Yes. Yes it is. And we loved every minute. I now have a camera roll full of myself being terrible at throwing stars. The dream.
3 PM: Don Quijote
More Don Quijote, mostly to get out of the rain. Got my last few beauty products I really wanted and a few souvenirs. An overstimulating heaven.
6 PM: 3-hour Shinjuku Foodie Tour
We signed up for a 3-hour “foodie tour” of Shinjuku that stopped at a sushi place, a Japanese bbq spot with insane wagyu beef, and a sake tasting spot. It was great, and we loved our guide, but wished it had stopped at a few more spots to try more things.
9 PM: Walk around Shinjuku
We attempted to play pachinko, got very confused and lost $7. Tourism!

Friday: Hakone

7 AM: Set up luggage forwarding to Kyoto with hotel
Luggage forwarding is brilliant. We did it twice and it went so smoothly, for about $10 USD per bag. Highly recommend.
9 AM: Transit to Hakone
We got to experience Japanese transit at rush hour. I can’t believe I have to go back to the MTA after this. We took the subway to Tokyo station and then the Shinkansen to Odawara, then a train to Hakone-Yumoto. The hotel was only a 20-minute walk away, so we decided to take a more scenic route - which turned out to be a forest hike straight up switchbacks most of the way.
11 AM: Lunch in Hakone (Hatsuhana)
We stopped in a soba place called Hatsuhana with a system of writing your name down and waiting outside to be called in. They skipped our names because they weren’t in Japanese, but let us in when they realized their mistake. The soba was made and served by old aunties so of course it was insanely good and well worth it.
1 PM: Hakone Open Air Museum
We took the train down to the Hakone Open Air Museum, which lived up to the hype. I’m not normally into sculpture, but seeing it in nature, and the way the museum is laid out, made it incredible. And obviously the Picasso exhibit was amazing.
3 PM: Owakudani, Pirate Ship, Hakone Checkpoint
We took the train to the cable car to Owakudani, then the ropeway to Togendai, then the pirate ship ferry to Motohakone. We were running behind so unfortunately had to rush through the Hakone Checkpoint, which was empty but very cool.
6 PM: Dinner at hotel
Back to our hotel for our kaiseki meal. The staff spoke very little English and Google struggled with the menu, so we had no idea what we were eating half the time, but overall it was pretty good.
9 PM: Onsen time
Experienced my first public onsen, followed by the private onsen in our room. The tatami sleep did wonders for my back.

Saturday: Travel to Kyoto, Philosopher’s Path, Gion

8 AM: Breakfast, travel to Kyoto
Took the train to Odawara and then the Shinkansen to Kyoto station. We booked all of our Shinkansen seats about a week in advance but you can also book them on the day, I believe.
1 PM: Lunch in Gion
Our Kyoto hotel let us check in early, and then we went looking for lunch. Quickly learned that most every place in the Gion area has a line outside and closes at 2! We eventually found a tiny spot with insanely good ramen. It also had chicken sashimi on the menu but we weren’t brave enough.
2 PM: Philosopher’s Path, Ginkaku-ji
We took a bus over to the Philosopher’s Path, which was not busy at all because of the rain. It was pretty, and I could see how great it would look in cherry blossom season. We had to kind of rush to Ginkaku-ji, which was gorgeous nonetheless.
4 PM: Honen-in, Nanzen-ji
Stopped by Honen-in (which we had completely to ourselves, thanks rain!) and then Nanzen-ji. My bf is a big history guy and he went feral for the Hojo rock garden. It was very pretty and I’d love to see it in better weather.
6 PM: Food Tour of Gion & Pontocho
This food tour stopped at two places (an izakaya and a standing bar) with a walking tour of Gion and Pontocho in between. We also stopped at Yasaka shrine and caught a rehearsal of a traditional Japanese performance.
10 PM: Pain
My feet hurt so bad. Bring waterproof shoes, but make sure they don’t have 5 year old insoles. I tried some stick-on cooling acupuncture foot pads I picked up at Donki and they were bliss.

Sunday: Arashiyama, The Golden Pavilion and Tea Ceremony

8 AM: Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
The forecast was for heavy rain all day, but we lucked out and only got a few drizzles here and there. We headed to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in the morning and it wasn’t too crowded. We did have an amazing bamboo dish at dinner last night so now bamboo makes me hungry.
10 AM: Tenryu-ji, Iwatayama Monkey Park
Headed over to Tenryu-ji, which was very nice but very crowded, and then to one of the things I looked forward to most on the trip, the Iwatayama Monkey Park. It’s a 20 minute hike up there but it is worth it. Oh my god. Getting to feed a baby monkey made my whole week.
12 PM: Lunch near Arashiyama (Udon Arashiyama-tei)
Headed back down to the main road and got duck udon at a little place called Udon Arashiyama-tei. I know I keep calling everything incredible but… yes.
1 PM: Ginkaku-ji
Ran into some bus issues (the first time we experienced anything public transit-wise not running as expected!) but eventually got over to Ginkaku-ji. It was also very crowded (seems like Japanese schools are big on field trips, which I’m jealous of) and not my favorite temple, but beautiful nonetheless.
3 PM: Daitoku-ji
We were ahead of schedule so we got to spend some time at our meeting place for the tea ceremony, Daitoku-ji. It ended up being our favorite temple, especially Daisen-in, a small and very quiet spot with a great self-guided tour. The monks showed us a section normally closed to non-Japanese tourists with beautiful calligraphy.
4 PM: Tea Ceremony (90 mins)
The tea ceremony we booked said it was in groups of up to ten, but it ended up being just us. It was very nice and relaxing, plus we got a little meal.
6 PM: Dinner (Gion Kappa), Pontocho Alley
We both nearly fell asleep on the bus back so we took it easy for the night. Went to an izakaya called Gion Kappa which had the best tuna belly we’d ever eaten, then did a quick walk around Pontocho Alley, got treats at 7-11 and went to bed early.

Monday: Fushimi Inari, Nishiki Market, Kyoto Imperial Palace (kinda)

9 AM: Fushimi Inari
Our plans to get up super early to beat the crowds to Fushimi Imari were hampered by the fact that we are no longer in our 20s. It was packed by the time we got there, and the amount of littering and defacing done by tourists was a bummer.
11 AM: Tofuku-ji
We had planned to go to the Imperial Palace at 10:30 for the Aoi Parade, but decided instead to get away from crowds by hiking from Fushimi Inari to Tofuku-ji, which was beautiful (I’d love to see it in the fall).
12 PM: Nishiki Market, lunch (Gyukatsu)
Grabbed lunch first at Gyukatsu (wagyu katsu - delicious) then wandered Nishiki a bit. It’s touristy, but fun.
2 PM: Kyoto Gyoen, Kyoto Handicraft Center
It was supposed to rain all day but ended up sunny, so we went back to the hotel to drop off our rain jackets and umbrellas. Stepped back outside and within ten minutes it was raining. We went to Kyoto Gyoen and saw the outside of the imperial palace; it was closed because of the parade earlier and half the garden was blocked off because the former emperor was visiting. Without the palace, Kyoto Gyoen is kind of meh. We walked over to Kyoto Handicraft Center which was also meh, but we picked up some nice lacquerware.
7:30 PM: Dinner at Roan Kiku Noi
We had a reservation at Roan Kiku Noi where we had maybe the best meal of our lives. Amazing that it only has two Michelin stars, honestly. Had fun trying to decipher the pain meds aisle at a Japanese pharmacy afterwards and then called it a night.

Tuesday: Day Trip to Nara

8 AM: Travel to Nara
We took the subway to the JR and were there in about an hour.
9 AM: Nara Deer Park
Two things about the Nara deer. One: if you bow to them, they bow back, and it’s very cute. And two, if you buy the 200y rice crackers to feed to them, do it somewhere where there aren’t very many of them. I got mobbed by like 15 deer and bitten 3 times. My fault for having skin approximately the shade of a rice cracker.
10 AM: Kofuku-ji, Nara National Museum
We saw Kofuku-ji and then the Nara National Museum, then stopped at a random little cafe for rice bowls with some kind of regional sauce (I can’t find it now!).
12 PM: Isetan Garden
We spent a long time finding the entrance to the Isetan garden only for it to be closed on Tuesdays.
2 PM: Giant Buddha
Saw Nandaimon Gate and the Daibutsu (giant Buddha), which are both every bit as enormous and glorious as advertised, as well as very crowded.
3 PM: Kasuga-taisha Shrine
Wandered over to Kasuga-taisha shrine, which is famous for its hundreds of lanterns and thousand-year-old trees. There’s a special inner area (paid) where you can see the lanterns lit up in the dark.
4 PM: Wait for the emperor
We got held up by a procession for, guess who, the former emperor again. Stalker.
5 PM: Nara shopping and snacks
Walked around Higashimuki Shopping Street and Mochiidono Shopping Arcade, bought a nice sake set and an amazing little hand-painted cat, ate some red bean paste pancakes and headed back to Kyoto.
7 PM: Dinner in Kyoto
Walked around Pontocho searching for dinner and landed on Yoshina, where we got even more kaiseki. Finished the night at Hello Dolly, a gorgeous jazz bar overlooking the river.

Wednesday: Day Trip to Osaka

7 AM: Depart hotel
Started by taking the subway to the JR. Took us about an hour altogether, though it would have been faster if we’d caught the express.
9 AM: Osaka Castle
We got to Osaka Castle in time for it to hit 85 degrees out. The outside of the castle is gorgeous, but the line to get in was long and I don’t know if the museum parts were worth the wait, especially with the crowds. The view from the top is nice, though.
12 PM: Okonomiyaki lunch (Abeton)
We went to an okonomiyaki spot in Avetica station called Abeton that was full of locals and absolutely bomb as hell.
1 PM: Shitteno-ji, Keitakuen Gardens
We headed to Shitteno-ji (our oldest temple yet) which was nice, though the climb to the top of then 5 story pagoda wasn’t worth the sweat. Then we walked over to Keitakuen Gardens, a small but gorgeous garden in Tennoji Park. Had a nice sit in the shade to digest and plan our next moves.
3 PM: Ebisuhigasbi, Mega Don Quijote
I am a crazy person, so I had to go to the Mega Don Quijote. We walked around Ebisuhigasbi for a while first, and while I was buying gifts in Donki, my boyfriend entered a sushi challenge for westerners (which turned out to just be “can a white boy handle wasabi”) and won a bunch of random crap! Now we own Japanese furniture wipes.
5 PM: Dotonbori & America-mura
We took the Osaka Loop to the Dotonbori area, which was super crowded as expected. We walked around America-mura and enjoyed seeing what they think of us. There are great designer vintage clothing shops here if that’s your thing.
6 PM: Dinner (Jiyuken)
We tried to get into Koni Doraku, a crab restaurant, but they were booked up, so we went to a tiny spot called Jiyuken for curry instead. I would do things for this curry. It was the platonic ideal of curry. It was served by old Japanese aunties from a very old recipe, so we knew it was going to be good, but it exceeded our wildest expectations… for <1000y each.
7 PM: Return to Kyoto
My feet were feeling real bad (the Nikes may look cool but they cannot support 25k steps a day) so we headed back to Kyoto and packed for our early morning tomorrow.

Thursday: Travel to Koyasan, Temple Stay

8 AM: Bus from Kyoto to Koyasan
The transit from Kyoto to Mt Koya is complicated, so we ended up just booking a bus directly from Kyoto Station to Koyasan (which barely cost more than public transit!). We got there bright and early for the 3 hour trip - if you take a bus out of Kyoto Station I definitely recommend giving yourself extra time to navigate to the right bus.
11 AM: Arrive at Eko-in, lunch
We arrived in Mt Koya and checked in to our temple, Eko-in. The quiet and the beauty hit me hard and I fell asleep for a few hours. We got a nice lunch at Hanabishi in town.
4 PM: Meditation class, dinner
The temple offered a meditation class, which was lovely, followed by a vegan dinner in our rooms. I can’t explain how peaceful this place was.
7 PM: Okuno-in Cemetery
We signed up for a monk-led tour of Okuno-in, which was definitely worth it. Came back for some public baths and fell asleep to the sound of rainfall.

Friday: Travel to Kanazawa, Higashi Chaya District

7 AM: Service & ritual at Eko-in
The day started with a religious service and a fire ritual at the temple. Both were stunning. I did wish that my fellow tourists had been a bit more respectful by showing up on time and following directions, but luckily, no one has more patience than a Buddhist monk.
9 AM: Travel to Kanazawa
We took a taxi through some sketchy mountain roads to Gokurakubashi Station, took two trains to Osaka Station, and then the JR Thunderbird to Kanazawa.
1 PM: Arrive at Kanazawa, Lunch (Maimon)
We got into Kanazawa station and went straight for a sushi spot called Maimon, which was delicious. Struggled a bit with the bus system and eventually got to our hotel, Utaimachi.
4 PM: Higashi Chaya District
Wandered the Higashi Chaya district a bit. It seemed kind of dead, but maybe we are just used to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo/Kyoto.
7 PM: Korinbo, dinner (Uguisu)
Walked down to the Korinbo area southwest of the park and found a tiny ramen spot called Uguisu. Incredible. Some of the best broth I’ve ever tasted plus amazing sous vide meats.
9 PM: Bar in Korinbo (Kohaku)
Went to a little upstairs whiskey bar called Kohaku. Boyfriend got Japanese whiskey and they made me a custom cocktail with sake, pineapple and passion fruit that was just insane. They were very nice and talked baseball with us for a while.

Saturday: Omicho Market, Kanazawa Castle, 21st Century Museum

9 AM: Kenroku-en Garden
We walked over to Kenroku-en Gardens, which were as beautiful as advertised. I was hurting pretty bad (crampy ladies, just know Japanese OTC painkillers are much weaker than ours, BYO Advil) so we’re moving slowly today.
12 PM: Omicho Market, lunch (Iki-Iki Sushi)
Walked to Omicho Market and ate little bits from different stalls, then waited about an hour to get into Iki-Iki Sushi. It was worth it. Some of the best, freshest sushi of my life.
2 PM: Kanazawa Castle, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
We walked around Kanazawa Castle a bit, then walked over to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. It was packed and the line to get tickets to the special exhibits was crazy, so we looked at the free ones and then headed back. Along the way we stopped in a few little stores and bought some handcrafted lacquerware from a local artist.
6 PM: Onnagawa Festival, dinner (Huni)
As we walked towards the restaurant, we came upon the Onnagawa Festival on the Plum Bridge, which included a beautiful dancing ceremony and lantern lighting. We went to Huni for dinner, our first “westernized Japanese” restaurant, and it was fantastic. 9 dishes served slowly over 3 hours at a table overlooking the river. Highly recommend if you’re in Kanazawa.
10 PM: Why does the bathtub have a phone
We went back to our hotel, struggled with the automated bathtub, and enjoyed our last night on tatami floors.

Sunday: Travel to Tokyo, Tokyo Giants Game, Ueno Park

7 AM: Travel to Tokyo
Grabbed a taxi we arranged the night before to Kanazawa Station - it would have been an easy bus journey but our number of bags has increased - and boarded the Shinkansen for Tokyo.
12 PM: Travel to Tokyo Dome and Tokyo Dome Park
Dropped our bags at our hotel in Asakusa, then headed for Tokyo Dome. We got there a little early to look around - there’s basically a full mall and food court and amusement park there. We grabbed some beers and some chicken katsu curry that was delicious.
2 PM: Tokyo Giants vs Chunichi Dragons
Japanese baseball games are so. much. fun. This was a random mid season game, and the stadium was full and people were amped. I’ve been to many American baseball games and never seen fans this excited. We also scored some fried cheese-wrapped hot dogs on a stick and a few more beers and had the time of our lives cheering for the Giants.
5 PM: Ueno Park
After trying and failing to find the jersey we were looking for, we walked to Ueno Park and looked around a bit. It was lovely, but we were exhausted and full of too many beers, so we headed back to Asakusa.
7 PM: Dinner in Asakusa
There was a festival all day around Shinso-ji and there were a ton of street vendors and day-drunk people when we arrived in the afternoon (as a native Louisianan, I approve) and it seemed like the partiers were going on into the night. We ducked into a restaurant for some buckwheat soba (never got the name, but it was only okay) and tucked in early.

Monday: Tsukiji Food Tour, Kapabashi Dougu, Akihabara

8 AM: 3-hour Tsukiji Food Tour + lunch
We started the day with a Tsukiji food tour, which ended up being my favorite food tour of the 3 by far. The guide was great, and we stopped by a dozen food stalls and sampled everything from mochi to fresh tuna to octopus cakes. We finished with lunch at Sushi Katsura, where our chef prepared everything in front of us.
12 PM: Imperial Palace, Don Quijote
We were planning to spend the afternoon exploring the Imperial Palace and Edo Castle Ruins, but it was hot and the palace was closed, so we walked to Taira no Masakado's Grave, then headed back to Asakusa for, you guessed it, Don Quijote. I did not intend for this trip to be “guess how many Don Quijotes I can visit” but here we are. We bought another suitcase and I filled it with food and gifts to bring home.
3 PM: Kappabashi Dougu
We walked Kappabashi Dougu and browsed kitchenwares while wishing we had a bigger kitchen, an unlimited budget and a way to get a hundred pounds of porcelain home in one piece.
6 PM: Akihabara dinner + games + drinks
We took the train to Akihabara, got dinner at Tsukada Nojo, then played games in a few arcades and ended the night at Game Bar A-button, which lets you play vintage handheld games while you drink.

Tuesday: Senso-ji, Flight

9 AM: Breakfast, Senso-ji
We got breakfast pancakes at Kohikan, then walked around Senso-ji and the surrounding shopping streets for a while.
12 PM: McDonald’s
Look, I couldn’t leave Japan without doing it, okay? I got the Teriyaki Chicken Burger (too sloppy and sweet) and bf got the Ebi Filet-O (he said it tasted exactly like a Filet-O-Fish). It was not great but I deserve that!
3 PM: Cab to the airport
I caught the flu on the flight home and have now been in bed for a week! Welcome back to America, baby.

