Our first trip to Asia in 2019 remains a highlight of our seven years of travel. We have such great memories of that time. It was probably the leg we learned the most on other than the first one. We had hoped to return a lot sooner than six years later. We may not have had as many once-in-a-lifetime experiences on this Asia leg as the first one, but it was still very memorable. And it confirmed many of our lessons from our prior travel experiences.
Confirmed – Japan Is Definitely Our Favorite Country
This was one of the lessons from our prior Asia trip and we really weren’t sure whether Japan could live up to our wonderful memories. But it did, and more! This time we visited many more cities, were able to dine out more often, and dove deeper into how it became such an interesting mix of ancient traditions and retro-futurism. I heard an aphorism on a podcast that perfectly sums up their technology issues: “Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980.” We love their emphasis on politeness and aesthetics, the food that continues to surprise us, and the way everything just works there. We really felt at home our entire time in Japan.
Relearned – Currency Exchange Rates Outweigh Inflation
As I mentioned in our numbers post, we ended up $900 under-budget for this leg. A big reason for that was because Japan was even cheaper this time than we expected. I had read all the media articles about how Japan’s currency crash had made it such an incredible travel value, but I’d also heard they’d been having inflation issues too like the rest of the world. So I wasn’t prepared for how cheap everything was, especially food. We’d been pleasantly surprised by food prices on our 2019 trip, when the exchange rate was 110 yen to the dollar. In 2025, with a rate of 145 yen to the dollar, those prices felt even lower. And of course it wasn’t just food – transportation and activities were also made cheaper by the exchange rate. And although we paid the same price for our Osaka Airbnb in both years, our 2025 apartment was at least double the size of the 2019 one and in a more desirable location.
We previously experienced this type of exchange rate economics in Argentina a year before. But though I talked about it on the blog, it didn’t make it into the “What We Learned Post” and I definitely like we were re-learning this again in Japan.
That said, as much as we love visiting countries at a discounted rate, we are rooting for the economies of Argentina and Japan to rebound and improve. However, I will never complain about a strong dollar!
Relearned – Prioritize Walkability (Seriously!)
This was a lesson from our Africa leg in 2023, but somehow we weren’t prepared with how difficult we’d find life in pedestrian-unfriendly Vietnam. There are motorbikes everywhere, horrible traffic that doesn’t slow for pedestrians, few crosswalks, and sidewalks that have been taken over for other uses. That was the worst part, how often the sidewalks were unusable for walking because of motorbikes parked on them or being used as extra space for a store or restaurant. The sidewalks were better in Hanoi and manageable in Danang, but in HCMC and Hoi An they made our daily walks pretty unpleasant. When considering cities in the future, I really need to take a closer look at walkability scores.
Confirmed – Avoid Budget Airlines in Asia
In our first Asia leg, we flew a lot of the budget Thai airline Air Asia and didn’t have the best experience, so one of my lessons from that leg was to avoid budget airlines in Asia. Luckily I remembered that lesson while planning this trip, so when booking our flights to/from/within Vietnam, I knew to only look at Vietnam Airlines rather than the cheaper Vietjet or Bamboo Airways. I felt very vindicated in my decision seeing the super-long Vietjet lines at the airports while we had much shorter waits to check our bags on Vietnam Airlines. We also didn’t have any issues with weights or carry-on sizes and all our flights were basically on-time and pleasant.
Relearned – Food Can Still Surprise Us
This was another lesson from our Leg 14 in Argentina and Peru. But we weren’t prepared for how much we’d enjoy Vietnamese food, how many varieties we’d find, and that we’d even find some new dishes to try in Japan. And though we’d eaten pho and banh mi before, we weren’t prepared for how much better both were in Vietnam. The difference with those and the many other Vietnamese dishes we tried was an abundance of fresh herbs that get added at the table. Fresh herbs make Vietnamese food truly special and it will be hard to go back to eating pho in America with just some bean sprouts and cilantro to add to it.
Summary
Our second Asia leg was wonderful and educational and the perfect rebound from a very difficult 2024. We don’t plan to wait another six years before returning to Japan and Asia.