Not Impressed...

Lately I've been seeing people's travel plans being mentioned on facebook and I think to myself, That's so lame! Anyone can go to Florida or California... why don't you go to Costa Rica or Guatemala? The plane ticket probably isn't much more... Something about travel within my own (huge, vast, varied) country seems nearly as lame as sitting home to me. Does this make me a snob? Or have I just traveled so much that the novelty has worn off? Even the thought of traveling to Australia seems a bit lame... it must be the English factor.

I feel as though travel needs to be a challenge... you need to overcome some sort of language and culture barrier to get the real travel experience. A trip up to Canada just doesn't qualify, I'm sorry.

I also look at my students who tell me they traveled to Malaysia with the same look of pity. I ask them, "How is Malaysian food?" , and they reply, "Teacher, I don't know, I just ate kimchi and rice there". And I think to myself You poor, sad fools. You don't know how to live....

Is there something wrong with me for thinking like this? Clearly, anyone in their right mind, should be excited over a trip to Florida... right? I mean, there are lots of great things to do in Florida, right??

Anyway, I'm currently investigating tickets to Japan for the long weekend in May. There aren't many long weekends this year (and two have passed by without me even hardly noticing) that I need to take advantage... I'm looking at Kyoto and Fukuoka. What do you think?