It's gameday! There's watch parties going down across the globe, so share any you know of here and I'll link them in the thread.
Denver

• DNVR Bar
• McGregor Square
• The 715 Club
• Matchbox
• Odell's Five Points Brewhouse
• Shotgun Willie's
  
• List of bars with specials
  

Boulder

• Dark Horse

Fort Collins

• Looking for a watch party

Longmont

• Wibby Brewing

Westminster

• 30/70 Sports Bar & Grill

Portland

• Broadway Grill & Brewery

NYC

• Mustang Harry's

Detroit

• Game 2 @ McShane's Irish Pub

Chicago

• Wicker Park - Fat Pour user won't be there for game 1

San Francisco

• Golden Gate Tape Room

Boston

• Looking for a watch party

Pittsburgh

• Looking for a watch party

Utah

• The Alley Sports Pub & Grill - Moab

South Carolina

• Looking for a watch party

Florida

• Tampa - looking for a watch party

Serbia

• Sombor
• Looking for a watch party

Canada

• Kitchener - Bobby O'Brien's

Hello all. I have used this sub the last week for travel info during a week long stay in Cozumel. I appreciate all the useful info I was able to grab from here, as well as some tips on SOP in Cozumel.
A few months ago I booked a week stay at the Explorean for a honeymoon destination.
TLDR: Explorean was a nice, relaxed all inclusive with decent amenities and food. Would recommend to those with reasonable expectations. Rated on metrics of check-in, room, food & drink, pools, excursions, and staff: 48/60 (80%).
I first sought out your help (which was immensely useful) at 5:00 AM Monday morning in the RDU airport because our flight to DFW (which would then go direct to CZM) had been delayed and we ended up getting a flight to PHL then to CUN.
Per the advice of this sub, when we landed in CUN, we kept our heads down and headed straight for the ADO bus to PDC. We only had to wait a couple of minutes for the next bus, and the ride was very nice.
We got some lunch at Las Hijas Grill in PDC maybe 5 minute walk from the ferry. The place was a tad pricey but the food was excellent.
We then did the bag drag to the ferry where we waited about 15 minutes and I made sure we got the Ultramar ferry per some reviews I’ve seen here. We bought tickets from a “street representative” where we were certainly overcharged from ticket price by about $20 USD - that is on me for being naive. We crossed to Cozumel and got a taxi to the Explorean.
At this point we were about 5 hours behind the initial schedule, all things considered, is not bad. When we arrived at the Explorean, the front desk was ready for us with drinks and the check in process was painless and quick. No complaints there at all. We were in the room maybe 20 minutes after arrival. Check in: 10/10
The room we got was the “Casita” which was a single king bed. Inside there was a nice bathroom with a decent size rain shower, large dresser, (ground level) private porch with chairs and table, and an inside loveseat with tables. The room had a mini fridge that was restocked with beer, soda, mineral water, and snacks every day. The only thing of note in the room that was mildly irritating was that there is a step down in the room that you need to look out for (it is marked with glow-in-the-dark strips). Room: 9/10
When you book at the Explorean, you have access to the Fiesta Americana and their pool/restaurants. We spent most of our meals there and hung out at their pool and bar maybe half the time during the days simply because they had a bigger bar. The food was above average for a resort - if you choose your meals wisely. Breakfast options included a buffet at the FA and the one restaurant at the Exp. (Lol Kan). We had both and the buffet was always decent while Lol Kan was not great for breakfast. For lunch most days we ate at the Cevecheria at FA where the food was excellent, and we ventured out to Money Bar for lunch and drinks once. Drinks there were good while the food was no better than what we had at the resort. Dinner at the resort was pretty good all around with Rosato (Italian at FA) being excellent, Lol Kan (Mayan at Exp.) being pretty good, and Mexicano (Mexican traditional at FA) being pretty good. The bars were both great, but drinks were no doubt weak during the day which is probably a good call being that its an AI and folks would tend to over indulge. The Explorean bar was very good, and since they don’t offer room service, you could always get drinks to go until 10:45 PM. Food and drink: 7/10
Pools were in awful shape, they were clean but the tiling needs to be completely replaced. This is in line with reviews I have seen in the past, but I didn’t expect them to be as bad as they were. In ~2 hours, my wife and I collected 140 loose tiles. I did cut my foot on the first day and a medic came to fill out a report. Twas but a flesh wound but still an inconvenience. We still used and enjoyed the pools everyday, but with a heightened caution for sure. Beyond this complaint, the pools were very clean and not too crowded. Pools: 5/10
The Explorean offered excursions every day and we went on two, one was a bike ride and swim in a local open Cenote, and the other was snorkeling at Dzul Ha by the Money Bar. These were both well done. No complaints. The other options were nice, we just wanted a more relaxed trip so we opted out. Excursions: 9/10.
All the staff at the Explorean were great. Bartenders and waiters did excellent jobs. We did get pestered a couple times by a timeshare salesman wanting to “take us to lunch” but I pushed him away every time with an “ask me tomorrow”. Both resorts were heavily focused around selling timeshares. I can’t complain too much because they did leave us alone after asking and were always polite. Staff: 8/10
All in for flights, hotel, taxis, tips, & eating out we spent around $3,500. I’m overall pleased with the trip and wanted to share since the Explorean did not have many hits on this sub. If you’re looking for a relaxed vacation at an AI and have reasonable expectations, it could be for you.

Author's Note:
Reddit was having issues when I posted the last chapter, so just in case anyone missed it, the previous chapter (197) starts here.
Also, the next chapter will come out a week from now, on June 5th.
​
--
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Two Days Later
"AMBUSH!"
Rob's eyes snapped open. Panicked shouts were resounding from outside his tent. The first notion that popped into his sleep-addled mind was relief, as an ambush was preferable to the nightmare he'd been having. That sentiment lasted until a distant explosion obliterated the final remnants of his drowsiness, sending him and Keira sprinting out of their tent with weapons in hand.
Chaos awaited them outside. People weren't quite running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but it was close. While the coalition had known that a night attack was possible and prepared themselves accordingly, no one was ever truly ready to be assaulted with spells and Skills as they frolicked through dreamland. Arrows peppered the ground at their feet, the majority landing harmlessly away, although Rob spotted a few soldiers with fresh wounds seeping blood.
He spared a passing glance for the numerous banners the coalition had erected across their campsite. Each one was raised twenty feet high, decorated with lights in order to glow in the dark, and marked with wartime symbols indicating a desire to engage in peaceful negotiations. The Harpies answered by filling the banners with arrow holes and setting many of them on fire. Diplomacy's plan had been doomed from the start.
Kicking his brain into high gear, Rob activated Quick Thinking and sent Messages checking on Riardin's Rangers. His eyes traveled up towards the night sky, seeing a canvas of pure darkness broken up by stars and moonlight. It must have been the dead of midnight or close to it. Arrows were impossible to see coming before they'd already hit the ground, and the only indication of Harpies flying above were the shadows blotting out the stars every so often.
Thankfully, the coalition had planned for this. As if on cue, multiple orbs of brilliant light shot upwards, mages from each faction contributing to the effort. The orbs hung in the sky like floating lighthouses, banishing enough darkness to allow Rob to see what he was dealing with.
A resigned expletive slipped out of his mouth. There had to be at least four hundred of the fuckers up there, maybe five hundred, swarming like a colony of feathered bees. It was the worst-case scenario of what the coalition envisioned – Elnaril sending the maximum number of Harpies he could realistically field without leaving the capital undefended.
How am I supposed to fight them? Rob wondered, asking himself a recurring question that he'd never been able to answer. They can't kill me with piddly arrows and long-range spells, but my allies aren't so durable. Somehow I doubt they'll listen if I tell them to stop being cowards and come fight me in melee range.
All thoughts of attacking were swept aside when the Harpies began dropping a very different projectile towards the coalition base camp. Rob opened and closed his mouth several times, shock suffusing every cell in his body. He recalled the explosion that had awoken him, the moment now disturbingly re-contextualized.
The Harpies were airdropping crates of Firebombs.
"THAT'S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, YOU LITTLE SHITS!" Rob summoned his own crate from his Bound Items, tore open the cover, and grabbed a Firebomb in each hand. He activated Bulk Up for extra Strength and hurled Firebombs towards the falling crates with the best baseball throws he could muster. One, two, three, four, five, six – the crate's supply rapidly depleted as Rob threw again and again, trying to intercept as many payloads as possible, Keira following his lead. They were joined by coalition archer support, arrows sniping at crates that were out of reach.
Dozens of roaring explosions lit up the sky. While some of the crates had gotten through, most were turned to dust before they could hit the ground, reducing the Harpies' shock-and-awe tactic to an impromptu fireworks display.
Throwing Proficiency Level Increased! 6 → 7
Throwing Proficiency Level Increased! 7 → 8
"THAT'S RIGHT!" Rob whooped. "LEAVE THE KABOOMS TO THE EXPERTS!" He paused, then turned to Keira, looking abashed. "Um...was this my fault? Are they actually copying me?" Please don't tell me I accidentally advanced warfare by a century.
"We can ruminate on that later," Keira answered, skillfully dodging the question. "For now, we should focus on retaliating by any means available."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a glowing yellow projectile shot up into the sky. Orn'tol's Chain Arrow nicked a Harpy on the edge of their wing – which was all it needed to begin the process. A tenth of a second later, the arrow veered to the right and struck a different Harpy in their stomach. It ripped out and through the other side, taking another ninety-degree turn to spear an unsuspecting Harpy in the back. And so it went, chaining from target-to-target with ruthless efficiency. By the end, twenty Harpies had been struck, eight of them falling out of the sky, unmoving.
Rob saluted the display. "Yeah, I don't have any ranged attacks on that level. I think we'd be better-off guarding the people who do."
They rushed over to where the Fiend mages resided, discovering the group huddled under cover, besieged by a stream of arrows and spells hammering down around them. Rob sent off a quick Message to Vul'to, then jumped in front of an icicle spell that would have gored a Fiend through her neck. "Sup."
"Lord Roy!" The Fiend's jubilation froze when she saw the icicle sticking out of Rob's shoulder. "Are–"
"No time for chitchat. If I cover you, can you fire back?"
After some thought, the mages nodded. Rob gave them a thumbs-up with his left hand and deflected an arrow with his right. He turned his full attention to the projectile storm raining from above, calculating which ones he'd be able to block and which ones he'd need to take on the chin.
The next few minutes became a blur of activity. Arrow. Skill. Arrow. Spell. Spell. Skill. Arrow. Arrow. It never ended. His slow walk towards Harpy Settlement #4 was proving to be an invaluable experience, because he wasn't sure if he could've kept up now without already knowing how to handle a barrage of small projectiles. Even Keira was struggling; while Danger Sense told her where she needed to move, it was reaching a point where she physically couldn't execute the motions fast enough. Rob would've expected the Harpies to lay off once they noticed that he was there to play defense, but if anything, they were attacking more fiercely than before.
Almost as if they held a grudge against him or something.
Outwardly, he was projecting the supreme confidence of a Leader. Inwardly, he was honestly starting to get a bit worried. While he'd only taken about 300 HP of damage, a different resource was beginning to wane: his Stamina. Quick Thinking consumed 3 Stamina for every second it was active. That combined with his constant movement was...tiring. He'd activated Second Wind to restore 35% of his Stamina, but unlike his Vitality-based abilities, this one had a cooldown of 24 hours. In a couple minutes, he might actually need to ask for a short break.
Was that the end of the world? No. Was it embarrassing? Potentially. Leaders weren't supposed to ask for breaks. At least, he thought they weren't. Elatrans could be weird about what constituted a good Leader. Rob was still figuring out when he was supposed to act like an invulnerable pillar versus when he was allowed to be a real person. I miss when I didn't have to care about this sort of thing.
His reputation was saved by Vul'to's timely arrival. The Soul Guardian burst onto the scene in a mad dash, skid to a halt, took a stance, activated Auto-Guard, and proceeded to swat away the Harpies' projectiles as if they were no more than gnats. "I will protect the mages from here on out," he calmly stated. Vul'to's movements flowed like water, his voice showing no sign of exertion as he spoke. "Put your efforts towards an offensive strike."
Rob suppressed a relieved sigh as he deactivated Quick Thinking. "For the record, when our Party inevitably complains about my risk-taking later, I'm going to say that both you and Keira signed off on a Rob Plan."
"You can't be serious," Keira blurted out, panting heavily as she rested. "Our enemies are in the sky. What scheme could you have possibly concocted that would put you at risk?"
Rob hesitated. He was distinctly aware of the mages listening in as they fired spells, devoting a portion of their brainpower to gathering gossip material. Anything he said here would reflect on his status as Leader. That included overly-casual speech and devising schemes that by all rights should get him a one-way ticket to the loony bin.
Then he remembered that allies were dying around him, and he stopped caring so much about what other people thought.
"My usual method for dealing with mobile enemies is Rampage spam," he began to explain. "That isn't viable here. I'd run out of MP long before I reached their altitude, and even if I somehow made it, what then? I can't dodge mid-air. They'd turn me into a pincushion. So here's what I was thinking..."
His explanation was brief. By the time he'd finished, the mages were staring at him with eyes wide as saucers. Keira merely nodded. "Very well. I'll accept it."
"No complaints?"
"You left yourself an escape route. That already makes this plan safer than most." She turned away, gesturing for him to follow. "Let's go find Malika. If I'm not mistaken, she'll be at Orn'tol's side."
It wasn't hard to locate her. They only needed to trace the empowered spells blasting upwards like rocket launchers. Rob did a rough headcount of the Harpies' numbers, estimating that, despite their ambush, the battle wasn't going well for them. Over forty had been felled by Malika's spells, Orn'tol's arrows, and the other coalition mages and archers. The Dwarven riflemen were also putting in work, gunshots echoing as Harpies were struck by blindingly fast projectiles they'd come entirely unprepared for, their race inducted into a new era of war with a baptism of lead and gunpowder.
Conversely, Rob would bet his life savings that not even fifteen coalition members had perished. While he didn't have any proof of this, he knew from experience that basic arrows and mediocre spells lost striking power when fired from a long range. And unlike the Harpies' army consisting of everyone-they-could-get, the coalition soldiers were the elite of each territory. They were tougher, stronger, and had access to superior healing magic. In this instance, quality trumped quantity.
Especially when the quality was so lopsided. As Rob ran, he saw a lightning spear shoot up towards the sky and explode into a ball of electricity, frying a dozen Harpies in an instant. Moments later, the surrounding air seemed to dry out, like a heat wave passing through, as moisture was collected into a towering plume of water. Once it was ready, the plume burst upwards and casually washed away another dozen Harpies as if they were drowned rats.
Sylpeiros and Cyraeneus. Ambush or no ambush, long range or close range – didn't matter. Leaders were terrifying in every scenario.
Rob found Malika and Orn'tol in good spirits. The siblings had a whole squad of Vanguards protecting them, like a pair of pint-sized siege cannons with ground support. "Rob!" Malika exclaimed, the instant she saw him. "MP Potions! Forthwith!"
In a flash of blue mana, he produced three Potions from Spatial Storage. "Your humble servant is here," he remarked, in a tone drier than the air.
"Only three Potions? Bah! Give me more!"
"Your humble servant has no wish to deal with an Archmage with a hangover."
Grumbling, she grabbed the Potions and chugged them like a frat boy on spring break. Rob rated her chugging prowess at a solid 7 out of 10, judging that – while she'd grown considerably – there was still room for improvement.
"Should..." Orn'tol started to say something, then thought better of it. Rob could guess what he was thinking. The boy was worried that they weren't being properly respectful of the situation, joking around in the middle of a warzone where allies were suffering. He'd likely come to the same conclusion as Rob: that letting Malika keep her morale up was more important. "Are we winning?" he instead asked.
"Easily," Rob affirmed. That was never in doubt. It would've taken something going catastrophically wrong for them to be in danger of losing. In reality, today's battle was just another leg in the extended marathon that the coalition was running. Rather than obsessing over a transient victory that was all but guaranteed, they needed to minimize casualties so that taking the Harpy capital was a feasible prospect. That meant being careful, guarding their back lines, and only attacking when it was safe.
Oh, and crushing the Harpies so that they wised up and retreated.
"I am...concerned," Orn'tol admitted. "The Harpies should have been aware of our strength. Yet by the end of this night, unless they soon retreat, their losses will mount in the hundreds. Why waste so much life?"
Rob narrowed his eyes at the sky. "Couple possibilities. Elnaril could be screwing around. Blights think that wasting life is absolutely hilarious. He is part Leader, though, so I can't imagine he'd be quite that frivolous with his resources. With that in mind, I don't think the Harpies are going to fight to the last man – they probably came here intending to thin our numbers and skedaddle. Severe losses would prevent us from being able to seize the capital. Their initial Firebomb barrage could've potentially done that on its own."
"And it failed."
"Sure did. Now they're stuck trying to do it the old-fashioned way." Rob shrugged. "They might have a backup plan. If so, we'll handle it, no worries." He faced Malika. "Speaking of plans, I've got one. Do you mind holding onto some MP for me?"
She opened her mouth to respond – then froze, her head turning sideways. Rob followed Malika's gaze towards the Gellin encampment, his brow furrowing at what he saw. All thirty Gellin were exiting their tents in near-perfect unison. They reminded Rob of a collection of wind-up animatronics, with movements that weren't entirely synchronized and robotic, yet also weren't dissimilar enough to appear fully lifelike. As the Gellin drifted forward, moonlight mixed with the light emanating from the mages' sun orbs, bathing them in an almost ethereal glow.
A small shiver crept up Rob's spine. He didn't know why, but something about the situation was giving him the heebie-jeebies. Maybe it was because he'd never seen a Gellin awake at this hour before. He'd gone on more than one midnight walk to clear his head after a bout of nightmares, and while he'd met the occasional Fiend, Dwarf, Elf, or Merfolk, the Gellin were always sequestered in their tents.
His shiver crawled up to the back of his neck, making its little hairs stand on end as a thrum of mana built within the Gellin. Even Rob's meager Sense Mana could feel it. Thirty Gellin had joined into three Mage Circles, linking their power, creating...something. A force. An aura. It lacked physical form, yet felt no less threatening than one of Sylpeiros' lightning spears.
The space above them seemed to shimmer, as if viewed through a lightly-smudged eyeglass. Virtually invisible if you weren't paying close attention.
Or if you were flying hundreds of feet in the air.
The Harpies didn't try to avoid it. They didn't even know it was there. Lightning spears and plumes of water were obvious. Flashy. The Gellins' something simply wafted upwards, like rising heat, until it reached the sky and engulfed a multitude of Harpies in a devouring fog.
Piercing screams cut through the din of warfare.
The affected Harpies reacted in different ways. Some went still as statues. Some writhed as if electrocuted. Some began attacking invisible enemies. But regardless of how they reacted, they all fell, and they all screamed.
Rob covered his ears. It was the worst sound he'd heard since Elnaril laughed at him through a Message Crystal. The battlefield didn't completely grind to a halt, but it definitely slowed, with both the attackers and defenders needing to process what the fuck just happened.
"Was that Mind Magic?" Malika whispered, her bravado gone and vanished.
"It appears so," Keira quietly answered.
"I...did not know it could do that."
"Neither did I."
After shaking his head to reset his thoughts, Rob stepped back from everyone, ensuring that he was out of their line of sight. Much as he wanted to take a breather, he couldn't. The Harpies were reeling – this was a perfect opportunity to execute his plan.
He just needed to finish the prepwork. Hefting his longsword, Rob turned it around and pointed it at his heart.
And paused.
My hands are shivering, he realized. Why are my hands shivering? I've done this before. He willed his hands to stay still, nearly snarling when they failed to cooperate. This is a waste of time. Don't be a fucking bitch, Rob. Just lie back and think of England.
Stab.
Stab.
Stab.
Lifesurge.
Living Bomb ready.
Rob used Spatial Storage to switch his clothes for an unbloodied ensemble, then tapped Malika on her shoulder. "Do you have enough MP for a big wind spell?"
She blinked, jolted out of her reverie. "Oh. Um, yes. Why?"
He told her of his plan. A broad grin split across her face, transitioning into an excited cackle. "You're a madman. Let's do that straight away."
As Malika charged her spell, Rob attached a Waymark point to the ground, then summoned the Dwarven Sheet Metal from his Bound Items. Keira, Orn'tol, and the Vanguards spread out to give them some space. The Vanguards were looking on in awe; Rob could only hope that they'd enjoy the show.
"We have to time this just right," he told Malika. "Fire the spell on three. Understand?" She nodded so hard that she probably gave herself whiplash. Rob placed his longsword in Storage, holding the Sheet Metal with both hands.
"One." Malika held onto her spell, ready to unleash the fury of an Archmage with a cause.
"Two." Rob leaped into the air, positioning the Sheet Metal under his feet like a surfboard.
"Three!"
A miniaturized tornado slammed into the Sheet Metal, propelling Rob up, up, and away. He lost his balance pretty much immediately, tumbling onto the Sheet as wind pressure buffeted him without mercy. His ascent skyward was so sudden and so jarring that he was actually surprised when he came face-to-face with a Harpy. The two of them exchanged bewildered stares. Rob felt tempted to say a variant of one of the classics, like 'You come here often?'
Then he remembered why he was there.
This was it. No going back. Justified or necessary or otherwise, once he activated Living Bomb, he will have spilled Harpy blood on Harpy soil. There was a sense of finality to it that almost made him hesitate.
Almost.
"I wish you'd stayed home," Rob muttered. The Harpy's survival instincts kicked in, his wings flapping in a hurry, yet it was already too late. You couldn't outrun a thought.
Living Bomb.
The world became obscured by flame, heat, and noise. Rob wasn't sure how many Harpies he'd caught in the blast radius, but the EXP infusing his soul informed him that it was more than a few. Without waiting, he cast Rampage to push himself out of the Bomb's center, then Waymarked to safety so that the Harpies couldn't take revenge after the Bomb faded. The Rampage movement was a necessity; he wasn't taking any chances that using Waymark while in the middle of the Bomb might somehow bring it back with him.
His feet now on solid ground, Rob was treated to an awe-inspiring spectacle. A colossal sphere of fire hung above, like the core of an angry sun, its surface twisting with unbridled energy. The sound it emitted was one long, continuous, ear-splitting explosion, as if the Bomb was a sentient creature noisily lamenting the ones who'd escaped its grasp. This was the first time Rob had seen his Skill from an outside perspective, and in that instant, he truly understood why it was so effective at shattering morale.
As it did now. Living Bomb rapidly faded, but by then the Harpies were already in retreat. The one-two punch of the Gellins' mind attack and a giant fuckoff explosion had doubled their casualties in a matter of seconds. Even if that combo hadn't broken their spirits, not withdrawing at this point would be tantamount to suicide.
Rob allowed his shoulders to relax as a collective sigh of relief passed through the coalition. Their battle was over. Victory was – Wait, what's up with that guy?
Relief gave way to confusion as they noticed a figure in the distance sprinting towards them. It was an...Elf? One of Sylpeiros' Scouts? As everyone watched, the Elf in question passed straight under the fleeing Harpies, neither faction looking at each other as they traveled in opposite directions. The sight was borderline surreal, adding another obstacle to the emotional gamut that Rob was still running. Maybe I can go to bed and pretend I didn't see anything.
Plausible deniability was taken from him a moment later, when the Elf got within range of the coalition's Heightened Senses and started bellowing at the top of his longs. "MONSTERS! PACK OF MONSTERS AND BEASTS! LEVEL 50 AND ABOVE!"
His declaration just left them more confused. There was no such thing as a pack of high-Leveled monsters roaming the surface of Elatra. At first Rob thought that a Dungeon had grown for too long and was beginning to overflow, but the truth ended up being far stranger.
"About...thirty...monsters and animals," the Elf Scout wheezed, once he'd gotten close and could speak in full sentences. "Coming this way. Some are...natural-born. Beasts who've lived for centuries. Others are monsters. Used Identify. Think they...were plucked from Dungeons."
Everyone glanced at Sylpeiros, an unspoken message in their eyes: "He's your Scout. You sort out this mess." The Seneschal put on a deep scowl, somehow managing to direct it at over a dozen people simultaneously. Once he was sure they'd received the full force of his ire, he composed his features and turned towards the exhausted Scout.
"While I don't doubt your words, what you've described is nonsensical. Setting aside how such an eclectic group of creatures was brought together...monsters and natural-born animals are hardly allies. They'd rip each other to pieces under normal circumstances. Animals from differing species would be at odds as well."
"I am merely reporting what I've seen. In one such example, I witnessed an enormous bat flying alongside a misshapen creature of mana that could only have been spawned within the depths of a high-Level Dungeon."
"Are the animals infected?" Rob asked. "This sort of thing happened back when The Village of Ixatan Forest was invaded. Animals got possessed by the Blight."
The Scout paused, searching through his memories – or rather, his log of system notifications. "Yes. An 'Infected' Status Effect appeared when I Identified the animals. Until you provided context, I was unaware of what that implied."
As Sylpeiros continued speaking with the Scout, Rob stopped to think, constructing a timeline of events. This pack of high-Level creatures couldn't have been assembled on short notice. It must've been years in the making, Elnaril searching Harpy territory with a fine-tooth comb, scooping up wildlife and plundering Dungeons.
Rob resisted the urge to shake his fist at the sky. When Kismet warned him that Elnaril had 'strong creatures' to use, it would've been nice to have some extra fucking details. Vague omnipotent asshole.
Anyway. Elnaril corrals his Pokemon, then prepares to ambush the coalition along with his Harpies. Except...the timing went wrong. Or maybe the position? Controlling that many powerful creatures couldn't be easy. Like attempting to drive thirty cars at the same time. It was probably why the coalition hadn't been ambushed until now – Elnaril was waiting for them to get closer. Regardless, the plan was likely supposed to be the Harpies attacking in tandem with the monsters...but the bombing run largely failed, and the monsters were late to the party.
Rob grimaced as he realized how much of the coalition's victory came down to blind luck. Elnaril's plan was unsuccessful due to logistical issues on his side, not because of any stratagem on the coalition's part. If the Harpies had successfully used their pets as distractions, unloading crates of Firebombs while high-Level creatures ran amok through the battlefield...
The coalition still would have won. But their casualties would've been enormous. Enough to make invading the capital untenable.
Everyone else came to the same conclusion as they listened to the Scout's tale. Sylpeiros remained silent for a time, looking more pensive than someone might expect from a Leader who'd just prevailed in battle. "We shall discuss areas of improvement at a later date," he said, sighing. "How long until the monsters arrive?"
"Roughly four minutes."
Sylpeiros drummed his fingers on his thigh. "While we could swarm the monsters with superior numbers, the vast majority of our soldiers are unsuited for combating enemies over Level 50. The monster will fall, but not before inflicting casualties. Instead, I propose that myself, Cyraeneus, and Riardin's Rangers go forth and hold the line. The rest of our soldiers will defend base camp, kept out of harm's way, firing projectiles at whichever beasts draw near."
He frowned. "Even so, thirty monsters above Level 50 aren't so easily repelled. They may be able to fly, or have carapaces that blunt conventional attacks. It would be best if the entire lot focuses on our group, but some will choose to bypass the front line in favor of assaulting the coalition base camp. Casualties are inevitable."
"No. They aren't."
Rob stepped forward, walking in the direction the Scout had come from. A familiar swell of anticipation built within him. "Counter-proposal. I go. Alone. You all stay and deal with whoever slips past."
Numerous opposing voices exploded in unison. Rob countered them with an explosion of his own, summoning a crate of Firebombs and chucking it into the distance. The faint BOOM bought him a moment of stunned silence.
"No bullshitting," he said, fixing them with an intent gaze. "You want to minimize casualties? This is how we do it. Base camp will be vulnerable without high-Level people to protect it. Hell, some of you might die if you try to 'hold the line' in the middle of an open field. It only takes one screwup to get your head bitten off, and the monsters outnumber us. But me?"
With a flourish, Rob summoned his longsword and activated Step of the Wind. "They. Can't. Kill. Me."
He was off before anyone could raise another protest. None of them followed, perhaps sensing something in his voice indicating that it would be a bad idea. Just as well – Rob would've physically thrown back anyone who tried.
No one else needed to risk their lives today.
It only took him three minutes of running at full speed to locate the monster stampede. They were impossible to miss; a menagerie of oversized animals and abominations with the strength to depopulate a city. For almost anyone else in Elatra, the sight would have filled them with the dread of someone who knew their death was imminent, and that they could do nothing to stop the reaper's scythe from swinging.
Rob waved. The monsters screeched when they saw him, letting out a symphony that could be graciously described as hideous. Music to my ears. Out of curiosity, he cast Identify on the first one in line to die.
Name: Lord of the Caves
Level: 57
Race: Blighted Bat
Status Effects: Infected, Thirsty
Description: An existence well above Ixatan's Lord of the Forest that nearly killed you three times over. Gee, I wonder what happens now that you're 70 Levels higher and with pent-up resentment towards big beasties? Play nice, Rob, or you'll break your toys.
"Sorry, but breaking them is the fun part." Inwardly, Rob sent thanks to Elnaril for delivering him a herd of acceptable targets to use as living stress balls. After the unpleasantness of being forced to kill his first non-Blighted Harpies, this was a golden opportunity to let loose – and he was going to make damn good use of it.
The monsters drew closer. Any second now, the carnage would commence. Elation and certainty mingled within him, letting him know that he was in his element. He emptied his mind of worries, soaking in the view. There were no war strategies, allied casualties, or moral quandaries to concern himself with.
Just him, and his prey.
Rampage. Rob flew upwards towards the Lord of the Caves. It was a freakish behemoth of a bat, its head as large as a man's body. The creature sank its fangs into Rob's torso, biting down as if four longswords were piercing through him, vital organs shredded to confetti.
637 Piercing Damage Sustained!
It tickled. Rob completed his swing, landing a direct hit on the Lord's head. He didn't activate any additional offensive abilities, because he didn't need to. Blood for Blood increased his damage based on his missing HP. Rampage highly increased the damage of his next attack. Headsman increased his damage by 25% when attacking an enemy's head. Bone Breaker doubled the damage he dealt to an enemy's bone structure.
With all those passive effects stacking onto each other, the bat's neck was almost severed in one clean stroke. Thanks to Lifesteal, Rob immediately recovered most of his lost HP, like nothing had ever happened. Despite the bat's head hanging by threads, it stubbornly clung to life for a few moments longer – but only a few.
Swordsmanship Level Increased! 9 → 10
One down. Plenty to go. Rob pivoted to the next-closest monster, a gargantuan bear that reminded him of an Ixatan beast that had caved his chest in, once upon a time. Emboldened by nostalgia, he put a bit more oomph into his next attack, stacking Rampage, Power Slash, and Imbue Vitality.
The bear's outer hide was abnormally tough, similar to a Vanguard's armor. That mattered up until the point Rob broke the skin, after which Imbue Vitality's quadruple damage effect savaged the beast from within, its insides reduced to crimson mush.
Level Increased! 84 → 85
5 Stat Points Gained!
BERSERKER Level Increased! 82 → 83
An apelike creature with distended arms leaped ahead of the rest of the pack, enormous hands wrapping around Rob before he could dodge. It let out a warbling bellow, squeezing down with enough pressure to bend steel. Rob's bones, durable as they were, started to crack.
Vitamin D(efense) Level Increased! 10 → 11
Cute. He flicked on the Flames of Vengeance, azure fire covering his body. A grin spread over Rob's face as the beast shrieked and let go. "No, no, we were having a moment. Don't hide from your emotions." Rampaging forward, he jumped on the ape's head and gave it a big ole' hug. The shrieks intensified, mighty fists pounding at his body, fracturing more bones in a desperate attempt to dislodge him.
It was all for naught. The ape's struggles slowed, then ceased, its brain cooked from the inside like spaghetti in a microwave.
Pyromania Level Increased! 2 → 3
The next one on the chopping block was an honest-to-god giant spider. Rob shivered as he summoned a crate of Firebombs and promptly Riardin Special'd the skittering menace into the hereafter. Arachnophobia's 300% damage bonus against spiders combined with Pyromania's 30% fire damage bonus – well, 40% now – meant that it lasted about two seconds before crumbling like a pile of chitinous kindling.
Good riddance. Monsters and abominations were one thing. Spiders...ugh.
Rob checked back the way he'd come from, narrowing his eyes when he saw that a couple monsters had skirted past him while he dealt with their friends. He chased after something that must've been birthed in a Dungeon on a bender, its body comprised of flying limbs and harsh edges that hurt to look at if he stared for too long.
The floating Picasso painting in monster form suddenly whirled around, aiming multiple sharpened points at Rob's head, neck, eyes, heart, and liver. It was a phenomenally well-executed attack that would have been the envy of any Combat Class user.
Unfortunately, Picasso had chosen the one target in the world that could turn lethality into a detriment. With a thought, Rob deactivated all of his defensive Skills, then activated Dauntless Reprisal, reflecting the damage of five grievous blows back onto the creature. It collapsed into itself, twitching on the ground, silently pleading for mercy as a longsword ended its suffering.
Swordsmanship Level Increased! 10 → 11
As Rob reactivated his defensive Skills and chose his next target, something in the monsters' attitudes shifted. Several of them went from stampeding ahead to turning towards him on a dime. Their movements were stiff and jerky, as if puppeteered by an unseen force.
"Hi Elnaril!" Rob twirled his longsword. "Hope you don't mind me Old Yeller-ing your pets here. I'm sad to say that you didn't train them prop–"
The creatures pounced in unison. Claws and fangs savaged Rob's from head to toe, tearing off limbs and pulling apart flesh. A good chunk of his body mass disappeared in seconds.
Platelet Party Level Increased! 20 → 21
1021 Combined Damage Sustained!
"Wow, that's a lot of damage." Rob grinned, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth. "On an unrelated note, guess what Skill just came off cooldown?"
BOOM.
Level Increased! 85 → 86
5 Stat Points Gained!
BERSERKER Level Increased! 83 → 84
BERSERKER Level Increased! 84 → 85
Rob stood in the center of a crater. Living Bomb had ripped the ground open like scooping ice cream. He was once again back to full health, Lifesteal having converted 50% of the damage he'd dealt into HP.
And he'd dealt a lot of damage.
"It's like I said," he whispered, to nothing in particular. "They can't kill me. When I put my mind to it, I'm a better monster than they could ever hope to be."
The thought didn't distress him like it would have back home on Earth. It wasn't so bad, being a monster to monsters. Kept his friends alive, put food on the table...there were worse careers, he supposed.
Rob jumped out of the crater, searching for new targets. Living Bomb wasn't nearly large enough to take out all of them at once. He set his eyes on a fleeing wyvern and gave chase. As the gap closed, he checked his available Skills, and oh would you look at that, Imbue Vitality was off cooldown now.
Swordsmanship Level Increased! 11→ 12
One monster fell. Then another. Then another. Rob alternated his Skills, rotating between whatever abilities were available.
Swordsmanship Level Increased! 12→ 13
More creatures tried ganging up on him. It didn't work.
Platelet Party Level Increased! 21 → 22
Headsman! 4 → 5
He sliced and cut and Firebombed everything in his path.
Pyromania Level Increased! 3 → 4
Until eventually...
Level Increased! 86 → 87
5 Stat Points Gained!
BERSERKER Level Increased! 85 → 86
There was nothing left.
Rob found himself surrounded by a pile of mangled corpses. He tried counting to see if he could reach thirty, then gave up. Too many mixed-up body parts. It was likely that a couple monsters had gotten past him, so he'd just have to hope for the best.
His prayers were answered when he arrived back at base camp. A wide smile split across Rob's face as he counted a mere six monster corpses littered around the outskirts. They hadn't even gotten close. Most importantly, there wasn't a single allied corpse anywhere in sight.
Zero casualties.
Everyone was staring at him with various looks on their faces. Rob didn't bother trying to decipher all of them. They could think whatever they wanted to think – results were what mattered. The coalition may have lost some soldiers in the Harpy attack, but from the monster stampede?
Zero goddamn casualties.
Rob took a bow, then went straight for his tent. He wasn't going to find a better note to sleep on than this. His consciousness faded the moment he closed his eyes.
And the nightmares didn't dare to come for him.
​
--
​
Changes, Character Sheet, Skill List
Thanks for reading!

