Yuka and I met when we were in our late 50’s. We shared a love of food and travel, as well as an interest in other cultures & traditions.
Yuka was born in Tokyo. Her father was, at that time, somewhat unusual, in that he did some international travel for work. This had an impact on Yuka. After graduating from university to work in horticulture, she learned it wasn’t really her passion. She found a job in the travel industry, and she was bitten by the travel bug. Through her work, she was able to visit Europe, and traveled extensively through Asia, as well as a couple trips to the United States. She grew up surfing and always had a fascination with life in the U.S. In the 90’s, she made the move to live in the United States, landing in Chicago.
I, on the other hand, grew up in a small town in central Illinois. My family was solidly middle class, and we did occasional vacations to Florida. This was my introduction to travel. Although I was fascinated with the idea of leaving the Illinois winter and being in the sunshine of Florida in just 4 hours, I wouldn’t say it largely impacted me. However, in my early teens I began to learn about the world when a neighbor dropped off boxes of old National Geographic magazines. This opened the door a crack. In high school, I tended to spend time with the foreign exchange students. I spent the bulk of my senior year running around with our Swedish exchange student. An illness disrupted my university time and after recovery, I took a job that required some domestic travel. My international travel didn’t truly begin until I was in my mid-40’s, when I took a trip to Italy with a girlfriend who was well traveled. This trip had a huge impact on me. In the following years I was booked to facilitate training in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The hook was set.
Yuka and I have been fortunate enough to do some international travel together and make sure to get to Japan each year. I love Japan and Yuka seems to be rediscovering her home country. As we have aged, we have learned much about how to plan travel in ways that don’t beat us up too much while still staying out of tour buses and cruise ships. We still explore, experience, and immerse ourselves in this wonderful world.
