Packing, Packing, Packing!

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Edith/Maddie, who is alternately losing her mind, grinning, and pulling out her hair north of Boston.

Why, you might reasonably, ask, am I doing those things? Because I am leaving FRIDAY for two weeks in Japan!

The cruise is courtesy of my writer pal Tiger, who likes taking nice cruises and bringing a friend or relative to share her room and the experience. Thank you, Tiger! Check out the updated itinerary (changed from last year’s brochure):

Whee! More than a month ago I started a Japan To-Do list.

Yes, some of it is silly and personal. Toenails? Still, every item needed to be dealt with, including the pedicure. And see how many I’ve crossed off? But that list is only travel stuff.

The thing is, during the same time I’ve also been working super hard to finish the first draft of Scone Cold Dead, Country Store #13, so I can travel without needing to work. Then my editor wanted a synopsis and cover ideas for Cozy Capers Book Group mystery #7. Gulp, okay. Ah, and I am committed by May 1 to turn in a short story for an anthology, a story I wrote four pages on and then got stuck. And I had two recipe posts to do for Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, my other group blog. And show up here for Wicked Wednesdays.

And did I mention I launched a new book last week?

I also have a family, with a new grandbaby. Because I’m leaving Friday, yesterday I hosted Easter for fourteen yesterday (well, two are little babies), a week early. I always host Easter, and I wanted to see everybody! Crazy, I know. (Shown below are the brunch dishes, plus we had sourdough bread, yummy appetizers, and two rich – and gluten- and dairy-free – desserts.)

Oh, yeah, it’s also tax season. I’m happy to report I sent it all off to my tax person last week, so glad to get that item off my to-do list.

So, yeah, I’m kind of tearing my hair out. Today the actual packing begins. We’ll see how much of the packing list makes it in.

I am bringing my laptop, hoping to finish that short story and maybe do some other creative work, but I don’t expect to be online as much as usual.

I’m both excited and nervous about the trip. I haven’t traveled internationally except to Canada in quite a while, but I’m all set for passport stuff, and I splurged on a business-class seat, so at least I’ll be comfortable. At this age, how I will cope with a thirteen-hour time difference is anybody’s guess.

Excited? Yes, because I lived in the greater Tokyo area in the mid-seventies teaching conversational English to businessmen and studying Japanese, which was fabulous, except I haven’t been back even once. As you can see, it’s been a few years…

I traveled a fair bit while I was there, but the cruise takes us to places I’ve already been as well as places I didn’t visit, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to Busan in South Korea. I love Japanese food, and am also looking forward to seeing how much Japanese I can fish up from the depths of my brain (speaking other languages is a teensy superpower of mine, and it makes me happy to stretch that muscle).

All righty. Enough blathering. That suitcase isn’t going to fill itself!

Readers: Share the most exotic place you have traveled to – or want to visit.

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Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

50 Thoughts

  2. Paris, France is as exotic travel as I got in. Still hoping to make it to Rome, Italy one of these days. Since I know one person in Singapore, I would like to go there as well.
    Enjoy your cruise and Japan.

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  3. How exciting! And how lovely of Tiger to invite you along! Have a wonderful time. I can’t wait to see photos from your trip!

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  4. Went to New Zealand and Tasmania on a cruise. We love Tokyo and Kyoto and also Osaka and hope to go there next year. The problem going over from USA is that you miss an entire day.

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  5. What wonderful experiences await you! The “Tiger” in my life was my wonderful second mother-in-law, Isobel (Ibby) Hill–a reference librarian who loved traveling and liked taking me with her. We did England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Greece. A 21-day cruise of the Greek islands was the most exotic of our trips together. (You can get an idea of what my Ibby was like because she lives on as Lee’s “Aunt Ibby” in my Witch City books!) I’m older than you and my travel plans these days don’t range much past an annual trek to New England. Working now on Book#4 in Haunted Haven, doing synopsis and cover mock-up for Book #15 in Witch City while jotting down ideas for new 3 book series. That’s all good stress! I’m gluten and dairy free, so look forward to seeing those recipes in a Maddie Day book!

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    2. Hope you have the best time ever, Edith! I haven’t made it farther than the Caribbean, but those trips were amazing.

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  6. I’ve been to Thailand a few times but the long flight is a bit too much for me now. We had a condo across the street from the beach. So beautiful. Loved sitting out on our balcony at night on the 20th floor. Would love to go to Italy and the Greek Isles.