Just got back from Sandals Royal Curacao! This is a long review. I took over this subreddit to make it as informational as possible about the resorts, so here we go! Please feel free to ask any questions if I missed something.
 
Room:
We stayed May 22-27 in a Sunchi Swim-up Club Level room (HSUP). We were in Sunchi Building 8, which is the last building on one side of the resort. We stayed in 1253, which is the second-to-last room on the first floor. All that to say, Curacao is a long resort and you'll definitely get your steps in! But we were also right next to the dive shop, which was fantastic for us.
 
The swim-up room was amazing and highly recommended! We ended up using it more than the double infinity pool. They did a perfect job at keeping the in-room bar stocked with alcohol and juices/water (around 10am). We didn't have to call for anything once. So we would hang out in the pool (which connects across buildings 7 & 8, and there is a common area) and make our own drinks. Many times we were the only ones in the pool out of all the rooms. The swim-up pool is completely private, there is no entry except through a room, and there are a lot of gorgeous plants and flowers blocking it from the other side. Hummingbirds would be 1 foot away and were fun to watch. Floats are provided for each room. Use the ice bucket to keep bottles cool outside.
 
Ordering food from Room Service was consistently 40-45 minutes. At night it was quiet, as the music from the main area doesn't really reach building 8. No one would be in the swim-up pool after 10, it would start to get a little chilly with the wind. It gets very, very dark towards the Sunchi end of the resort. I recommend using the building side to reach your room, not the garden path.
 
Two subjective complaints:
(1) Housekeeping was very late. Some days they didn't come until 4-5pm, and the evening turn-down and towel replenishment didn't happen until 10pm. Between the swim-up and shower and wet floors, you NEED towels. We supplemented with the brown pool towels, grabbing them any time we went by the other pools. The late service could be because we were in the last building, but I'm not sure. The housekeepers did do a very thorough job and the rooms were clean and new.
(2) When we first checked-in, the back door's lock looked like it was forcibly broken and mangled. We had them replace it, but it still didn't lock. There is a second set of heavy wooden doors (blinds really) that do close and lock, so we weren't overly concerned. I don't think someone tried to break in, based on how the pool would make it hard to get to. But I can see someone getting locked out accidentally and having no other option but to break the door, since you can't get out of the pool area otherwise.
 
Restaurants/Service
The service across all restaurants and bars was outstanding. We never experienced a wait or long times to get our ordedrinks. The waitstaff were happy to talk to you and literally everyone says hello as you pass by. Concierge was perfect and accommodating as well. Restaurants had most of everything, and they would tell you what they're out of as you sat down.
 
Pietra - Our go-to breakfast buffet. At lunch they change the buffet to different food by country (Asian, Mexican, American, etc.). The food was all great at lunch. I ate too many fajitas.
 
Vincent - Reservation required. I recommend the Escargots and Foie Gras. They were out of the Cured Beef Bresaola.
 
Toteki, La Palma, Kishi - Food trucks. These were great for a snack. Get the cuttlefish and shrimp from La Palma, and the General Tso's Steak Bao Buns from Kishi.
 
Strand - For dinner, absolutely get the Snapper. It was my favorite meal of the trip. My husband liked the Surf & Turf at Strand better than Butch's. Strand also has a lunch menu with American-type items on it. The shrimp Caesar wrap was a nice light lunch.
 
Butch's - Reservation required. We went twice for dinner, once for breakfast. For dinner appetizers, try the Waldorf Caesar, Crispy Goat Cheese Salad, and Grilled Black Pepper Bacon (definitely that one). The Aged Prime Rib and Chargrilled Lamb Chops were great. We also had the Surf & Turf and Steak Diane which were very good too. Absolutely get the Willy Wonka Brulee - it was my favorite dessert on the resort.
 
Gatsu Gatsu - We went twice. The sushi here is so good. It's 4 pieces per roll. I recommend the Champagne Lobster and Caribbean Dynamite rolls. Shrimp tempura and crispy chicken karaage were our favorite appetizers. They were out of edamame and tonkotsu ramen.
 
Kanaal - Nice to pop into for a cappuccino or sweets.
 
Zuka and Aolo's - did not try.
 
Note: We wanted to order champagne (Veuve Clicquot) but the resort (or at least Butch's, Kanaal, and Pietra) was out of that and several of their Proseccos. We did end up getting 2 bottles of Prosecco though.
 
Scuba Diving
Scuba was great and the team was a lot of fun. You have to do a check-out dive if you haven't logged a dive recently (they do check your log book if you want to avoid the check-out dive). We did ours around 11am and were able to go on an afternoon dive the same day (we were waitlisted, but some didn't show up). You sign up for dives starting at 8am 2 days out, so if you want to dive Friday, show up on Wednesday morning at 8am to sign up. They do keep waitlists for each dive. The dive shop has lockers! Great for if your room is at the other end of the resort and you don't want to walk with your stuff every morning.
 
The dive schedule seems highly variable - while we were there, they did 2-tank morning dives Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and a 1-tank afternoon dive those days. Tuesday and Thursday they do a 1-tank morning dive, and 1-tank afternoon dive. I'm not sure about Saturday-Sunday since we weren't there. But, they said just a month ago they were only able to do 1-tank morning dives each day and no afternoon dives, as the water would get too choppy. And yes, the water was very choppy and it was windy all day. I saw a red flag or two at the resort while we were there. So you may want to check out the weather in Curacao the month you want to book.
 
They mentioned all the dive sites were 5-10 minutes away, but we were able to go Double Reef Thursday, the farthest site at 30 minutes. There were several turtles, a reef shark, squid, and a great variety of fish and coral. It was the best dive I've been in on years. However, they said it had been a month and a half since they'd been able to reach the site because of the choppiness. A couple on the boat had been able to go with an offsite-company and enter via shore, so that's an option as well.
 
