During the Golden Week holiday in Japan, always the end of April to the beginning of May, this year I traveled back to my homeland - the Good Ol' US of A for a two week vacation from the daily grind in Osaka. The Golden Week holiday is basically the only time where I can take an extended leave of absence from my job with little resistance. Last year I visited South Korea for 10 days to take advantage of the long holiday. Next year's destination is still undetermined but for sure I will be going somewhere!

Anyways, back to my trip to the motherland...I started my trip in Las Vegas; however, before even getting there my trip started rocky. I was lead to believe that I would be sitting in business class during all my flight segments to the US. As it turned out, the closest I got to business class was being wait listed on the flight from Osaka to San Francisco. With the seats supposedly taken, I had to sit in economy with the rest of the non-business travelers. After enduring the flight to San Fran and then Vegas, I finally could rest and stretch out my legs at McCarran Airport while I waited for my friend whom I met at Ohio University, to come to the airport to pick me up and take me back to her apartment. After arriving at her place and taking a much-needed shower, we went out for a night out on the town in Vegas. All I can say is this..."perfect weather!" You can't go wrong! Clear skies for the four days that I was there and temperatures in the mid 90s, however with it being so dry, it feels like 75 degrees. To sum up my Vegas trip, I went and saw Cirque du Soleil's "O" show and a show called "Stomp". "O" was good but I don't think it commanded the $100 ticket price that came with it for the nosebleed section. "Stomp" was good for the first 15 minutes but after that I started to doze off so it wasn't worth its $50 price tag. Of course being in Vegas I gambled but by the end of my trip I was out $50 via the blackjack tables. All-in-all, Vegas was a great start to my trip and a place that I will definitely have to visit again soon!

After Vegas, I took the red-eye flight to NYC. I arrived in NYC at 9:00am and was met by another Ohio University friend. From the airport, he took me to his place so I could unwind from my jaunt across the country. After getting situated, we went out to view the city over the course of three days. I basically saw almost everything Manhattan had to offer - Times Square, Ground Zero, Soho, East Village, Bryant Park, etc...I didn't have the chance to see Central Park nor Wall Street so I will have to make a return trip for sure.

My trip really got interesting as I "missed" my flight from NYC to Cleveland. I say "missed" because due to traffic I arrived at the airport 20 minutes before my plane was scheduled to depart. I was informed that due to security reasons, all passengers on domestic flights have to check-in 30 minutes before their plane leaves. Since I was 10 minutes too late, I was refused to check-in and had to come back the following day (due to no more evening flights) to get a flight. Luckily for me, the second time around was the charm as I made it in time with room to spare and departed NYC for Cleveland via D.C. Gotta love United Airlines! I really lucked out during my time in Cleveland as the weather was somewhat decent. What would have thought?! It was definitely a change of pace from NYC and Vegas, but much enjoyable none the less as I was able to meet some old friends and spend time with my family who I see at a rate of once every 18 months or so. But as with all vacations....they have to come to an end and so with that, I departed for Osaka from Cleveland, which turned out to be a lovely 24 hour journey from one home to the other.