With roughly two weeks left of our transformative year abroad, we have just returned from our final escapade before shifting our focus to winding down our year, packing up our suitcases and saying our farewells to dear new friends.

This last trip of our year was made possible by the combination of two fortuitous circumstances: Julian’s “work experience week,” designed to be an internship of some kind but with a net positive of no regular classes; and Jonathan’s last business trip for his old job that included a free roundtrip airfare to Seoul for yours truly. How could we resist this basically free trip to East Asia? I agreed to go with two caveats: 1) Julian’s “work experience” would be attending Jonathan’s work conference in Seoul and some related research; and 2) we would tack on a week’s vacation in Japan while we were in the vicinity. We had last been in Japan when I was pregnant with Noah 20 years ago, and had loved our time there. While our last visit was courtesy of Stanford’s SPICE program for educational professional development, this trip would be focused on our favorite spots from our last visit: Kyoto’s beautiful temples, shrines and gardens; and the place forever etched in our memories: Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park and Museum. We ended up with a day in Osaka before our flight back to Germany at the end of the week, which was great fun since Jonathan’s friend Brian Ma from high school was also there on vacation!

Since we are now focused on closing out our time here in Berlin, I will make this post primarily a photo essay with highlights from Seoul, Kyoto and Osaka. It was an incredible trip full of delicious food, stunningly beautiful scenery, lots of bowing and gratitude, and such kindness from everyone we met. The trains/subways were like secondary underground cities that definitely threw us for a loop on multiple occasions, but we ultimately made our way around with just minor hiccups along the way. We are exhausted but full from the mix of culinary and cultural delights, and grateful to have squeezed in one last adventure before shifting our focus to returning home.