City
You can take a cab from the resort to Willemstad for $49 each way. Our cab was private and air conditioned. The drivers were very nice. They dropped us off next to the CURACAO sign, and pickup was there too (they gave you a card and you call them 30 minutes before you're ready to leave). Right by the Curacao sign, there's a tiny alley with a white and blue cow - go down that alley for some great gelato. There's also an ice cream place near the sign that claims to give you an orgasm in less than a minute, but I didn't partake. There are lots of cafes and souvenir shops around Willemstad. There's a fresh fish and fruit market. You'll be near where the cruise ships dock. Check out the bridge and forts. Pop into a casino for some much-needed A/C. As an aside, a local man very persistently forced his help on us (where are you going, follow me down this alley, etc...) and wouldn't leave us alone and stop following us even after we said we knew where we were going, and ultimately asked for beer money, but the city seemed safe. There were several police officers around the streets we passed. Just be aware of your surroundings (as in any city).
 
Miscellaneous
The bus ride from/to the airport took us 40-45 minutes. It's a very nice and comfortable bus. You'll see a Sandals area at the end after you pick up your luggage. The airport was very nice and modern and quick to get through (we were first off the plane though). On departure, there seemed to be only one main hot food place after security, but they have a VIP/Priority Pass lounge that had some good light food on the buffet and a hot menu to order from as well. Check if your credit card has that as a perk to avoid the long line at the other restaurant. It opens at 1pm.
 
Spa/Gym - The spa was nice and clean. You have your own private bathroom/changing area in the table room versus a general locker room. The gym had a steady flow of people, but wasn't ever too crowded.
 
Curacao is HOT in May. Seriously. It was 86 every day, with a heat index around 96-97. Now, I was born and raised in South Georgia where it gets 95 with a 110 index in the summer, but this heat hit different. The UV index on my weather app said 11. Wear sunscreen and stay in the water. And get used to being wet - it'll either be pool water, ocean, or sweat depending on your location at the resort. It was mostly sunny every day, with a few clouds in the afternoon. No rain. At night it cools off well enough. Thankfully there's always a nice breeze going on. But stay hydrated and pay attention to your skin. Walking around the city with the heat was a bit much, we started at 9 and made it to 12 before calling it quits.
 
Tl;dr
I loved it! I highly recommend a Swim-up room, but maybe ask for a central building instead of on the edge of the resort (walking that far in the extreme heat with no shade gets old fast). Great service, wonderful staff. I would pick another month to go back though. May was just too hot for me!
 
Edited thoughts:

• People get out to the main pool EARLY - there were people laying out at 7:30am. We were able to find a pair of chairs around 10 the one time we went to the infinity pool, but not around 2 the second time we thought about going.
  
• This is subjective, but the beach was underwhelming. It's rocky on the side facing the ocean, and you aren't allowed to go down to the water. The side facing the inlet/strand just doesn't have that beach & open water forever feel. We didn't go down there except for the check-out dive (no dive pool)
  

Hi! Just came back from a magical 10 days on the Big Island and put together a trip report with some commentary. Hope this is helpful for others planning trips, happy to answer questions about any of it
Sunday 5/14
Previously checked into Kona VRBO condo
Breakfast at Kona Haven Cafe
Kona Farmers Market - unimpressive market but the one fruit stand there had soursop and mangosteen which we were looking for
Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park
Costco
Drive down coffee coast w/ GyPSy (now called GuideAlong)
Dinner at Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill Kona - walked in during dinner service on mothers day with no reservation, was seated at the bar immediately, food came quickly and was delicious
Monday 5/15
Coffee at Kona Coffee & Tea - quickly became our favorite coffee spot
Drive up coast w/ GuideAlong
Lunch and tour at Hawaiin Vanilla Co. - okay lunch but amazing tour with owner
Honoka's Chocolate Co. - didn't do the tour but stopped by the storefront for a superb tasting
Waipio Valley Lookout
Dinner at The Fish and the Hog - locally recommended, didn't wow us
Drive through hills & cattle pastures @ golden hour - highly recommend
Tuesday 5/16
Coffee at Kona Coffee & Tea
Snorkel rental at Snorkel Bob's
Snorkeling at Kahalu’u Beach Park - great snorkeling, just need to be mindful of the reef and not stand despite shallow water
Lunch at Da Poke Shack - amazing poke, expensive but worth it
Shave ice at Gecko Girlz
(Stargazing cancelled)
Wednesday 5/17
Coffee at Kona Coffee & Tea
Lunch at Broke da Mouth - another great meal, classic Hawaiian plate lunch
Tour at Big Island Bees - a little nerve wracking if you are not fond of bees as I am but the tour was excellent, honey was amazing, we shipped a bunch home
Tour at Greenwell Farms - convenient timing (free tours ongoing all day) and did not require reservation, very informative tour guide, free tasting of many coffee flavors
(Stargazing cancelled)
Thursday 5/18
Coffee at Kona Coffee & Tea
Snorkeling at Kahalu’u Beach Park
Checked out of Kona VRBO
Lunch at Da Poke Shack
Drive down coast w/ GuideAlong
Punalu'u Bake Shop - underwhelming malasadas, maybe because we were there in the afternoon
Punalu'u Beach - black sand beach, saw turtles in the waves
Checked into Hilo Airbnb
Dinner at Tetsumen - great quality Japanese food
Friday 5/19
Coffee at Sirius Starseed Coffee - best coffee of the trip Akatsuka Orchid Gardens - amazing variety of plants, shipped a few home
Volcanoes National Park:
Steam Vents
Sulphur Banks
Uekahuna
Kilauea Overlook
Ili Overlook
Thurston Lava Tube
Chain of Craters Road
Dinner at Moon and Turtle - some dishes were amazing and some were ok. Limited by few menu offerings
Wandered through Hilo Night Market
Saturday 5/20
Breakfast at Popovers - worst coffee of the trip but breakfast was good
Rainbow Falls
Boiling Pots
Akaka State Park
Honomu Goat Dairy
Hawai‘i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden - highly recommend, beautiful wandering gardens
Lunch at Tetsumen
Big Island Pearl Tea
Free samples at Big Island Candies
Richardson Ocean Park - black sand beach, decent snorkeling, a bit colder water than we would've liked due to areas being spring fed
Sunday 5/21
Maku'u Farmer's Market - stumbled on this by chance and it was amazing. Many fruit vendors, food vendors, arts and crafts
Coffee at Kohala Coffee Co.
Richardson Ocean Park
Stargazing with Epic Tours - Mauna Kea Stargazing - owner was very flexible and rescheduled us twice due to cloudy weather, expensive excursion but thought it was worth it
Monday 5/22
Breakfast at the Sippin Siren Coffee
Scenic drive from Hilo to Kona
Checked into Hilton Grand Vacations Club Kings’ Land Waikoloa - last minute booking due to wanting to spend more time on Kona side before we left, we were actually double booked with the airbnb for this night
Lunch at Da Poke Shack
Snack shopping for home at Costco
Drinks at Kona Coffee & Tea - had a life changing matcha latte this day
Dinner at Ippys Hawaiian BBQ Waimea - another great classic hawaiin plate meal
Tuesday 5/23
Coffee at Kona Coffee & Tea
Kayak rental from Kona Kayaks - owner was so nice, we originally rented for Monday but got there at 1 thinking they were open until 4 (per google) when they really closed at 2, he was willing to stay open later but we decided to just come back the next day
Captain Cook Monument snorkeling - first experience being out snorkeling in deep open water, scary but fun
Lunch at Umekes Fish Market Bar & Grill - had some amazing fish tacos here
Checked into The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort
Dinner at Canoe House - we went with the chefs tasting menu, $155pp came with 6 courses, decent portions, beautiful oceanfront location
Edit for formatting (on mobile)

We set sail on the Carnival Conquest this week, to Key West and Cozumel. It was our first cruise, and overall, one of the best vacations we have ever had!
Being that the ship is 20+ years old, you can see it. She's a little dated (especially the staterooms) and has some noticable wear, but the charm is still present.
Pros: + A lot of activities + Food was good + Even though the pools were crowded, still a lot of room and chances to talk! + The entire staff was so kind - offer a smile, step out of the way of someone carrying heavy or pushing a cart, say good morning.... you'll be treated back with kindness! And Zack! Zack is a golden retriever in a human body, I don't feel he's real!
Cons: + The "king" bed being two twins was AWFUL. It was uncomfortable anyway, but the crevice between the two twins... Ugh. + I'm not sure if I just missed this - but the only place to get water and sodas is at a bar (besides a quick cup from the buffet area).. And then you have to wait in line from people ordering drinks. I was surprised they didn't have a different counter, or vending type service.
Must Dos: + The Piano Bar with Rodney. We went two nights, and it was the same crowd of people because we all loved it so much! Hilarious, fun, upbeat crowd. Rodney is a GEM! + Either stay up late or get up early. The quietness of the ship with the big wide ocean around is incomparable. + For us, the Cheers! package. On a 4 night cruise between the 2 of us, we ordered 75 times (including a few coffees and probably a few water only times). It was nice to not worry about the money and budgeting, it was just hand the card over and go on! + Take advantage of the photographers, especially on formal night. We hit up 6 or 7 of the stations, the photographers know how to pose you and make you smile. I had some incredible shots! We only bought 1 photo because it is expensive if you didn't buy the package before boarding, but it was just a genuine shot and I had to have it. + Make some time to explore the ship. There's a lot of things to see and do, even on a smaller ship. + If you're into it, join a Facebook group for your sailing date. We met a few incredibly fun people, had a bar crawl, and kept seeing more and more people from the group! + The sail away party! We had a blast, I can't dance to save my life and still enjoyed the heck out of it.
COZUMEL + MR SANCHOS is where IT IS AT. We had the absolute time of our lives - I could easily say it might be the best day of my life. It was easy from the time we got off the ship, taxis are organized and waiting. $17 to get to Mr Sanchos. $68 a person at Mr Sanchos... Literally, all you can eat and drink. Your drink won't even be finished and they are bringing you another. They bring you water at random, too..the best service I have ever experienced. The beach was divine, the swim up pool was amazing. Just be careful of them walking around up selling - $15 to take a picture with the birds? Nope, no thanks. We did swindled into the bracelets because my bf can never find his name on stuff, and I was like, if you have his name I'll buy it... Lol, they had it! But it's fun to have something with his name. We tipped accordingly to the servers, and shared a taxi back with some people we met.
Other thoughts and notes: + I'm a slightly picky eater and found plenty of options. We did the MDR every night except the first, did it one breakfast, and hit the buffet the rest of the time. My bf is a grazer, he doesn't eat much at one sitting, so enjoyed going by the buffet and just grabbing a lil bite. + My bf knows he can get motion sickness so I equipped him with the bracelets and patches. We ended up having to get him Dramamine (the equivalent) from guest services after we reboarded in Key West, he was miserable. + I'm on the introverted side but had no issues talking to people. Everyone we came across was friendly and enjoyable to talk to, and we even made some reoccurring friends we partied with every night, or talked to at meals. My bf who is extroverted as hell thrived in this environment, he would wander off and start making friends. + Due to the previous statement, we did buy the carnival hub chat for $5 each. He lost me night one for a bit and was very worried, so we did that. We didn't get the WiFi plan though, it's expensive and we had service everyday, at some point, except Thursday until about 10:30pm. + I bought a lot of stuff I read off lists of what to buy, here's what I bought and used/didn't - phone waterproof pouches - didn't use - lanyards for sign & sail - I used and loved, bf didn't - clothes line with clips - used it for wet bathing suits - magnets - a must! Used it to hang hats on the wall and the clothesline from the ceiling - over the door shoe organizer - saw to buy for bathroom organization but the bathroom has plenty of shelves and we had no issues with space! - laundry bags - didn't use - towel bands for the chairs - didn't use - straws - didn't use, guess I didn't mind not having straws - tumblecups - didn't use but probably would have at Sanchos or the pool if we thought about it

• PLEASE use sunscreen! I'm pale AF, and I was constantly reapplying. I got a little red at the end of the day in Cozumel, but not bad at all. I also had a rash guard I went in the pool with on the sea day! And after sun lotion too, help moisturize your skin
  
• LIP BALM TOO because my lips are sore as heck!
  

We are booked for the Celebration for next September, and I'm on the prowl for another trip to Cozumel! Happy sailing, y'all!

Race Information

• Name: 2023 Bay to Breakers Race Report
• Date: May 21, 2023
• Distance: 12K
• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Time: 50:27

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Beat PB: 51:17	Yes

Splits

Kilometer	Time
1	4:06
2	4:03
3	4:08
4	4:16
5	4:51
6	4:27
7	4:10
8	4:02
9	4:02
10	3:53
11	3:58
12	3:56

Training

I am actually in the build up to my first 50K in July. This race was my first road race back in May 2016 and have done it every year (minus covid years). I suffered proximal hamstring tendinopathy after returning to run too quickly after a marathon back in October 22' and returned to running during Christmas and started building a 25-35 mile base from then until March. My MPW has been 40-51 miles the last 6 weeks. I do 2 days a week of strength training (mainly 3 sets of 5 squats x3 until I hit body weight on a slant board as well as proned hamstring curls). Easy day Mon, Tues crosstrain, Wens is track work with a local club, Thurs crosstrain, Friday base pace run, Sat is tempo day, Sun LR day.

Pre-race

Week of I cut my miles back to 20 miles total the week of and did one speed session of work I found on an AdvanceRunning thread. 1 mile WU, 2x200 @ anaerobic, 3X800 @ threshold, 2x200 @ anaerobic, 1 mile CD; 200 rest after all reps. Morning of I ran to the start line about 1.75 miles with some strides.

Race

Lined up in A corrale which is risky because even though this corrale is supposed to be fast-ish you still get people who are going to be slower because this is Bay to Breakers after all. I dont mind because its fun and I just make sure to get right on the timing line. My biggest issue is always going out way too hard but this time I played it smart. My main goal was to keep around a 6:50 average to beat my course PB but preferably my threshold pace around the mid 6:40s. When the horn went off I went out at 5:45 pace but quickly told myself “slow down now” and put myself with a pack of high school XC kids who were pacing around 6:30s which I felt great doing. Miles 1 & 2 are a slight up hill; 6:33 & 6:36 were my first mile splits. Having done this race so many times I knew after mile 2 I would immediately hit Hayes Street Hill. The worst climb of the race and the one that generates the most lactic build up. I did the hill in 3:51 beating last years climb of 4 minutes. This area gave me my slowest split of 7:31 per mile. The pounding on the down hill portion as soon as you get over the hill doesn’t provide much comfort until the lactic build up clears another mile down the road. Once I hit Golden Gate Park I knew I was in the clear as it’s all rolling down hill. I started passing people who went out too fast and mispaced their runs. It was weird to be in the reverse situation but felt nice. Stoked on my performance.

Post-race

Unlike last year I felt perfectly fine. Last year I immediately had really bad ankle pain (I never ran in high school & up until my first marathon block have not known how to properly pace to avoid injury; my cardio is stronger than my body) and had to take a two days off of running. I got my medal, ate a banana and a protein shake they had there, drank some gatorade. Did a 2 mile jog out of the park and Ubered back to my hotel.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.

Check out our full Durham events calendar.
If you'd like to add an event to our calendar, submit an event here. Please check with the event organizers to see if events change due to weather. Have a great weekend!

Venue Weekend Schedules

Events at The Pinhook

• Thu, May 25 at 8:00 p.m. - The Cook Up
• Sat, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. - Narrow Head / Graham Hunt / Fake Eyes
• Sat, May 27 at 10:00 p.m. - The Gemini Bash Feat: Ver / Black As The Cosmos / Gemynii / Femi Th Femme
• Sun, May 28 at 8:00 p.m. - Summer In Tha Carolinas Preshow

Events at The Fruit

• Thu, May 25 at 9:00 p.m. - Below Decks: Jermainia / DJ Bosslady / DJ Eleven12
• Fri, May 26 at 9:00 p.m. - Undrgrnd Presents: Criso / Analog Future / Craeons / Apah
• Sat, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. - HAC The System Dance Party
• Sun, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. - Zelda

Live Music at Blue Note Grill

• Fri, May 26 at 6:00 p.m. - Jess Klein Trio (filling in for The Duke Street Dogs)
• Fri, May 26 at 9:15 p.m. - Sayer McShane
• Sat, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. - The Mighty Messengers of Soul

Events at Moon Dog Meadery

• Thursdays - Free Board Games
• Thu, May 25 at 7:00 p.m. - Trivia
• Fri, May 26 at 8:00 p.m. - 4th Friday Blues Night with Live Music! (lesson at 7:30 p.m.)
• Sat, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. - CoLab On Fire
• Sun, May 21 at 6:30 p.m. - Moon Dog Open Mic

Live Music at Sharp 9 Gallery

• Fri, May 26 at 8:00 p.m. - Lovell Bradford Quartet
• Sat, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. - Geoff Clapp Trio
• $27.55

Events at Arcana

• Thu, May 25 -The Deneckes and Tarot with Virginia
• Fri, May 26 - Ben Lassiter Trio and Tarot with Rene
• Sat, May 27 - Patrick McGrew Trio and Tarot with Joy
• Sun, May 28 - Eric Lee Hardt and friends feat. Adriana Walsh and Tarot with Rene

Events at Rubies on Five Points

• Thu, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. - XOXOK
• Thu, May 26 at 10:00 p.m. - Gay Agenda Presents: Last Friday
• Fri, May 27 at 9:00 p.m. - Blind Tigers Live Band Karaoke: 80s Mix
• Sat, May 28 at 8:00 p.m. - Slow Teeth with 1970s Film Stock

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• Thu, May 25
  • 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Food Truck: El Jefecito
  • 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Thursday Trivia with Nick
• Fri, May 26
  • 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Food Truck: Tacos Paradise
  • 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. - Open Mic Stand-up Comedy
• Sat, May 27
  • 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Food Truck: Tacos Mama Chava
  • 4:00 p.m - 8:00 p.m. - The Blood Connection
• Sun, May 28
  • 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Hammered Trivia with Thor

Live Comedy at Mettlesome

• Thu, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. Bulldog Ensemble Theater presents: Single Black Female - A fast and funny look at the lives of single Black women, as they navigate love, success, and stereotypes.
• Fri, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. Bulldog Ensemble Theater presents: Single Black Female
• Fri, May 26 at 9:00 p.m. Well Seasoned
• Sat, May 27 at 2:00 p.m. Bulldog Ensemble Theater presents: Single Black Female
• Sat, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. Bulldog Ensemble Theater presents: Single Black Female
• Sat, May 27 at 9:00 p.m. Golden Age
• Sun, May 28 at 2:00 p.m. Bulldog Ensemble Theater presents: Single Black Female

Events at Boxyard RTP

• Thu, May 25 from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Live Music: Shrub(b)
• Fri, May 26 from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Friday Night Live: Still Rise
• Sat, May 27 from 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. - Fitness Pop-Up: TITLE Boxing Club
• Sat, May 27 from 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Saturdaze: DJ Damu
• Sat, May 27 from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Live DJ: Selector B Steady

Events at Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP

• Thu, May 25 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Beer Garden Jam Sessions
• Every Friday from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - RTP Food Truck Fridays
• Sat, May 27 from 3:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Team On Draft Bike MS Fundraiser Night
• Sat, May 27 from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Beer Garden Jam Sessions

Events at Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham

• Thu, May 25 from 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. - Live Music in the Taproom
• May 26-28 from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Weekend Food Trucks

Multi-Day Event

Memorial Day Remembrance Event at Bennett Place State Historic Site

• Following the American Civil War, a “Decoration Day” began in communities across America remembering soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Senator John A. Logan, a former Union officer on staff with Major General William T. Sherman, was instrumental in making this a formal national day honoring our fallen soldiers, which became Memorial Day. Join military historians representing the American soldier of all time periods throughout our nation's history.
• Sat, May 27 from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Sun, May 28 from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
• $3 for adults, $2 for children 5-16
• Children under 5, veterans and active service personnel are free

Local Sports

ACC Baseball Tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park

• The 2023 ACC Baseball Championship will again feature 12 teams in a pool play format leading into a four-team, single-elimination bracket to determine the league champion.
• Today - May 28

Carolina Flyers at Durham County Memorial Stadium

• vs Houston Havoc
• Fri, May 26 at 7:00 p.m.
• $12 (free age 12 and under)

