Footsteps of a Dreamer
Hey all! My name is Kiyoko, and welcome to my travel blog!
“Learn to travel.”
Trip planning can be a lot of work. More often than not, it is also very stressful. Thankfully, it’s something I enjoy doing (so weird, right?). Through this blog, I aim to inspire other people to travel more and help them realize that anybody can travel with the right amount of planning.
“Travel to Learn.”
After studying abroad, I found that it was simply impossible for me to return to the life I had been living before I left on my journey. Travel can be a truly eye opening experience and can greatly affect your views of other people and places. I also intend to write about some of the personal revelations I have along the way. If you are ever feeling as lost in life as I have, hopefully this will help guide you.
Why Did I Start Travel Blogging?
The First Footsteps
Growing up I went on family trips, but I got my first true taste of travel when I went to Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Japan through a study abroad program at my university. I was there for 4 months in 2016. Unfortunately, when preparing for my journey, I had a lot of questions about the application, dorm registration, and overall rules that my university was unable to answer. When I started searching for answers online, I found a lot of other people who had questions similar to mine, so I decided to start blogging in order to not only document my wonderful experiences during my exchange program, but also to hopefully help other students who are preparing to study abroad.
And Every Footstep After
After studying abroad, I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed blogging and decided to get serious about it. I realized that other people could benefit from the hard work and extreme attention to detail I put into creating my travel plans. I decided to share what I have personally experienced, not just something I researched. This way, you know you are getting detailed, honest, and accurate information, because I’ve been there. In particular, you can find my…
- Detailed and easy to follow itineraries and travel guides
- Honest and information attraction and tour reviews
- Useful trip planning and budgeting resources
- Lessons learned from travel and cultural insights
Recent and Next Footsteps
Since returning from Japan, I have visiting several places in the United States, including California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and more. Currently, I’m planning trips to:
- Finger Lakes, New York, USA
- Walt Disney World, Florida, USA
- 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan
You can follow all my footsteps by following me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
What Type of Traveler Am I?
If you came to this blog looking for recommendations on where to eat the next place you travel to…. You’ve come to the wrong place! Keep reading to find out more about me and what kind of information you’ll find on this blog.
Trip Length
The lengths of my trips tend to vary by location, but I’m not really one to stay in a particular location for an extended period of time. In general, I’d say I spend anywhere from 1-4 days in a particular city. I see what I want to see and then move onto the next destination.
In general I’m more of a “whirlwind traveler.” Very rarely will you see me spending an entire day just relaxing on a beach. More often than not, I set off on my adventure early in the day and don’t stop until late in the evening. I don’t jam-pack my itinerary, but I definitely try to do the most I possibly can in a day (while leaving myself some wiggle-room because plans will undoubtedly go astray).
Types of Destinations, Attractions, and Activities
In the travel world, you often hear phrases such as “getting off the beaten path” or “like a local.” Personally, while I like going to new, undiscovered places, I’m also totally cool with doing all the typical touristy stuff. You’ll find both types of recommendations in my various travel guides.
I’m not a big on history or art, so you won’t often see me recommending museums or art galleries in any of my guides. If they do make it into my list of recommendations, they must have been absolutely mind blowing. I’m also not a fan of guided tours as I prefer to set my own pace when visiting different places. The exception to this is when the tour involves some sort of interactive activity I wouldn’t be able to do if I didn’t participate in the tour.
On the flip side of things, I love photography, particularly landscape and cityscapes. One of the things I always research when doing trip planning is “best photography spots in x,” so you’ll frequently find me recommending various observatories and other lookout points. I also like “can’t do this at home” type of experiences, even if it puts me a little out of my comfort zone.
Food
I am a SUPER picky eater. I literally cannot emphasize that enough. Trying new foods isn’t something I look forward to when visiting a new destination. It’s usually an afterthought for me. For that reason, I will rarely recommend places to eat or foods to try unless I found something particularly unique about it.
Travel Frequency
When I’m not out traveling the world or working on this blog, I am a full-time Cyber Security Analyst and part-time Web Developer. How frequently I travel is based around how much Paid Time Off (PTO) I get per year. From year to year, I usually have to choose between taking several shorter trips around the United States, or one big international trip. If it were up to me, I’d be heading off to a new destination every month, and maybe one day I will, but right now I’m limited to a few trips a year.
Photography
In general, the photos found on this blog were taken by me from my travels. There are a few scenarios where stock photos were used or other bloggers provided their photos. In general, I may wait around half an hour or so at a particular location, or arrive really early or really late, in order to try and get a good picture. However, I do not change outfits several times nor camp out at a spot waiting for fantastic weather, a beautiful sunset, and no people around in order to get the “perfect” picture. While I do some editing to my pictures, I try not to over-edit. This means you can generally expect my pictures to be what the destination would really look like if you visited (instead of the over-exaggeration sometimes seen in pictures online).
Questions?
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