We’ve stayed in a lot of hotels over the years and Hyatt has become our rotating home base while traveling the world. Most stays follow a familiar rhythm: sleep, breakfast, back out to explore. Reliable. Predictable. Which is why this hotel caught us completely by surprise.For this trip, I wanted to find an experience that...

Onsens, pirate ships, and a cowboy-hat YouTuber. Just a normal day in Japan...

I was holding my breath as I watched Dax and Evelyn enter their first “job” for the day at KidZania in Tokyo. It’s a very stimulating mini-city, and not the type of place Dax typically easily walks away from me. But my hesitant little guy who usually needs extra encouragement was suddenly waving from the...

If you’ve seen anything about visiting Tokyo, you probably heard about the animal cafes — spots where you pay for a time slot, grab a drink, and spend an hour petting something adorable. Think cat cafés, owl cafés, and in our case a mini pig café and a chinchilla-and-gerbil café. It’s peak Tokyo: quirky, cute, and slightly surreal.  ...

Paris, 2023. Picture this: I’m sitting in a gorgeous, sun-drenched Parisian cafe with Elisa and our two kids – ages 1 and 5 – surrounded by delicate pink and white decor, tiny marble tables, and enough glass fixtures to make any parent nervous. Maybe not the best location choice but more on that later. The...

From Seattle to NYC to Tokyo: How Coffee Culture Became Our Family’s Secret Weapon for Surviving a Year-Long Adventure Standing outside Glitch Coffee Roasters in Tokyo, watching Evelyn introduce herself to a young Japanese kid (thank you Translation app!), I felt the all-too familiar weight of a thousand questions pressing down on my chest. “Did we...

Japan was the first stop of our family’s year around the world. Here’s the big picture of what we did, what we learned, and why Japan was the perfect place to begin.   Japan was our first stop on this crazy year-long adventure. And it is an incredible country that we absolutely fell in love...

Why saying hi, asking questions, and hitting pause is our survival guide. We’re finishing up our time at a homestay in a small town outside Kyoto, and the experience has already been incredible. A slower pace, new neighbors, conversations in broken English and hand gestures it is giving us a taste of non-city Japan that...

What a week in Japan is teaching me about kids, trust, and letting go. A Week in Tokyo We’ve officially landed. After a week in Tokyo, we’re still catching our breath, adjusting to the time difference, and trying to remember which pocket our train cards are in. In the next newsletter, we’ll share a full...