Thursday, May 25

Durham Night Market at American Tobacco Campus

• Featuring 40+ vendors, entertainment, interactive stations to celebrate the spring season, games, a bar provided by Mellow Mushroom, and surrounding eateries within the American Tobacco Campus!
• 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Thirsty Thursdays at Dashi

• Each month Dashi's Thirsty Thursday drink specials revolve around a monthly theme – spirits, cocktails, special ingredients, brand, location, etc. – with new sips every Thursday. Learn more about upcoming themes on their website or visit them in person – there's always something new to try from their expansive bar!
• 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Accessing Nature: Dispelling Myths and Opening Doors at the Nasher

• Our natural environment provides us with many of the resources we need to live and thrive, but for many people, access to healthy outdoor spaces is limited. Join attorney and conservation professional Mavis Gragg, Farm Aid program director Shorlette Ammons, Ebony Anglers founder Gia Peebles and artist Stacy Lynn Waddell for a conversation about accessibility, ownership and our relationship with the natural world. This event is inspired by the exhibition Spirit in the Land.
• 5:45 p.m. - lecture hall doors open
• 6:00 p.m. - panel discussion
• 7:30 p.m. - cash bar and reception
• Free admission

Vinyl Night with DJ Deckades at Gizmo Brew Works

• Enjoy fresh vibes on the patio with DJ Deckades. Bring your own vinyl to share or just listen to what the DJ is spinning.
• 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Boulders & Brews Meetup at Triangle Rock Club - Durham

• Show up and climb at TRC Durham, then head over to Hi-Wire for some brews. Don't worry if it's your first time or haven't bouldered before; everyone's welcome.
• Your first visit to the gym with the Meetup includes free admission and gear rental, and subsequent visits with the meetup are $15 and include harness rental (outside of meetups, day pass rates of $19 apply and do not include rentals).
• 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Trivia Night w/Big Slow Tom at Clouds Brewing Brightleaf Square

• Join Clouds Durham for Big Slow Tom's Trivia Night, every Thursday. Win some prizes, drink some beer, and show your smarts.
• Enjoy $4 select draft and $5 rotating bartender's choice all night.
• 7:30 p.m.
• Free admission

Friday, May 26

Tasting at Ten at Counter Culture Coffee

• Every Friday morning at 10 am, Counter Culture Coffee opens their Training Centers to coffee lovers who want to learn more about Counter Culture Coffee’s high-quality, sustainably sourced menu.
• 10:00 a.m.
• Free, but donations accepted

Mallarme Music Concert: Bach Lit at Durham Arts Council PSI Theater

• What's better than the cello suites of J.S. Bach? The cello suites accompanied by a laser show. Join Mallarme Music as cellist Bonnie Thron and marimbist Juan Alamo perform Suites 1 and 2 with lasers provided by Salty Robot Productions.
• 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
• $10-30

Saturday, May 27

Durham Farmers’ Market at Durham Central Park

• The Durham Farmers’ Market offers locally grown fruits and vegetables, meats, eggs, cut flowers, artisanal cheeses and breads, home-baked pies, honey, handmade chocolates, preserves, local wines, handmade soaps, fresh pasta, and artwork of all sorts!
• 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Free admission

South Durham Farmers' Market at Greenwood Commons Shopping Center

• The market strives to support new and growing farms and vendors in the greater Durham area, and they are also home to some of the most iconic Durham brands around.
• 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Free admission

parkrun Durham at Southern Boundaries Park

• A free, fun, and friendly weekly 5k community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer, or spectate. It's up to you!
• 8:00 a.m.
• Free admission

Walk for the Animals at Duke East Campus

• APS heads back to Duke’s East Campus for their annual Walk for the Animals, a 1.5-mile charity walk around Duke University’s East Campus to raise money and awareness for homeless and neglected pets throughout the Durham community.
• More than 500 Triangle residents participate in the Walk for the Animals each year. Proceeds raised at the Walk will benefit APS of Durham and its work care for more than 5,000 animals who rely on the organization’s services yearly. Participants can register as individuals or as a team – recruiting friends, family, and coworkers to join. Registration is available online through our Walk webpage.
• 10:00 a.m.
• $40 adults, $15 kids

Mystic Memorial Day at Mystic Farm and Distillery

• Live music, apple pie eating contest, bouncy house, yard games, slip 'n slide, splash pad for kids, and food trucks.
• 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Veterans and active service members admitted free with ID. Guests under 21 get in free.
• $20, $10 in advance (includes first cocktail)

Crafternoons at Gizmo Brew Works

• Free pint with purchase of craft box. Choose from a variety of craft packages available for all ages.
• 12:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Taste of Soul NC (Variety Edition) at Durham Central Park

• Seafood, Mexican, BBQ, Jamaican, Dominican, pineapple smoothies, italian ice, and more delicious goodness.
• 3:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Sunday, May 28

Al Strong Presents Jazz Brunch at Alley Twenty Six

• Al Strong, the Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and recording artist, will bring a rotating lineup of musicians to perform during Sunday brunch at Durham's Alley Twenty Six. Weather permitting the band will perform in the bar’s namesake alley.
• Brunch from 10:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
• Music 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Public Tour at Duke Chapel

• Learn about the history, architecture, and life of Duke Chapel in this tour, which is free and open to the public. The tour begins at 12:15 p.m., or immediately following the conclusion of the Sunday morning service, and lasts approximately forty-five minutes.
• No reservation is required but if you plan to bring a large group please notify us in advance. Meet the docent on the front steps of the Chapel.
• Paid parking is available on a first come, first served basis in the Bryan Center Parking Lot at 125 Science Drive. ADA parking is available in the Bryan Center Surface Lot at the same address.
• 12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Trivia at Navigator Beverage Co.

• Hosted by the Triangle’s Trivia team, Hammered Trivia, gather your team and post up to compete for prizes and enjoy an afternoon of great drinks, great friends, and great games.
• 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Running Art Exhibits

In Ecstasy, I Call Your Name So I Won’t Forget By Kennedi Carter at Pop Box Gallery

• A visual archive of Black women in pin up.
• Wed-Sat from 12:00 p.m - 6:00 p.m.
• Runs through May 27

Exhibits at 21c Museum Hotel

• Whitney Stanley: We Just Be in the Vault Gallery
  • Runs through May 2023
• Truth or Dare: A Reality Show
  • Runs through March 2024
• Open 24 hours
• Free admission

“Extra-Spectral” at the Durham Art Guild Truist Gallery

• This exhibit highlights several NC-based artists that, on the surface, use colors that are “extra” (which is where their commonality ends) to evoke their intent through a combination of this color with forms and imagery as well as the concepts embedded in color’s many identities. Artists Jane Cheek, Jerstin Crosby, Zach Storm, Tonya Solley Thornton and Leif Zikade all require color to play a primary role in their work and their relationship to an audience.
• Mon–Sat from 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. and Sun from 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Runs through June 4
• Free admission

Donna Stubbs, Featured Artist at 5 Points Gallery

• 5 Points Gallery in downtown Durham introduces a new exhibit featuring the work of our member artist, Donna Stubbs. Donna uses an archaeological approach to painting, as she lovingly photographs her surroundings and unearths discarded items in thrift stores to create abstract mixed media works.
• Free admission

Chieko Murasugi & Renzo Ortega at Craven Allen Gallery

• An exhibition featuring both abstract and figurative works by two artists with international backgrounds. The SEQUENTIAL exhibition invites the observer on a visual journey, generating an organic relationship between the artworks and the gallery's visitors. Through the dynamics of color, form, ideas, and narratives, Chieko Murasugi and Renzo Ortega seek to generate a dialogue and the experience of art appreciation with the audience.
• Sat, May 20 at 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. - opening reception
• Runs through July 8

Spirit in the Land at the Nasher

• Spirit in the Land is a contemporary art exhibition that examines today’s urgent ecological concerns from a cultural perspective, demonstrating how intricately our identities and natural environments are intertwined. Through their artwork, 30 artists show us how rooted in the earth our most cherished cultural traditions are, how our relationship to land and water shapes us as individuals and communities
• Tue-Fri from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sun from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Runs through Jul 9
• Free admission

Andy Warhol: You Look Good in Pictures at the Nasher

• Andy Warhol: You Look Good in Pictures explores the breadth of the artist’s relationship with photography through several distinct bodies of work including screenprints of celebrities, all of which were taken from photographs, a group of Polaroids and black and white snapshots illustrating his social circles, and an early silent film of the curator Henry Geldzahler from 1964.
• Tue-Fri from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sun from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Runs through Aug 27
• Free admission

Art of Peru at the Nasher

• This gallery features ceramics, textiles, metalwork and carvings produced by ancient cultures across what is known as present-day Peru.
• Tue-Fri from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sun from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• Runs through Dec 2
• Free admission

** Fri 5/26 *\*
Fri 10:30 - 11:30 AM Mindful Movement - Yoga in the Park North Domingo Baca Park, 7521 Carmel Ave NE Come break a sweat, get a deep stretch in, and then grab lunch at one of the food trucks afterwards! Meet us on the small grassy area just west of the dog park. Bring your own mat and water! See you there!
Fri 12 PM Pistachio Cream Ale Release Tractor Brewing Company, 118 Tulane Dr. NE We’ve been holding off releasing this one of a kind brew specifically for ABQ Beer Week! Inspired by pistachios produced right here in New Mexico this brew is as smooth as silk and as tasty and a fresh roasted pistachio. This is a very limited one off for us, so come and get you a pint or growler while supplies last
Fri 1- 6 PM Tap Takeover Tap N Taco, 1120 State Hwy 528 NE, Rio Rancho Stop by during ABQ Beer Week from 1-6 p.m. for some of the best tacos in town and a pint of Steel Bender beer...we're taking over their taps! COMPA Blue Corn Lager, Raspberry DYNAMITE, Mañana Hazy IPA, and Hefe Lifting will be available
Fri 5 - 10 PM Friday Night Fever Vol. 1 Expo NM Home of the NM State Fair, 300 San Pedro Dr. NE Local favorites edition! Come enjoy some of the cities favorite artists in a variety of genres, dance, shop and have fun •Modified Car Show! *please respect the spot, no burnouts, revving, etc.* FREE ADMISSION INTO EVENT. $7 parking charge. Event is hosted exclusively by Desert Sun Event Productions DBA Delectable baking Co in partnership with EXPO NM
Fri 6 - 9 PM Variety Dance CSP Dance Studios, 1624 Eubank Blvd. NE Welcome to the city's biggest variety dance! We'll be playing all kinds of music: ballroom, latin, country, swing, you name it! $10 cash/check at the door (sorry, no card or Venmo, CashApp, etc.) Welcome lesson from 6:00-6:30pm
Fri 6 - 10 PM Luau Disco Night Tractor Brewing Company - Westside, 5720 McMahon Blvd., Bldg 5, Ste A We're celebrating the start of summer on our patio with DJ Fishbowl for Luau Disco Night! Come dig in on some tiki drink specials, old and new age disco tunes, eats from RioTacos and if you wear your best Hawaiian shirt enjoy dollar off drinks!
Fri 7 - 11:30 PM Steely Dead a Sonic Fusion of Steely Dan & The Grateful Dead Lobo Theater, 3013 Central Ave NE Steely Dead: A National Touring Band with a Unique Fusion of Grateful Dead and Steely Dan. Hailing from the vibrant music scene of Denver, Colorado, Steely Dead is a national touring band that has captured the hearts of music lovers with their unique blend of Grateful Dead jams and Steely Dan grooves. Comprised of four exceptionally talented musicians - Dave Abear on guitar, Matt Abear on bass, Chris Sheldon on drums, and Dylan Teifer on keys - Steely Dead has gained a dedicated following with their electrifying performances and soulful interpretations of classic tunes. Get ready for a night of musical magic as the Lonn Calanca Band takes the stage to deliver their impeccable interpretations of classic Jerry Garcia Band jams in support of Steeley Dead! With the incredible talents of Kelly Wilson, Josh English, Tony Orant, and Rachel Ross, this show promises to be a delectable feast for the senses. So whether you're a devoted dead head or a lover of all types of music, prepare yourself for a savory and thoroughly satisfying night that's guaranteed to fill you with good vibes and good times (tickets)
Fri 8 - 9 PM Club Fuego Cake Nightclub, 515 Central Ave NW Introducing the new club Fuego every Friday night live. Every Friday night we will be spinning the top latin hits from DJ Julio and other top DJs. To kick it off, we are having no cover charge and drink specials all night long. Join us for $4 Dos Equis, $ Lone River Ranch Ritas, and $5 shots of Patron.Checkout our second floor with local DJ's playing top 40 and hip hop hits
Fri 8 - 10 PM Magic & Comedy Night Beer Week Edition Tractor Brewing - Wells Park, 1800 4th St. NW Dave Grimm is New Mexico's favorite bearded, balded, fake shaman-man! The night will feature his interactive close-up bar magic, yes with our beer in his tricks, and a stage show where he will make you think he can read your mind (can he?). Joining Dave will be two of Albuquerque's top comedians: Caleb Mulkey and Bryan Andrew Lambe! For this special edition we’ll be doing some sweet Tractor giveaways as well!
Fri 8 PM - 1 AM Disko Rumba Sister, 407 Central Ave NW Cumbia, Retro Reggaeton, Merengue, Dembow, Y Mas! Puro Pinche Pari! Sounds by Priejo! (tickets)
Fri 9 PM - 2 AM Synergy Effex, 420 Central Ave *All 3 levels of Effex Nightclub* UKO Records & Pirate Radio have curated this beautifully unique combination of artists to synergistically envelope you into a brand new soundscape. Activate your senses in a personal one on one session with Satya’s Meditative Light Therapy for a cosmic experience. Shop local designer Disco Liquid Studio. QuannumThrow will take you on a visual journey to enhance the synergistic soundscape (click link for full schedule and lineup)
Fri 10:30 PM The Third Saturday in October - throwback tribute to 80s slasher flicks with deranged love & humor! The Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE BONUS! PRODUCER FRANK CRAFTS AND THE ART DIRECTOR ELLAR COLTRANE (OF BOYHOOD FAME!) WILL BE IN PERSON FOR TALK/Q&A! Friday 10:30pm ONLY! Check out the trailer. Jay Burleson - 2023 - 99m - ALL SEATS $8. October 1979. Ricky Dean is a man on a mission. Years ago, he lost a child at the hands of a psychopathic killer named Jakkariah Harding. When Harding escapes Death Row, Ricky Dean throws himself into the line of fire to stop him from killing again as Harding preys upon a group of friends gathered to watch a college football game. An authentic throwback to the golden age of the slasher genre, THE THIRD SATURDAY IN OCTOBER is both a loving tribute to the films that created the horror franchises we know and love as well as an effectively creepy chiller for the modern age
** BOTH SAT 5/27 AND SUN 5/28 *\*
Sabaku Con 2023 Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North, 5151 San Francisco Rd. NE Don't miss Albuquerque's largest and longest running Anime and Gaming convention. Held at the Marriott Pyramid Albuquerque over Memorial Day weekend (more info and tickets)
** SAT 5/27 - MON 5/29 *\*
New Mexico Wine Fest Balloon Fiesta Park, 5500 Balloon Fiesta Pkwy An annual Memorial Day weekend tradition, with over 20 wineries, great food and live local music, what's not to love. This is our second year featuring our garden theme, and we welcome you to wander in the wine garden with us and enjoy the beautiful New Mexico sunshine (more info and tickets)
** Sat 5/27 *\*
Sat 9 - 10 AM U.S.S. Bullhead Memorial Clean Up! 1606 San Pedro Dr. SE Albuquerque is worth the work to keep beautiful! Please join me fellow Burqueños at the U.S.S. Bullhead Memorial park litter clean up! Trash bags and gloves will be provided to you at the 9AM check-in; please meet in the parking lot. There are also 4 extra litter pick up sticks to loan for the hour so be there early to grab yours! Please remind your family and friends not to litter!
Sat 9 AM - 4 PM Refuge Scavenger Hunt Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, 7851 2nd St. SW Stop by the refuge's visitor center any time between 9AM and 4PM to take a scavenger hunt walk and receive a prize upon completion. Fun for all ages and FREE! (Prizes will be given out while supplies last)
Sat 9 AM - 6 PM Customer Appreciation Day! Osuna Nursery, 501 Osuna Rd. NE We love our customers! Join us for our annual Customer Appreciation Day at Osuna Nursery!
Sat 10 AM - 3 PM Car Wash + Dine to Donate Gecko's Bar And Tapas Too, 5801 Academy Rd. NE Help the Atomic Sisters Rugby Team get to the National Championship! We travel to St. Louis, MO June 2nd-5th for the Final Four and a shot at the title. Join us for a car wash PLUS a dine-to-donate fundraiser (25% of all food sales go to the Sisters)! Car wash will run 10am-3pm and dine-to-donate will run all day! Thank you for your support!
Sat 10:30 - 11:30 AM Mindful Movement - Yoga in the Park North Domingo Baca Park, 7521 Carmel Ave NE Break a sweat, get a deep stretch in and grab lunch at a food truck afterwards! Meet us on the grassy area just west of the dog park. Bring your own yoga mat
Sat 10:30 AM - 12 PM Wellness Schedule Casa Rondeña Winery, 733 Chavez Rd. NW, Los Ranchos Open to people of all skill levels, Wellness + Wine is a one-hour, outdoor practice, followed by a glass of wine or Sangria, and an invitation to stay and relax on the grounds of the beautiful Casa Rondeña Winery. This experience is $25, and includes glass of wine. Discounts apply for winery members. Reservations are required to participate
Sat 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM New Mexico Entertainment's Morning Toons The Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE Grab your pajamas and your blanket, and take part in this Saturday morning event with your family and friends. New Mexico Entertainment Magazine brings you cartoons from your childhood on the big screen at The Guild Cinema. Kick back, have some breakfast, and enjoy the toons! The ticket includes admission and breakfast. Morning Toons is a LIMITED seat event
Sat 12 - 11 PM Ciderday Night Fever Space Disco Tractor Brewing Company, 118 Tulane Dr. SE We're featuring some of our amazing delicious ciders in flights and of course in goblets for you goblins. This year we’ll be featuring four limited one off ciders made by us, then at 8pm DJ Ren will be laying down some psychedelic disco on the ones and twos to get your apple tree shaking!
Sat 12 - 6 PM Bear Fest 2023 Boxing Bear Brewing Co., 8420 Firestone Ln. NE Music, Samples & Pints, Craft Vendors and Food Trucks. This is a 21+ event. Please leave your kids at home. Parents with kids under 21 will not be allowed entry to the festival. Get a babysitter and enjoy yourself! Tickets are available exclusively on Eventbrite. Purchase online before coming to the gate. GENERAL ADMISSION $25.00 - Available two weeks before the festival and at the gate - Includes entry to the festival , Commemorative BEAR FEST pint glass, four 4oz sample tickets and one full pint of your choice. DESIGNATED DRIVER $10.00 - Entry to the festival only, Designated driver wrist band, must still be 21+ to enter (click event link for list of participating breweries, vendors, and music lineup)
Sat 1 - 9 PM Party in the Park - Focus Edition Roosevelt Park, 500 Spruce St. SE Now that the weather has gotten better, it's time that the Focus fam gets back together for another Party in the Park. We've missed getting friends and family together and coming together for the love of the music and our DJs. This is a family-friendly event and open to all of our friends and relations (click link for full lineup)
Sat 1 PM Family Art Workshop Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Rd. NW Inspired by Ronald Rael's installation Glass Scaffold in the atrium courtyard we will make our own geometric sculptures. Use toothpicks, colored popsicle sticks, and glue to create a mini-masterpiece
Sat 2 - 5 PM Rebel Paws Rescue is hosting a FUNDRAISER Lizard Tail Brewing Industrial, 3351 Columbia Dr. NE Come out and help homeless dogs with your donation of a water bowl and help raise money for your own health with Evolution Strength and Conditioning Gym, Albuquerque’s premier LBGTAI+ gym!
Sat 2 - 6 PM Flying Legends Cutter Aviation, 2502 Clark Carr Loop SE The Flying Legends event will be held at Cutter Aviation at the Albuquerque International Sunport, and will feature the B-25 Mitchell "Maid in the Shade". Enjoy networking with Women in Aviation, Land of Enchantment chapter members and spread the word about our chapter at our booth! We would like to have volunteers at our booth in two shifts, from 2pm-4pm and from 4pm-6pm (more info)
Sat 2:30 - 4:30 PM Argentine Tango Practica Albuquerque Square Dance Club, 4915 Hawkins St. NE Presented by the Tango Club of ABQ (TCA), a nonprofit dance club. Tango practica is great for practicing Argentine tango, vals, and milonga, meeting other tango dancers, having fun, and being part of the tango dancing community. No partner necessary. Open to everyone, all skill levels. 2nd and 4th Sundays from May to Oct: Milonga at the Old Town Gazebo, Romero St. NW and San Felipe St. NW
Sat 4 - 5 PM East Coast Swing Group Class Enchantment Dancing, 337 San Pedro Dr. NE Welcome to our Bronze American East Coast Swing Class! Whether you are a newbie stepping on to the dance floor for the first time or a seasoned professional wanting to brush up on basics, as well as anyone in-between, this class is for you! East Coast Swing is an exciting, up-beat dance that is endlessly versatile! No partner necessary, and dropping in is fine! Class cost is only $10, and a punch card for 6 classes is $50
Sat 4 - 8 PM Pop Up Market Vegan Village, 1321 Eubank Blvd. NE Join us for another evening of fun, live music, DJ, drinks, great eats and sweets! We will also have a great variety of vendors for everyone to visit throughout the evening. Family friendly and companion animal friendly as well! Don't miss out on the most unique eats in town! Everyone is welcome! Make sure to RSVP on our eventbrite page to be entered for any giveaways and to let us know you are coming! Live music by the band Baracutanga! Special guest DJ Nalgona Superstar!
Sat 7 - 10 PM Night In The Sound Garden Drag Show Revel, 4720 Alexander Blvd. NE Drag Brunch Wasn't Enough? The Haus Of Attack Has Your Back! Join Us For An Evening Of Memories, Fun, And DRAG! Your Favorite HOA Is Back In The Sound Garden! Bringing You A Fierce Cast, Jessica K. Daniels, Trey C. Michaels, Divyne Intervention, and Busy B! Hosted By Your Favorite Duo, Assma Attack and ViLette Stratton. Seating For This Event Will Be Open Seating Unless Reserved VIP Lounge Seating Is Purchased
Sat 7:30 PM Road Warrior Comedy Show Dry Heat Comedy Club, 521 Central Ave NW, Ste G Chuck Parker Comedy and Crosslines Media present another edition of the Road Warrior Comedy Show! May’s show is sponsored by Red Door Brewing Company (downtown)! Featuring hardened standup veterans from all over the country! This month's headliner: Zach Abeyta was voted Albuquerque The Magazine’s ‘Best in the City’ in the category of comedian! This show WILL sell out, so get your tickets now! Featuring Benny Martinez & Kate Anella With your host Chuck Parker
Sat 9:30 PM - 1 AM Sabor Latin Nights Damacio's Bar & Tapas, 722 Central Ave SW Join us for Albuquerque's hottest Saturday Salsa / Latin Dancing night! Music by DJ GABRIEL GOZA. Free Salsa/Bachata lesson @ 9:30pm. Mixing up los sabores de Salsa, Bachata, Timba, Reggaeton, Mambo y mas! Full Bar / 21 & Over / $10 cover / Kitchen open until 9:30
Sat 10:30 PM Rosemary's Baby Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE God is dead. Satan lives. Advance tickets automatically entered for giveaways from Spectral Youth and Dark Room Horror
** Sun 5/28 *\*
Sun 10 AM - 2 PM Block Party 2469 Corrales Rd., Corrales *Open to the community!* We are proud to host a community block party in celebration of our practice's one year anniversary! *Food truck (The Munchie Truck) *Drinks *Yard games *Bounce House *Silent Auction benefiting local student scholarship funds *Community and networking. Hosted by Enchantment Upper Cervical Chiropractic
Sun 10 AM - 2 PM Star Wars Historic Lobo Theater, 3013 Central Ave NE THE HISTORIC LOBO THEATER along with Albuquerque Film & Music Experience is excited to bring Star Wars back to the big screen! Showing Starts at11:30AM Tickets are ONLY $10 for General Admission Brunch and a ticket is ONLY $21. Exclusive brunch menu: made-to-order pancakes, mimosas, and more! 10% off if you come in your pajamas!
Sun 12 - 2 PM Family Paint Party Urban 360 Pizza Grill and Tap House, 2119 Menaul Blvd. NE Join Hannah and in just about two hours, while you’re sipping on a glass of wine, beer, or drink of your choice*, our performing artist will guide you through a painting step-by-step. At the end of the night, take home your own unique masterpiece - you will be amazed by what you can do! We provide everything you will need for use at the event: canvas, paints, brushes and even a smock. You just bring your fun-loving friends and have a few drinks! Please arrive 15-30 minutes prior to start time, especially if you have a large group. This will secure seating with your friends and allow you to order your drink before the event begins. **Event is for 16 and over. Must be 21+ purchase alcohol. No children allowed
Sun 12 - 5 PM The GameTime Trade Show Hinkle Fun Center, 12931 Indian School Rd. NE Attention, Sports and Pokémon Collectors – The Countdown is On! The 28th of May is about to become your favorite day of the year! The GameTime Trade Show is landing at Hinkle Family Fun Center! We're going full throttle with epic card trades, camaraderie with fellow collectors, and treasure hunting for your next favorite addition! Ready to cash in on your card stash? Get your spot in line by dialing GameTime at (505) 294-3087. Join the excitement, amplify your collection, and mingle with the best in the business!
Sun 12:30 - 10 PM Memorial Day Sunday - Veterans Play for Free Empire Board Game Library, 3503 Central Ave NE Military members current and former come in and play for free on the Sunday preceding Memorial Day
Sun 3:15 - 6:15 PM Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque Matinee Show Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town, 800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW Tickets. Doors open at 3:15 pm. Performance begins at 4:00 pm. Albuquerque, NM, is the Flamenco Capitol of the United States. Immerse yourself in this deep, culturally significant art form every Friday & Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon at Hotel Albuquerque. Through a unique partnership based on cultural preservation, Heritage Hotels and Resorts and the nonprofit National Institute of Flamenco have joined efforts to create Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque. At Tablao Flamenco, the passion and energy of flamenco come alive as you experience flamenco in its most intimate, powerful setting in the heart of historic Old Town. Featuring a world-class line-up of artists, the Tablao Flamenco presents a dynamic schedule of performances, featuring premier artists from Spain and the United States
Sun 4 PM Bad Bunny Day Party Effex Rooftop, 420 Central Ave Back again with a Bad Bunny DAY PARTY! Bad Bunny themed drinks by Beto The Bartender & Bad Bunny Music ALL DAY LONG! DJ Spunjy in the mix!
Sun 7 PM DYSTOPIA Industrial Dance Party JUNO, 1501 1st St. NW Monthly industrial dance party returns! Dj $uspence and red-209 bring the latest and greatest in industrial dance! It's a DYSTOPIA, dress and dance accordingly!
** Mon 5/29 *\*
Mon 5 - 9 PM Adult Coloring Night Tractor Brewing Company - Westside, 5720 McMahon Blvd., Bldg 5, Ste A Come color with us! We got the sheets, markers, pencils, and crayons! ALL FREE! Every Monday
Mon 6 - 7:30 PM Cuban Salsa National Hispanic Cultural Center (upstairs), 1701 4th St. SW This is a weekly Casino (Cuban) Salsa course focusing on techniques, figures, rhythms, music and body movements of Cuban Salsa. Basic Pasos 6PM - 6:30PM. Figures/Combinations 6:30PM-7:30PM. Cost: $60 /Month paid up front or $20 drop in rate per class. No Partner or previous experience necessary, just desire to learn, have fun, and dance with amazing people interested in dancing Casino Salsa! WE WILL: * Learn important fundamental elements (patterns, steps, and musicality) for a solid foundation in Casino. Salsa * familiarize ourselves with music and rhythms (clave) * start with basics Casino steps and incorporate new basic elements each week * learn the roles and responsibilities for Lead / Follow so each person understands the importance of their part * incorporate dancing separate from your partner (Salsa suelta aka shines) * Further in our progress we will incorporate Cuban Rumba and Afro-Cuban dances influenced by folkloric traditions in Cuba * learn figuras (combinations) that are usually identified by colorful Spanish words that characterize or describe the movement, for example: the call “Sombrero” refers to the HAT figure * dancing "a tiempo" or "contra tiempo" (with time or against time) or dancing with "the melody" or with "the clave". Faster Timba music is usually danced "a tiempo". Slower music like Son is danced "contra tiempo" Salsa is unique to each person.. so bring your sabor and vamoooos a bailar!

