Can we just agree that 2025 was a funky year? It was a funky year for us. We had some major upheavals last year: we decided to enroll the kids in a local school for 2025-26, we had some health-related turmoil, and we had family issues back in the states. All in all, it added up to a lot more time in the air flying back and forth, but oddly less time traveling for fun.

I feel lucky that we were in a position to make the time we needed to spend with family, and we got a lot out of our time at school. The kids made new friends, and were challenged and stretched to adapt to a new environment. Ultimately, we decided to bring the kids back home. We missed our time together and missed the flexibility to travel when we need to or want to. Their time at school has also renewed our confidence that we can provide the academic growth that they need to thrive at home.

So that leaves us here, at the start of 2026. With a renewed purpose to enjoy our time with the people we love and a commitment to enjoy the gifts of the present moment. I don’t need to make every second overly precious, but I’m also not willing to lose our present to the insidious lure of hyper-busyness. We’ve got a queue of trips and projects that we’re planning for 2026 and we’re excited to get back into it.

We’re starting with this trip to Osaka. We had planned to break in the New Year by traveling on the 1st, but we changed our plans to leave today instead. We made good use of the extra time with an epic day out enjoying the water yesterday – 14 of us (plus our dog, Roxy) out snorkeling and wakeboarding and enjoying the sun and salt water.

So we’re a little sun-baked this morning as we head into the winter temperatures in Osaka. We’re traveling with a family we’ve grown close to while we’ve been on Guam. Our kids have been growing up together – we’ve spent three New Year Eve’s together now and this will be our second trip to Japan together. When your actual cousins are scattered all around the world, sometimes you just have to make your own in your own neighborhood.

We have a whole list of possible activities in the Osaka area – good food, interesting history, some time outside, maybe even a little bit of shopping. We may get to all of it… But probably not – it is a long list. The only non-negotiable is visiting Universal Studios. We’ll head there tomorrow or Wednesday and figure the rest out as we go. It’s a whole other level of difficulty to travel through Japan as a party of 10, but as long as everyone’s ready to roll with it, and shows up with a sense of adventure, we should have plenty of fun along the way…

More to come!