My recent trip to Thailand was my first international solo travel adventure in awhile, and I admit that I'd forgotten the ups and downs of traveling alone, especially in the face of trauma when my passport was stolen in Bangkok, a day before I was set to leave the city for the southern coast. When
As a traveling freelancer, it's inevitable that you'll spend some time working from airports. If you're lucky, you'll have the pleasant opportunity to work out of Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT), which is one of the better international airports I've ever used as a virtual office. My recent adventure home from Thailand was a doozy
Some say love is the universal language, others say it's English; I say it's body language. If you've ever traveled to a foreign country and immersed yourself in local culture away from the tourist hubs, you're probably familiar with that disarming, humbling feeling of being constantly talked about, often right in front of your face. During
How does one even begin to recount the horror of realizing one's passport is missing in the middle of traveling? Let me tell you, if you're going to lose your passport, make sure it doesn't happen in Thailand. I've now had the misfortune of having my passport stolen twice—once out of my childhood home in
There's a reason why a lot of vacations tend to happen early in the year. For one, many of us northerners are looking for any reason to escape the cold to warmer places, and for two, January and February are just really slow months. This is why I decided to combine the monthly recap into
If you live in the United States and like me are resisting getting Obamacare, you'll be pleased to know that there are still many ways to get affordable healthcare without insurance. These resources I list below are specific to those living in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, but anyone should be able to do a
Any other freelancers or self employed folks out there feeling utterly overwhelmed with the new Affordable Care Act and its associated health insurance requirements? On the surface, it appears to be a great idea to make healthcare affordable and available to everyone in the United States, but as I found out, it's a utopian idea that's
One of the biggest reasons I decided to buy the Canon EOS 6D was to take advantage of its built-in Wi-Fi function. The Canon 6D made headlines as it was the company's first affordable full-frame camera, and also Canon's first DSLR with Wi-Fi. The idea of using Wi-Fi to remote control my camera and shoot
In the freelance world, December can be an interesting month. With the multitude of corporate holiday parties and get togethers, there can be a ton of event-related work available during the weeks leading up to Christmas, but usually the work tapers off quite dramatically during the holidays. As this was my first December after a
When most people think of their grandmother's cooking, I can almost guarantee that this is not the dish they think of, unless they too have a Japanese grandmother from Hawaii. But it's the first one I think of when I remember my childhood afternoons at grandma's house in Hawaii. I was lucky to have my