Race Information

• Name: 2023 Bay to Breakers Race Report
• Date: May 21, 2023
• Distance: 12K
• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Time: 50:27

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Beat PB: 51:17	Yes

Splits

Kilometer	Time
1	4:06
2	4:03
3	4:08
4	4:16
5	4:51
6	4:27
7	4:10
8	4:02
9	4:02
10	3:53
11	3:58
12	3:56

Training

I am actually in the build up to my first 50K in July. This race was my first road race back in May 2016 and have done it every year (minus covid years). I suffered proximal hamstring tendinopathy after returning to run too quickly after a marathon back in October 22' and returned to running during Christmas and started building a 25-35 mile base from then until March. My MPW has been 40-51 miles the last 6 weeks. I do 2 days a week of strength training (mainly 3 sets of 5 squats x3 until I hit body weight on a slant board as well as proned hamstring curls). Easy day Mon, Tues crosstrain, Wens is track work with a local club, Thurs crosstrain, Friday base pace run, Sat is tempo day, Sun LR day.

Pre-race

Week of I cut my miles back to 20 miles total the week of and did one speed session of work I found on an AdvanceRunning thread. 1 mile WU, 2x200 @ anaerobic, 3X800 @ threshold, 2x200 @ anaerobic, 1 mile CD; 200 rest after all reps. Morning of I ran to the start line about 1.75 miles with some strides.

Race

Lined up in A corrale which is risky because even though this corrale is supposed to be fast-ish you still get people who are going to be slower because this is Bay to Breakers after all. I dont mind because its fun and I just make sure to get right on the timing line. My biggest issue is always going out way too hard but this time I played it smart. My main goal was to keep around a 6:50 average to beat my course PB but preferably my threshold pace around the mid 6:40s. When the horn went off I went out at 5:45 pace but quickly told myself “slow down now” and put myself with a pack of high school XC kids who were pacing around 6:30s which I felt great doing. Miles 1 & 2 are a slight up hill; 6:33 & 6:36 were my first mile splits. Having done this race so many times I knew after mile 2 I would immediately hit Hayes Street Hill. The worst climb of the race and the one that generates the most lactic build up. I did the hill in 3:51 beating last years climb of 4 minutes. This area gave me my slowest split of 7:31 per mile. The pounding on the down hill portion as soon as you get over the hill doesn’t provide much comfort until the lactic build up clears another mile down the road. Once I hit Golden Gate Park I knew I was in the clear as it’s all rolling down hill. I started passing people who went out too fast and mispaced their runs. It was weird to be in the reverse situation but felt nice. Stoked on my performance.

Post-race

Unlike last year I felt perfectly fine. Last year I immediately had really bad ankle pain (I never ran in high school & up until my first marathon block have not known how to properly pace to avoid injury; my cardio is stronger than my body) and had to take a two days off of running. I got my medal, ate a banana and a protein shake they had there, drank some gatorade. Did a 2 mile jog out of the park and Ubered back to my hotel.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.

I've been to Gatti's on Dixie, Hibachi on Dixie and Preston, Yoki on Blankenbaker, Jumbo on Hurstbourne, Golden Corral on Taylorsville. What else am I missing? So many places I find on Google have reviews several years old for buffets that no longer exist.
Now I've tried King on Bardstown Road.
I'm also fond of New China in Mount Washington and Asian Buffet in Shelbyville.

Preamble:

We are a family of three. I previously lived in Japan for about 10 years. My wife is Japanese from the Kansai region, and we have a 6 year old son born and raised abroad, but who speaks/reads/writes Japanese at a native or near-native level for his age. My wife and son traveled back to Osaka several times during Covid, but I did not join them due to the additional logistics requirements at the time, and the sense that it would not be particularly enjoyable. Prior to covid we would typically spend about 4-5 weeks a year in Japan, but this was our first long day-in-the-life trip together in the past four years.
It was a phenomenal trip, and I wanted share what we did. Our trip is probably a little bit unconventional compared to most of the reports here as we all speak Japanese and are very familiar with Japan having lived there for quite some time in the past. Our main goals for our trip were to provide our son with immersion opportunities, to meet family, and to visit with old friends. We lived for many years in both Osaka and Tokyo and I have relatives in Shizuoka. We also love craft beer, games, and quirky museums; I think our trip itinerary reflects all of this.

General Pre-trip Preparation:

Our son is a second-year kindergartener in Zurich, Switzerland, but he also speaks Japanese and attends a Japanese school part time. He's very outgoing and enjoys new adventures (probably because we have been dragging him around to San Diego or Osaka almost every year for most of his life). This year we thought it would be interesting if he could experience a real Japanese elementary school during our stay. To this end about 2 months before we left, my wife contacted the local elementary school near her parents house in Osaka and inquired about the possibility of doing a short 'study abroad' (体験留学) at some point during our stay. To our surprise she received a prompt reply from the school principal, who was very enthusiastic about the prospect, and happy to arrange all the details upon our arrival. Apparently he had previously worked at an international school and had a very positive outlook on this sort of interaction. Final details were to be determined on site in a short family interview in order to get a sense of our son's Japanese ability and disposition.
We typically spend our long-term stays with our relatives but this time we decided to break our trip up into several stages: Osaka at Home, Osaka at Large, Return to Tokyo, Shizuoka, Osaka at home. The remainder of the report is broken up accordingly.

Part 1: Osaka-at-Home I.

The first week we flew in to Osaka KIX from Zurich via Seoul, and took the Hello Kitty Express :-) directly into Umeda where we met up with family and went straight to a Yakiniku experience at Yakiniku Toraji on the B2 floor of the Lucua building at Umeda. At first we planned to make the journey home to drop off our luggage but after we realized that the airport express now drops you off at essentially the Lucua B1, we decided to just head straight to dinner. Needless to say, it was epic. We grabbed some bread and pastries for the following morning and headed home with mom and dad.
GENERAL ANECDOTES:
Masks; Even on first arrival it was clear that we made the right decision to come after the covid restrictions finally lifted. Everything was open, and people were out. Roughly 90+% of people were still wearing masks everywhere, but this percentage steadily declined over the duration of our stay to, I would say, 65%-70% by the time we left on May 20th. We chose not to wear them, and my MIL/FIL were also not wearing them. At no point during the trip did I feel there was any concern about this in either direction. Anyone traveling in the near future should feel completely free to go whichever way you prefer.
During the first week we sorted out our jet lag, and spent a lot of time roaming around conbinis and the supermarkets remembering all the little delicious nothings that Japan has to offer. We stayed with mom and dad in Ebie, Fukushima, right on Yodogawa. This is about 5 min bike ride from Nodahanshin station, and 10-15min ride to Fukushima station or Umeda. We made all these rides many times during our stay! We made some mellow probing adventures:
Prepaid SIMs. I still have to answer emails and typically work on-and-off during these trips. One of the reasons we are able to do it is because I work in IT. This means it's always important to get a good prepaid SIM. On my last visit, four years ago I was able to find a great deal on a prepaid SIM at Yodobashi in Umeda, so one of my first orders of business was to repeat that experience this time. However after discussing with the sales and purchasing a SIM with 50GB for 1mo @ Y8000, I found out that it did not permit tethering. This was stated as a 'possibility' in the fine print and when I asked at purchase time the sales person said they couldn't guarantee it but thought it should work. I gambled and lost. This was quite annoying given the main purpose of purchasing a high volume prepaid SIM was for tethering to my laptop. Anyway as a result I discovered the eSIM tech which was also supported by my iPhone 14. I ended up buying another eSIM plan using Ubigi and this worked great and supported tethering without issue throughout my trip. It also worked great for our short return stop in South Korea. I'll never go back to prepaid physical SIMs and I still cannot believe that Docomo is still blocking tethering in 2023. Completely ridiculous.
Exercise: I am an avid swimmer and cyclist. Since we typically stay for around 1 month I like to be able to continue my swim workouts while we are in Japan. Cycling isn't a problem since we end up biking and walking all over the country anyway. I always join the Konami Sports Club network for 1 month as a regular member the first day we arrive. They provide a bunch of different plans and most of the Type III and Type IV gyms in the network have a 25SCM lap pool. If you join the network you can use any of facilities anywhere in the country, which is great if you spend time in more than one city. The Type III and Type IV facilities all have really great bath house areas as well, with multiple sento-style baths and usually a big sauna. You need to make sure that you join and quit on the same day (or at least in the same week) so that your membership will be properly cancelled at the end of the first billing cycle. This might be tough if you don't speak Japanese well, but if you do the staff is super accommodating and will definitely help you make it happen. In addition to the exercise, one thing I really like about doing this is that it gives me another day-in-the-life experience; it's like living there again; doing things that locals do. The Kitahama facility in Osaka is particularly nice; It's a new one and it's my favorite.
Internet Cafes: I worked on and off during the trip and usually do work days at local internet cafes. The three I liked best during this trip were:

• Brooklyn Coffee Namba : Big spacious area with lots of sockets and reasonably fast free wifi if you don't have a SIM (or don't have one that supports tethering...). It's really dedicated to remote work so there is zero pressure to leave. You can spend the whole day working there with a couple cups of coffee and no one will bug you. The only downside is that it is a bit of trek from Namba station.
• Brooklyn Coffee Kitahama : Same chain as above. This one is smaller, but has a similar vibe. It's right on the river which makes for a cool view. It's closer to the station but I definitely prefer the Namba shop.
• Starbucks Umeda MeRise : This is a pretty sweet Starbucks that is much more 'devoted' to remote work than most. They have a 'startup' area on the second floor, loads of seats, loads of plugs and a solid wifi connection. It's a hop skip and a jump from Umeda which also makes it convenient. Starbucks Japan still offers the one-more-coffee receipts which is a great bonus here. You can get a second cup of cold brew or hot coffee for about Y180 in the same size as the first one you purchase.

