Japan trip currency (starter set)

Assembled currency for my upcoming trip. My phone is reading the remaining balance on my Suica card, I use for local transit. That’s Hideyo Noguchi, a bacteriologist who researched rabies, polio, and syphilis, on the ¥1,000 note. Natsu Higuchi, Japan’s first prominent female writer, is on the ¥5,000 note. The nonsense in Washington this week is weakening the dollar, increasing the cost of my trip.

Swapping spring and fall trips

Today we flew back and are getting reacquainted with home. “Now, where are the cutting boards?” The next trip was to be to Italy with family but we just learned my SiL busted a knee, so we’re rescheduling to the fall. That was an opportunity to move my fall solo Japan trip. It’ll be too cold to start in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, so while I was flying to Minneapolis, I changed the start city to subtropical Fukuoka, Kyushu, leaving in 12 days.