Cycling: We keep a couple of momma-charis at my in-laws place, including one with a kid-seat on the back. We did plenty of riding and my son loves the unique-to-him experience of riding on the back of the bike. We considered getting him his own bike this year, but eventually decided against it due to the complex traffic. Osaka is pretty easy to get around in by bicycle in terms of terrain - there are very few hills in the city proper, however the traffic is a little bit gnarly. Midosuji street is a great example of this. It runs in a mostly straight line from Umeda/Osaka station, across Oebashi and Yodobashi past Osaka city hall, and down through Dotonbori to Namba. It's a cool little ride if you have the time and inclination and it is mostly flat. It runs only in one direction for most of this length however many Japanese cyclists seem to not be aware of this fact. I was surprised/amazed/terrified by how many people I encountered riding against the flow of traffic on this quite busy street. Plenty of mama-charis with kids on back as well. It's pretty chaotic and not for the faint of heart! That said I enjoy the rides and the people watching and the adventure that a little chaos can provide as long as you keep your eyes open.
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LOCATIONS, FOOD AND ADVENTURES

• Osaka Kids Plaza : We made a solid day of visiting Osaka Kids Plaza. This place is great if you have 3-8 year olds and want to find something to do with them, especially on a rainy day. In past years we have also visited KidoKido Bornelund in Grand Front Umeda, but at 6 our son seemed to have outgrown it this time around. Osaka Kids Plaza was still plenty of fun.
• Yakitori Masaya: We looove all Japanese food and Yakitori is no exception. We usually visit the local Torikizoku but it was their day off so we tried this new place in Fukushima. It didn't disappoint.
• Honmachi Seimenjo Ten: I love cold bukkake udon and sanuki udon. This place in Lucua is pretty passable, easy access and great value for money. It's definitely not as good as Tokyo Mentsudan in Shinjuku, Tokyo - which is absolutely banging - but it was a good first taste.
• Round 1 Stadium Sennichimae : My son has started to enjoy gaming and I wanted to explore this with him so we dedicated our first father-son adventure day of the trip to a large game center - the likes of which simply do not exist in either Switzerland or the US. Needless to say it was a massive hit. They have plenty of Mario Kart, Densha de Go, and Taiko no Tatsujin (our favorites) as well as bowling, pool, gokarts and more. Of course there are also oodles of crane games to waste your money on as well. After the game center we walked for Ramen near Namba:
• Namba Ramen Ichiza this place is pretty much brand new from the look of it. It has a slew of different ramen shops and all they all looked delicious. We visited twice after the first success. There are many tourist oriented ramen shops in the shotengai in dontonburi and sennichimae, but IMO this was a much better experience. We found it because my son wasn't into the crowded dark vibe in the shops below. This place was well-lit and spacious, and the shops readily provided kid utensils and smaller tori-zara so that I could scoop more reasonable portions for him. It's also right next to Namba station.
• Edion Namba Kids Park : the Edion building with the Ramen Park on the 9F also has a huge toys, models, and kids park on 7F. We visited this before heading home. They have a big games section, a Bandai section, a very large Plarail and Tomika section, and a great Lego section. Super fun to browse; plenty of open stuff for the kids to play with too.
• Osaka Castle park: We roamed the park a bit then had lunch at the little Ramen park in the Castle Terrace area adjacent to Osakajokoen. The weather was nice and the back area of the ramen park has a great view of Osaka castle. After that we took the tourist road train that runs around the park and road it up to the last stop right in front of Osaka castle. There is always a lot of commentary about walking in this sub; if you don't want to walk all the way through the park for whatever reason, the little road train is a great option. You still have to climb maybe 4 floors worth of steps to get to the castle entrance, but the train gets you pretty close. In the end we decided not to go into the castle since the line was looking pretty long and we've been multiple times before. We ate some jihanki ice cream in the main plaza under the castle. After that we hiked back down to exit via the Otemon gate and made a quick stop at my wife's alma mater Osaka Otemae High School before hopping a bus headed towards Kitahama and eventually back home.

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BEER
As I mentioned, we love craft beer, and we particularly love Hazy IPAs in all their various forms. We made it a point in this trip to explore this aspect of Japan as it seems to have really exploded in popularity since our last visit. We followed (hazy_mmy)[https://www.instagram.com/hazy_mmy/?hl=en] for some great ideas outside the brewpubs.

• Lucua Craft Beer Market: This place has been around for several years, and is still going pretty strong. It features a lot of interesting IPAs, Stouts, Sours, and standard Pilsners and Pale Ales. They usually have a Hazy or two on tap as well. There is an unrelated beer and wine shop on the same floor that has a great selection of IPA and Hazy IPA cans as well.
• Ape Brewing: One of our first craft beer explorations of the trip was Ape Brewing. These guys just got started and we got to meet their brew master and taste some awesome brews. Food is great and the ambiance was great too; there's bar seating and nice views of those shiny vats if you're into that sort of thing. They were also very child friendly (as were I think all the spots we hit this time) and had plenty of soda and juice and non-alcoholic drinks.
• Yellow Ape Craft : Ape Brewing is an offshoot of the Yellow Ape Craft brew pub which we had visited on previous trips. It's also located in Kitahama, nearer to the station, and has a more general, different array of craft beers as well as a different menu. We ended up turning our Kitahama visit into a mini pub crawl and stopped off at this spot on the way home as well. It didn't disappoint.

We wrapped up this mini pub crawl with a walk through the Kitahama/Yodoyabashi area in the evening. This is more of business district but it actually has some interesting novel historical sites. There are a number of cool Meiji Era buildings with large explanatory placards. These are predominantly in Japanese and maybe a bit obscure, and you also won't be able to enter most of them, but if you are into this sort of thing it's can be a fun bonus. I'm guessing google translate in photo mode can get you most of the way through the placards:

• https://osaka-club.or.jp/ (a business social club / salon)
• Ikoma Building
• Former Konishi Family Residence (I believe you can actually enter this one)
• Douza no ato this is an even older one dates to the Edo period. It was initially seat of the local copper trade, then converted to an elite Kindergarten - the first in Osaka - in 1880. It still operates as a kindergarten.

there are a bunch more, these just happen to be the ones that caught our eye as we passed by on our mini pub crawl.

Part 2. Osaka-at-Large

We spent roughly our first two weeks in Osaka, but in order to get a change of pace and give our family a break, we opted to spend the second week in an apartment-hotel near Umeda. This was a great decision and a lot of fun. We were able to host friends, had even better access to Umeda and could relax and enjoy the city from a fresh angle.
We spent 7 nights in the rooftop luxury suite at Minn Kita Umeda and it was epic. My wife booked this about 6 months in advance and it was worth every last yen. The room was spacious and quiet with two large comfy beds. The bathroom included a deep Japanese style bath. There is a large rooftop deck with a jacuzzi overlooking Lucua/Umeda/Osaka station. This view at night was phenomenal. At present there is also a ton of highrise construction going on behind Grand Front which my son got a kick out of (and me too). The apartment has a large kitchen and living room space as well, and we used it to host some visits from friends.
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LOCATIONS, FOOD AND ADVENTURES
I ended up working most of this week so we only managed one major adventure.

• SpaWorld Osaka: Onsen from around the world. This was probably the one experience I would categorize as a strong do-not-recommend. My son and I were looking for another adventure day target and settled on an onsen adventure. I've been to Oedo Onsen Monogatari a couple of times and there is also a new one in Osaka city: Solaniwa Onsen but for some reason we picked Spa World. It is located about 5min walk from Dobutsuen-Mae station. This area is basically skid row; my wife and MIL warned me, but I didn't really believe them since I've never seen any truly 'run down' area of Japan. This area was hilariously decrepit and I got a lot of I-told-you-so's after we got back. Spa World itself is somewhat OK. The facility is pretty clean and the baths are relatively well kept. However the water-park area on the top floor was honestly pretty gross. We floated around the lazy river quite a few times; but it was more like a gross, overly warm moat. There was a kiddy slide area but it was not particularly great and had a bunch of really hard surfaces in the play areas that were not kind. There were a couple of pretty cool looking tandem water slides but they had a scale and a weight-differential requirement of 'no more than 20kg'. Unfortunately for us I'm 6'3", 92kg and my son is a gangly 6 year old weighing in at 21kg. They took one look at us and didn't even bother with the scale. The kicker here however was the bathroom. Right before we left to go down to the sento area, I used the mens room and it was absolutely filthy. The mens urinals had a high wooden shelf which is probably not visible to 95% of Japanese visitors but as I mentioned, I'm pretty tall. I could see this thing and it was not only absolutely filthy but crawling with little black bugs. I just about retched and headed out immediately afterwards. The Spas of the World on the floor below was in much better shape. It was clean and good fun; we visited Greece and Spain and Italy :-) and finally headed home. My son had a great time and I would have classified it as 'OK' if not for the bathroom experience which was just unbelievable. In retrospect I honestly should have reported it. As it stands I'd give it a hard NOT recommended; Oedo Onsen or Solaniwa should be much better bets.
• Hep5 Ferris Wheel: We've ridden this a few times in the day but never before at night. It was pretty cool and gives you a nice long view of the city from all angles. The contrast between the Osaka city night and Zurich is pretty extreme! My only minor complaint was that they had some kind of Care Bear theme going on an there was a large temporary Care Bear decal on the side of the car which obstructed part of the view.
• Shuns Kushiage, Kushikatsu: We also love kushiage/kshikatsu and we ate a ton on this trip. One of our favorite haunts is Shuns on 10F Lucua.
• Curry House CoCo Ichibanya: I also love Japanese style curry and CoCo Ichibanya. This is standard chain that can be found throughout Japan. They serve a bunch of Japanese style curry rice and you can customize them with things like tonkatsu, hirekatsu, sausage, cheese, etc. You can also customize the spice level and it goes up to seriously spicy which is sometimes tough to find in Japan!
• Pause Coffee: This little hole in the wall coffee shop is located just next to the Minn apartment hotel we were staying at. It was always packed with locals and made great coffee and great sweets.
• Craft Burger Co. : Solid burgers and some good craft beers on tap. They also had sliders that were perfectly sized for a 6 year old. We visited the Dojima shop. This wasn't the best burger we had, but it was definitely tasty and worth a visit if you like burgers and are in the area.
• Saien Yakiniku : This is a little hole in the wall yakiniku place that we've been visiting for over 20 years. It's good and we always visit at least once, but the biggest reason for this that we know the owner and it's a family tradition dating back to my wife's childhood. Their 'aji kurabe' (taste comparison plate) is pretty good though and comes with a selection of beef from every major region of Japan.

BEER

• Yellow Ape Craft: TheBottleShop & Kitchen: This was the final installation in the Yellow Ape franchise, also located in the Kitahama area. This one was really cool in that they have a self-serve tap setup using IC cards. The staff hands you an IC card when they seat you, and you can order food as normal. But the taps are all installed in a public facing wall on the opposite end of the pub and you pour your own beer by inserting your IC card into the reader above the tap. It then records your pour by the ml and charges you sort of like a gas station. I'd never seen this before and visited it with a friend, and later again with the family. It was pretty fun. They also have a few games and a rubiks cube if you're into that. They also have plenty of bottles for takeaway and had 3-4 Hazy IPAs on tap when we visited.
• Drunk Bears Osaka: This place has deep dish pizza and we were hoping it could compare with DevilCraft. The pizza was OK but the beer lineup ended up being pretty subpar.

Part 3. Return to Tokyo

For our third week we returned to Tokyo to visit old haunts and old friends, and take in the even bigger city. We headed up early on the Nozomi shinkansen after checking out of the Minn. We bought bento in Shin Osaka station and our son picked out a shinkansen shaped Ekiben box to bring back for school lunches.
We previously lived for about 7 years in Jiyugaoka, and planned to spend time there meeting friends, but we decided to stay in an area we were less familiar with in order to get a fresh perspective on the city. We spent 6 nights at the Blossom Hotel Hibiya which is about 5 min walk from Shimbashi station. It's a highrise with the hotel on the top. We had a room facing Tokyo Tower with a great view. The rooms themselves were clean and comfy with the external wall composed of a single huge bay window. The city scape was amazing night and day.
I ended up having to put out fires at work again during this week even though I had tried to take it off, and this put a little bit of a damper on some exploration plans, but we still managed to see all our friends and make a go of the time. Also since we already spent almost 10 years in Tokyo altogether, we didn't feel nearly as pressured to check out multiple tourist sites and focused on eating, drinking, and meeting with friends.
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LOCATIONS, FOOD AND ADVENTURES

• Poop Museum Tokyo: This place was absolutely bonkers. My wife found it randomly and jokingly suggested that we should check it out. We wandered around Odaiba and visited. There was a huge line. My wife opted to go shopping but my son and I decided we couldn't pass up this opportunity. It was bizarre, hilarious and entertaining and well worth the entry fee. The highlights including a fuzzy mechatronic Poop-animal petting zoo, an Unko speech recognition game where screaming 'unko' (poo) resulted in a poo tower visualization with size corresponding to the volume of your scream - this was then aligned with a landmark of corresponding size for reference, e.g., the Eiffel Tower. There were also various games and photo ops with cute poo and you receive a poo on a stick as a souvenir. Just a bizarre unique experience.
• Tokyo Tower: We climbed Tokyo tower with friends on a beautiful starry night. It was great. I had hoped to climb the stairs but we were too late. There was a special lighting arrangement related to Golden Week which we managed to catch. The view is great but the tower is now almost entirely surrounded by gigantic Mori office skyscrapers that are as tall or taller than the lower viewing platform!
• Tokyo Sky Tree: We also climbed the Sky Tree on another day. This was fun too. It's way higher, but it's almost so high that the features of the city are a bit obscured. I'm glad we did it and checked it off, but I kind of preferred Tokyo Tower in the end.
• GiGO Akihabara 1: With my son newly addicted to Game Centers, we couldn't pass up a chance to visit Akihabara :-)! We made a trip to the GiGO centers. This was a lot of fun. There are five installations, but we focused on 1 and 3. One was definitely the best. We found our favorite games: Mario Kart and Taikou Tatsujin, and also found a top floor packed with 80s and 90s hits, many with co-op options. We spent a few hours here trying as much as we could. Taikou Tatsujin was particularly fun as there were a couple of absolute masters just ripping apart the drums, yet still kind enough to take a break after 10min or so and let us get in a round of easy-level Tonari no Totoro. One thing I noticed was that there were a lot of tourists that seemed to want to try some of the games but had a lot of difficulty with the Japanese only interfaces and writing.
• Jiyuugaoka: As I mentioned, we lived in Jiyuugaoka for about 7 years so we made sure to return and spend a day wandering around and wallowing in nostalgia. I don't have anything in particular to say about it; it's just a nice area to wander and hang out. Plenty of good food and shopping, more relaxed than many areas of Tokyo.
• Akamon): I had planned to go back and visit my old lab here, but unfortunately time did not permit. The Todai Hongo campus is definitely worth a visit though. There are some good eats and it's an easy walk through the campus to Ueno.
• Karaoke-kan: We made one karaoke stop for old time's sake. This particular place in shimbashi is not notable; just part of a chain, but I think Japanese style karaoke is worth trying once, especially if you are only familiar with the western approach.
• Shu Shimbashi: We had a nice group dinner at Shu in Shimbashi. Pretty standard izakaya style fare but reasonably priced and tasty enough.
• Henry's Burger Jiyuugaoka: Great burgers and a nice rooftop area for eating. It's a 5 min walk from Jiyuugaoka station. It also has some nice craft beer that you can add to a set menu.
• Nantahama Jiyuugaoka: This is an amazing little Okinawa style izakaya that has been run by the same family in the same spot for the last 50 years. When we lived here we visited it regularly. Food and ambience is great and the family that runs it is very friendly.
• Mujaki Ramen Jiyuugaoka: Amazing ramen. Amazing.
• Clann Irish Pub Jiyuugaoka: Great little Irish pub with a friendly owner. My wife and met her 17 years ago so we always make sure to stop by for a pint of Guinness and a chat with the regulars.
• Boulangerie Asanoya Jiyuugaoka: Great bread and pastries.
• Devilcraft Tokyo - Jiyuugaoka: Epic deep dish pizza and solid selection of craft beer on tap. There are other locations in Kanda, Hamamatsuchou, and Gotanda.
• Sushi Gyoshin: Great kaiten sushi restaurant in Jiyuugaoka just a few steps from the station. This was another of our longterm haunts and we were happy to see that it hasn't changed. Our son ordered his first sushi by himself and we enjoyed another great meal.
• Quan an Tam: Great little Vietnamese place in Jiyuugaoka.
• Katoriya Jiyuugaoka: Great Yakitori place.

BEER
Tokyo is overflowing with great craft beer these days!

• ibrew Shimbashi: This little chain was great. The first one we visited was the Shimbashi installation. This is located in the Shimbashi Ekimae Building-1, just adjacent to Shimbashi station. The building screams Showa inside and out and the beer pub is just a little hole in the wall. They were just wrapping up an all-Hazy-IPA campaign and had a slew of great stuff on tap. The food was also great, and they had a decent non-alcoholic selection as well.
• Isekadoya Shimbashi: This craft beer bar is located inside Shimbashi station, just outside the wicket gates. It has a more modern vibe but plenty of good food and brew. The kushiyaki lineup was great.
• ibrew Akihabara: ibrew has another installation in Akihabara and we had a dinner here as well. They had great food and a different lineup of brews on tap. One thing to watch out for was that they only accepted cash, and the nearest ATM is about 5 min walk back towards the station. Fun spot with friendly staff.
• Antenna America Tokyo: We stopped by this place for lunch on the way to Shizuoka. Nice selection of cans, and a few good ones on tap. It's an open space, and they have a free-to-lay Fussball table which my son and I played a few games on.

Part 4. Shizuoka

After our stay in Tokyo we started making our way back to Osaka for the last segment of our trip. On the way stopped off in Mishima for one night to visit my relatives. Here we stayed at the Toyoko-Inn Fujisan Mishima-eki. This is a no frills spot but it had nice clean, quiet rooms and a surprisingly good breakfast buffet. We wandered around Mishima in the afternoon then had a big Yakiniku family dinner with my relatives at Anrakutei Yakiniku. I tried Horumon for the first time and actually enjoyed it!
The next day we headed to Mochimune for one of our long planned trip highlights:

• The Villa Barrel and Lounge. This place was flat out amazing. It's a brewery/hotel run by West Coast Brewing. We stayed one night in the Nelson & Mosaic loft room. This place was so much fun. The restaurant has some great food. We shared several flights of tasty brews including a bunch of tasty Hazy IPAs and the rooms were equipped with a personalized keg with 10L of beer to 'drink at your leisure'. They recommend bringing a growler to take the leftovers with you, and unfortunately they don't sell them onsite. The reservation also included free entrace for the whole family to the adjacent onsen, which was also fantastic and offered some nice views of Mt. Fuji.

It rained heavily in the evening and all through the night, but this made for a fun trip to the nearby 7-Eleven, and a good excuse to just hang out and tap the keg while watching Doraemon reruns on the big screen TV in the room. In the morning the weather had cleared up so we took a long walk on the beach which is just a few minutes from the hotel. The walk from the hotel back to Mochimune station is also quite nice if the weather permits. Truly amazing experience. Also requires booking several months in advance.
OUT OF CHARACTERS - SEE COMMENT FOR FINAL TRIP SEGMENT

MOVING so all of this must go if it can!
Shipping is a flat rate of $7.50 for US Sales! Shipping determined by weight/size/zip code for international. I'll DM you for your zip & then send a quote & gather your PayPal info for G&S :)
Make Offers — I need these sold, as much as possible, by Wednesday so I can ship Thursday because we LEAVE on Monday!
AmbeMusk/Boozy:
•AlphaMusk Send Nudes! Musk
•DeathandFloral Damned Nightfall [The deepest and darkest amber blended with violets, black labdanum, vanilla absolute, espresso absolute, fresh cocoa beans, and honey] SOLD
•AlphaMusk Red Musk Superior
•AlphaMusk Violet Musk
•Alkemia Lacivius [The essence of raw lust. A dirty, earthy, animalistic scent blend of carnal animal-safe civet, black musk, and raw oud.] SOLD
•Alkemia Academy of Pleasure [An indecent proposal of red and golden ambers infused with a bottle of fine cognac liqueur, a suede waistcoat hurriedly abandoned on an antique chair, a haphazard tangle of bergamot scented linen sheets, cardamon-hashish coffee, and a cedar lined cigar humidor.] SOLD
•BPAL No 93 Engine [Balm of Gilead, benzoin, frankincense, balsam of peru, beeswax, saffron, galbanum, calamus, hyssop, mastic, lemon balm, and white sage.]
•BPAL Port Royal [Spiced rum and ship’s wood mixed with the body-warmed trace of a prostitute’s perfume and a hint of salty sea air on the dry-down.] SOLD
•BPAL Lust [Uncontrollable passion and insatiable sexual desire: red musk, patchouli, ylang ylang and myrrh.] SOLD
•BPAL Brisingamen [A glittering mantle of rich golden notes: five ambers, soft myrtle, apple blossom and carnation.]
•BPAL Desire [bittersweet neroli, black patchouli and black musk, gilded by apple, bergamot, blood red rose, teak, and vanilla.] SOLD
Floral/Herbal/Green:
•BPAL Katharina [A strong, willful blend with a soft, utterly lovely soul: white musk with a trickle of bright, sharp apricot and orange blossom.]
•BPAL Leanan Sidhe [Irish herbs and flowers, Gaelic mists, and nighttime dew.]
•BPAL Black Forest [Thick, viscous pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress.]
•BPAL Nocturne [An olfactory serenede. A somber, contemplative scent — dreamy and subdued. Deepest violet touched with lilac and tuberose.]
•Nui Cobalt Xana [Alpine toadflax, meadowsweet, musk mallow, white grapes, sparkling pear cider, blooming walnut trees, and a handful of wild blueberries.] SOLD
•Poesie Daydreams [meadow grasses waving in the wind, delicate wildflowers, fig leaf, iris, white tea]
•BPAL Prague [For Jenny, with love. Crocus with snowdrop and three lilies.]
•BPAL Tenochtitlan [Amber, hyssop, coriander, epazote, Mexican sage, prickly pear and Mexican tulip poppy.] (I think this fits here but I'm really just going off notes 'cause it didn't mesh with my skin chem 🤷)
•BPAL Yemaya [A bounty of melons and grapes, strewn with the petals of the flowers of motherhood, draped with sea mosses.]
•BPAL Behemoth [Ozone, lavender, tobacco flower, and camphor.]
•BPAL Kyoto [A gentle, soothing blend of cherry blossom, white sandalwood and star anise.] SOLD
BPAL Shanghai [green tea touched with lemon verbena and honeysuckle.]
BPAL Morgause [A bouquet of five night-blooming flowers deepened by dusky violet, purple fruits and the barest breath of medieval incenses.]
BPAL Highwayman [Vetiver with gardenia, blood red rose, night-blooming jasmine, a dash of cinnamon and a faint hint of leather] SOLD
Gourmands/Flormands:
•Nui Cobalt Mahalo [Smokey-sweet brown sugar glazed pineapple, grilled over an open flame] SOLD
•Nui Cobalt Ohana [Soft sand, sunwashed driftwood, the cooling shade of the front porch and a plate of homemade haupia malasadas (coconut custard donuts).] SOLD
•Haus of Gloi Mango Sticky Rice [Sweet mango, coconut infused rice and toasted sesame.] SOLD
•Haus of Gloi Honey Layering Accord [Pure golden honey with touches of beeswax and dandelion]
•Haus of Gloi Litchi Milk Tea [Tart litchi fruit and black tea met with a splash of coconut milk]
BPAL Vice [Voluptuous and indulgent! A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom.]
BPAL The Drink of Heroes, The Drink of Gods [Nine glory-twigs dipped in golden mead]
Poesie We Fly With Our Spirit [Free pancakes and syrup for breakfast, broom straw/hay in the sunshine, sassy black cat fur, stormy night airain, a tiny bit of clean cotton sheets in a cozy attic room... and absolutely no herring pie.]
IDFK:
•BPAL Queen [An extremely potent passion blend, used to great effect when you’re converting feminine sexual energy into power.]
•BPAL Follow Me Boy [A houdoun recipe dating back almost 150 years. This blend is favored by prostitutes, exotic dancers and others in the sex industry for its power to attract, seduce, and enthrall. Ensures financial gain and increased profits.]
•BPAL Manhattan [Sexuality, power, confidence. A meeting of modern, sleek elegance and rich, passionate history: sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid.] SOLD
BPAL Dee [Soft English leather, rosewood and tonka with a hint of incense, parchment and soft woods.] SOLD
BPAL Mithras [Oblations of milk, oil, honey, and blood.]
BPAL Shub-Niggurath [The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices.]
•BPAL Stimulating Sassafras [Sassafras, vanilla extract, oak leaf, CO2 butter extract and onycha.]
BPAL Full Size:
Limitations: Purple jasmine, wild plum, orris, honeysuckle, red mandarin & benzoin. SOLD
Perchta 2018: Wild musk, snow, alpine flora (balsam fir, aconite, crocus, touch-me-not, edelweiss), iced sugar crystals, iris and violet. Make an offer
The Montauk Project: Shagbark hickory, sassafras, black gum, cypress, pine, dogwood, wild comfrey, swamp sunflower, trumpet creeper. SOLD
Astarte 2018: Gilded frankincense, oud, red benzoin, temple incense, white musk, apple peel, crystallized cedar, aged patchouli. SOLD
Decants: Ajevie slonk-sized, handwritten labels, priced individually.
NCD Black Honey [An offbeat Gothic blend for true renegades and revolutionaries. Autumn harvest honey, nutmeg, clove, roasted cocoa, molasses, birch bark, star anise, and oud. Wear when you're ready to shake things up and ditch the comfort zone.] SOLD

Chapter 4: A Whisper in the Dark
Amara
Imagine darkness.
An inexorable void stretching beyond a simple four-walled cellar at the foot of a cottage, shadowy tendrils flexing their feelers around the corners of the room and into the mind of the child that lay on the damp, piss-stained mattress at its center. A foreign object. Born of light.
This child’s name was Amara.
Amara’s eyes wake to the cold, unfeeling roof of the cellar again and her small form, quivering with the chill in the air, feels the ropes tied round her body, the blood rushing to her head as she comes to the unimaginative realization that, yes, once again her dreams have betrayed her. She is here on the mattress again, her legs shaking as she struggles with futile, childish effort against her shackles. She can still feel the heat radiating from between her legs at the spot where he puts himself, thrusting into her and grunting with every movement of his slimy fat hips.
Amara remembers the first time daddy led her down here. She had just turned eight, and he had bought her a new pristine red dress – the kind of crimson all the girls in the marketplace loved at the time. She’d paraded it in front of her friends, even the boys, showing off her chestnut ponytails trailing down her shoulders to rest on the carmine sea of the fabric. She told daddy it was the most wonderful gift ever.
He had smiled and told her there was something he wanted her to do tonight. She said, of course! How could she refuse?
Her mind wandered back, for now memory was her only real companion. That, and the voice.
The voice told her to remember, sometimes.
He had opened the door to the cellar and told her to go down. He wanted to show her mama’s old dresses down there, where he kept them. She had ambled down the dark passage, keeping steady on the skittering wooden steps, and paid no mind to the door when it had closed behind daddy.
She’d been too excited to hear him bolt the lock.
At the bottom she’d looked around in confusion and saw the mattress and the ropes.
And at that moment, she looked upon her new world.
Because daddy pushed her down and held her by her throat, he told her to be a good girl or she’d die. He tied the ropes round her arms and her legs, and they cut into the skin at her joints. He tied them tight. Once, twice, three times. She struggled, and he smacked her face. Then he showed her the knife – its edge rusty and gleaming in the dark. She tried begging him to stop. She cried out, screaming that she was sorry. She was sorry for whatever she did. She’d be a good girl, honest. But he didn’t listen. The knife came down, and he cut her dress open, and then his fingers went down there. She felt it. She could still feel it even when he wasn’t there.
Pain.
If she was bad – if she didn’t open her legs – she got the belt. She went without food. The first time was full of panic and shock and rage that had mixed together and blurred the world. Blood congealed on the floor under her legs as he did the thing that he wanted to do with her, cupping his hand over her mouth, letting the tears stream from her eyes and telling her that this is what daddies did to bad girls – girls that paraded round and teased the boys. He had to teach her respect. He would teach her how to be his good girl.
After the first time, she had tried to be obedient. She had opened her legs every time he came. But daddy didn’t stop. He kept coming back, grabbing her throat, pushing himself down on her and grunting like a pig. So then she started fighting back. And that was why he was keeping her here, now. She had not seen sunlight stream through the sky for months. She was bad, and she needed the lesson.
Her meals were the slop he poured down her throat that he said would make her more obedient. After a while – maybe days, weeks, or months, starvation would have been a mercy. She no longer paid any mind to the grumbling in her stomach, or thoughts that maybe someone would come and help. Nobody cared that she was gone. She was a bad girl. She was a dirty girl. She would feel this pain for the rest of her life.
Then, one day, she heard it.
It had happened the fifth week she was down here, waiting for daddy to come in what must have been the nighttime. She had been listening to the dark, and then she had heard it. She’d heard the voice for the first time.
Concentrate, it had said.
And there was a little bit of her brain that obeyed, having no alternative. Like it was destiny.
She lay there on the mattress, bound by the ropes, and concentrated.
Breathe, the voice said.
She breathed. Deep and full. And she smelled something new coming from somewhere close by. It was like smoke, but tasty. Like a freshly grilled chicken wing or a piece of pork being spit fried on a hearth.
Except that the smell was coming from inside her.
Reach out, the voice said, hissing in her eardrums like a snake coiled round her in the dark. Flick.
She didn’t know how, but she knew what the voice meant. She extended her fingers once, twice, and then continuously till she felt the smell begin to emanate from the tips of her flea-bitten nails.
She looked down and her eyes went wide. Smoke was sailing out from her fingertips.
Good, the voice said, and it said it in a way that Amalia knew it was pleased. Good girl.
Since that night, she’d practiced whenever she woke up in the dark, her mind ringing and body still aching from daddy’s visits. She’d breathed, extended, and flicked just like the voice had said. And every day she did so she felt the sense that something was cruising through her body that had always been there but had never been able to move. It had been blocked – there had been big walls in its way stopping it from traveling through her to all the right places. Within her there was a river of smoke that had to reach the ocean. The voice was the lathe that had opened to let it through.
She started to learn how she could let out a little more. One time a rat had come by to nibble on her unkept, grease-streaked hair and the voice had murmured, Go on, try it, and she’d flicked her right hand in its direction and a little spark had danced through the air off the nail of her forefinger and singed the rodent’s tail clean through. It scurried off back into the dark from whence it had come.
The voice had chuckled. Oh, you’re a strong one.
She looked at her hand and she knew something, then. There was more of that in her. That was nothing. That was just the tip of the power that was coursing through her restrained body. She couldn’t move right now, but inside her things were moving alright. Things were shaking up like they never had before.
Each day for the past month she had felt that same power rise within her as daddy slapped his wet, stiff thing inside her. Something inside her pushed back, and she clenched her hands tight, bloodying her palms as her nails dug into the soft flesh there. Because the voice was telling her that she needed more time. She needed to wait.
But it was hearing her pleas. It was liking where her mind was at. Every night, she would ask it, when? And every night it would say, Soon, kid. Soon.
Then came tonight.
Amalia had been practicing all day. She’d gotten to the point where she barely had to flick at all, now. Sometimes tiny embers would run across her hand like giggling children playing tag in the alleys of the town above. She’d watch them jump into each other’s arms and grow into a bigger flame, each one adding itself to the bonfire that burned just above her shaking palm. The light of the flame filled her eyes, and then the voice told her from inside, Baby, you got this.
So, when she heard all the locks come undone, and the door creaked open tonight, she opened her eyes and breathed. Deep. She smelled the growing conflagration that was building within. Bubbling through her blood and running clear in her veins.
Daddy had been drinking. She could smell it. The ember within reacted to that, too. Attracted by the liquid that would take it in. Her heart was racing, out of fear, and out of excitement.
Daddy mounted her, put himself in her, and bit her ear – saying she was a miserable little creature. She was a bad girl for making him do this to her. Didn’t she know he was doing this because he loved her? If she was gonna be a bad girl, then he was going to have to put a new child in her one day. He’d make a better daughter. Then he’d have his good girl. Or if she was bad too, he’d do the same to her.
While his saliva trailed down her neck, and his grunts started getting more forceful, she tensed up her insides and extended her fingers from beneath his sweaty body.
Now? She asked. She had to be sure.
Now, Honey, the voice said, clear and crystalline in her mind even through daddy’s whimpers and shouts. Cup the flame in your hand.
She breathed again, allowing the anger and fear and thrill and terror of the moment fill her nostrils and travel down through her body till it reached the tips of her fingers.
Sparks began to jump from her nails. Little smoke trails spiraled up passed her daddy’s side.
He took her head in his hands. He thrust deeper, gritting his teeth, grunting like a pig. He didn’t notice a thing.
Put your hand on his leg, the voice said, and all at once the charge in her mind and the room came to a crashing climax as she obeyed, gripping her daddy’s thigh as hard as she could.
Flick.
The smell of crisping flesh assailed her nostrils. Daddy’s eyes bulged and his mouth fell open in a scream that she couldn’t believe came from his lungs. She squeezed more as he tried to roll away from her, pieces of the melting spot on his leg coming away as he kicked out, squealing maniacally, clutching the exposed muscle gyrating where his skin was blistered and dripping.
Her hands clenched the ends of the ropes around her quickly. Everything had to be quick now. Daddy’s screams filled the air. Screams that had once been hers – back in the days when she would still scream down here, begging for help. Wailing at him that she was good. She didn’t hear the words that yelped from his lips, instead she focused on flicking each length of rope till finally the embers trickled down the binds and they came away.
She started, almost tumbling back to the ground as she attempted to centre herself. Her legs wouldn’t work. She tried crawling towards the stairs. She dug her nails into the ground and clawed forward. He hadn’t locked the door behind him. There was light up there.
Suddenly she felt his gnarled hand grab her right leg and pull her back, her naked breasts catching on brickwork and tearing her skin. She let out a yelp – tiny, like a stuttering rat’s – as he turned her round and beat her across the face with his hand, pieces of the flesh from his leg still stuck there. His face was rabid, foam dribbling from his matted beard, growling like a feral ghoul. He was thinking that he’d fucked up. He’d left some matches down here and she’d got him. But he’d teach her. The little bitch. He’d teach her now good and proper.
Another smack to her face and she tasted blood in her mouth. Her legs scrambled on the floor under him, skinned knees smacking into his backside while he started cackling, and cupped his hand round her mouth. He positioned himself on top of her and bore down on her hard. His hand clenched round her throat.
She knew. She knew as she looked into his eyes. This time he was going to kill her.
His disheveled face began to fade from her sight. Everything did. But even as her head began to die, still the fire within her did not stutter. It was red-hot. Searing. It was ready.
C’mon honey! the voice bellowed inside her. You can do this.
She summoned her feeble strength and both her hands clamped down on the sides of his face. It took only a second – just a fraction of an instant. She felt the flames travel up her arm. She felt her fingers bulge and twist as the torrent of energy swept through them. Then she pressed down, hard.
GLANCE channel: Firebite (Unleveled)
Fire damage 10pts/Sec (Touch)
She looked at his face as it changed. The sizzling sound dominated the air again and a blanket of smoke filled his head, spewing from her hands. Then fire – a real, burning, yellow flower wreathed in billowing crimson flowed from the palms of her hands over his eyes, his nose, inside his mouth. His scream was that of a creature surprised by its prey, both feeling the most intense pain and reeling from the corruption of the natural order it believed in. The scream wouldn’t stop. She didn’t want it to. He tried gripping her arms with his shaking hands. He bit into the finger closest to his mouth but to no avail. He was growing weak. All he could do was scream as his flesh crisped and he smelled the rotting, oozing aroma of his head being baked, his brain sizzling inside his burning skull. She kept her hands there. She kept her fingers digging into his cranium and let the flame consume him, traveling through his nostrils and gripping his insides like a sinuous red vice. The whites of his eyes dripped down on her face, first dangling out his sockets and then falling completely – just a mess of goo and crisp tendon. She ignored them. She looked at his face as it transformed under her hands. The fat, blushed rouge of his cheeks changed to the colour of charcoal, and the skeleton that was beneath the skin began to expose itself. The bones rotted. They changed from grey-white to charcoal black in seconds as the flames licked them and stole their colour. His hands fell from her throat, limp and useless, and only then did he slump down on top of her, nearly suffocating her with his weight.
She pushed him back, rolled him over onto his side. She stayed there for a while, bleeding from lacerations on her torso, but basking in the cold air coming from above. His still smoking head was looking at her. But there was no life left in the dead, empty sockets of his blackened skull. The whole thing had been over in about a minute.
How d’you feel, honey?
She didn’t answer the voice. She stared at the eyeless, smoke-filled sockets of her father, the look of terror and anguish still painted on his charred features.
You did good. Now, you have to get up.
She knew that. She knew that outside light was streaming through the windows waiting for her. There was a world out there.
She started rising carefully, still never taking her eyes off daddy’s burned body. The pulsing, blood-pounding excitement of the kill had dissipated in her mind. Now, more base instincts took over. The need for food. The desire for warmth. Curiosity.
It was that final thought that led her to stretch her shaking, scarred legs and stand like a newborn calf, skittering around without a sense of balance and with no mother to steady it. Nothing except the voice that echoed faintly in her head.
Take your time, it whispered. One foot, then the other.
She listened, only managing to turn away from her father’s expired form with great effort. He was dead. She had killed him. She had killed her father. The thought began to boom like a siren’s wail in her mind as he shakily ascended towards the light heralded by the slightly open door at the basement’s peak. She’d killed him with her own hands. She’d watched him burn.
Her daddy, who had once smiled and called her his princess. He’d wanted her to be good. He’d tried to train her to be obedient. Wasn’t that what daddies were supposed to do? Punish their little girls when they stepped out of line?
She paused on the steps. Maybe she should go back. Maybe she belonged down here.
Sweetheart, the voice echoed, soothing like honey running through her ears and wrapping her brain in golden, silky threads. Don’t be scared. You don’t have to be scared, anymore.
How could she not be scared? Her bulging eyes asked the question that her mouth moved to try and form. She didn’t know what was out there. She didn’t know what she had just done.
But you know how it felt.
Amalia’s arms fell to her sides, and she felt the urge to vomit rise in her gullet. Because she did know how it felt. She had never felt anything like it in her life.
Take that feeling, baby, the voice whispered. Take it and go.
She steadily began to move again, letting small droplets of stomach acid dribble from her mouth. She wasn’t sure if she had thrown up or not. She did not understand the heaving and retching that was happening down in her stomach. The only thing she heard was the voice telling her to go on. She could make it.
At the top of the stairs she pushed open the door and collapsed onto the stone floor of the kitchen.
It was warm.
A fire was burning in the hearth. Full and bright.
There was some roast chicken spread on the table. A meal for one, but with enough left over for a whole household of servants, and once she’d flung herself at the table and torn ravenously into the food she ransacked the larder for milk and eggs. She gobbled them down without stopping, and then with a retching cough she truly did vomit across the kitchen table, covering the remaining leftovers in the sticky residue of her rotted insides.
Go to the front room, baby, the voice said to her as she wiped her mouth on her pallid arm. There’s something you need to see.
She obeyed, rising slowly on skittish legs, and shambled through the kitchen towards the foyer. She felt the power of the fire in the hearth wash over her like the purest wind – but it was weak. It was nothing compared to what she had felt down there emanate from her tiny fingers.
The walls around her blurred in her vision. Her world began to shrink until she saw only a tunnel – darkness creeping into the sides of her eyes – that led towards the wooden door of the house with its gilded handle. This house – her house – it felt alien. Unreal. She could smell daddy’s scent on the chair she threw out of her way. She wanted to take it within her grasp and watch it shrink beneath the broiling flames that were running through her blood. Her hand shook as it touched the handle of the door. She knew his fingers had been there before. She felt them streaking along her thighs again.
As the thought melted through her mind, she felt vomit rise into her throat again. She was a monster. She had let something out of her that should never have seen the light of day.
Baby, the voice whispered like a caring guardian stroking her mangled hair. Open the door.
She did as she was bid.
She nudged the door open and felt the chill winds of the outside buffet her naked body. She held up a hand to shield herself from the blazing ball of fire that hung in the sky and lighted on her immediately – obliterating everything from her sight while it bathed her in its radiance. Eventually her vision – though clouded by tears – resolved into vaguely familiar settings: a cobblestone path, rolling hills, a gateway set between two stony ridges that led to the village in the distance. Smoking chimneys signaled burning embers within each decrepit hovel. The voices of singing children and merchants plying their trade in the marketplace filled her ears. This picture – this audio-visual assault on her senses – finally brought her to her knees, clutching her heaving chest.
Then her mind flew back to the hollowed-out skull of her daddy, down there, beneath her feet.
There’s a whole world out there for you now, honey, the voice said.
‘W-who are you?’ she asked. The sound of her own voice startled her. It was something dull and dead, a spark that turned to dust in her own ears.
I’m the thing that’s woken up inside you,’ the Voice replied. You called to me down there in the dark, and I came. I’ve always been there. You just didn’t need me before. But now, things have changed, haven’t they? Now you’ve grown, and I’m telling you: the world out there isn’t ready for you. With those hands of yours, you can reach out and grab anything you want out there. Anything.
She felt it within her again – that piece of herself that was aching to be released even now. To breathe. To live. To burn.
Now, tell me, the voice said. What do you want?
Through tear-filled eyes, her parched throat scratched out an answer:
‘To die.’
And from deep within her bosom, she felt the thing within her chuckle, like a spattering of tiny embers tickling the top of a warmed hearth.
Don’t we all?
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