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  7. Safe travels! Can’t wait to read all about it! The most exotic place I’ve been to is Tijuana lol but I have dreams of going to Italy, Scotland and Ireland!

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  8. Your upcoming trip sounds amazing! Enjoy! And I use packing lists too- they are a must for me.
    We’ve been to Australia and to South Korea. In Australia, my brother was living there with his family and we spent 3 weeks with them, celebrating Christmas down under – no snow was strange for us (lived in Northern Ontario at the time).
    In South Korea, we were there for 3 weeks as well – celebrating our son’s wedding. We toured the country but didn’t make it to Busan. Enjoyed Korea and all the new to us foods and traditions. We made it to the Paralympics and had so much fun.

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  10. Love that like me you do lists. I’d be lost without and probably would show up half naked for lack of something packed. Praying that your trips is problem free, relaxing as well as fun and may you come home with many memory making moments to replay for years to come in your thoughts.

    Never been to any place I’d consider exotic, but love that now retired, we can start marking off places on our bucket list. One such trip was seeing the New England states in the fall. We went up the entire coastline of Maine and then into the interior before heading to all the others fabulously fall colored states ending at Niagara Falls where I took my first helicopter ride. Did I ever mention my extreme fear of heights? 🙂 We finished that trip off by coming down through Amish communities before hitting home 34 days later. When asked why 34 days, my answer was that at the time that was as long as the post office would hold your mail.

    This summer we have a fabulous trip planned going through Canada to reach part of Alaska all with the intentions of photographing bears. Alaska is my almost home state and I’ve always dreamed of going there.

    All being said, while not considered exotic by some and maybe now some other country, but all definitely fun memory making trips that I’m so glad we took. Now on to starting my lists for our upcoming trip in hopes we won’t forget something – or at least nothing important.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  12. Edith, have a fabulous trip! It sounds amazing–can’t wait to hear your thoughts once you get back, after being away from Japan for so long. Sounds as if you’ve got all that prep and writing under control–you deserve a lovely break. Bon voyage to Tiger, too!

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  13. I hope that you have a wonderful trip, Edith! The most exotic place I have visited is China. My husband and I went there several years ago. And in second place are my trips to Brasil to visit my husband’s family and to see the sights.

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  14. I hope you enjoy your trip Edith. One thing that I noticed on your to-do list was counting out an exact amount of your prescription(s) for travel. Travel experts all recommend that you take extra in case there are any delays. I hope you don’t have any delays but …

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    1. Thx, Sharron. I might. Japan is apparently very strict about bringing prescription drugs in AND taking them out. But I can afford to throw a few away if I need to.

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  16. I hope you and your friend have a wonderful time! I’d personally love to take my mom to visit Italy so she could see the town (Sepino) where her grandparents and mother are from. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com

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  17. Have a fabulous time on your travels! I love your photo. You look ready to take on the world in it and you certainly have. My most exotic trip was sailing for a week in the Bahamas when I was in college. There are so many places that I would like to see but I would especially like to see Ireland.

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  18. I’ve enjoyed many European and North American adventures on storytelling cruises, but I’ve not been to Asia. I’ll look forward to whatever you share from this wonderful trip.
    My best memories are from the months in Jamaica, teaching study skills. Working and living in a place is a deeper experience. I explored sometimes on my own, taking mini-buses, and met so many nice people. ❤

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  19. Have a fun time, Edith! And you’re amazing (all those stories, that Easter spread)!

    I went to Japan for a few days in 2019 and had a wonderful trip. What’s on my to-visit-someday list? London & Paris.

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  21. Wow, that sounds exciting indeed. It caught my attention especially since my daughter and her young family will be in Japan the month of April. (They are a world school family for two years and globe trotting). I just returned from Colombia on March 18th, where I did a lot of hiking in the mountains and spent time on the coast crabbing and watching my grands surf in the Caribbean. It was a good time to use my Spanish, which showed up from some dark recess of my brain, so I bet your Japanese will come back, too. Enjoy! – Joy Ribar, Author

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  23. Have an amazing time! I have been fortunate, a business trip to Kuala Lumpur that we extended a few days to see a few sites, Israel, England and Ireland. Still have a bucket list a mile long, including Italy, the Greek Isles, Spain and Portugal, Scandinavia, and should the situation improve in my lifetime, St. Petersburg. Safe travels!!

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  24. My husband and I took a 2 week sightseeing trip around Iceland to visit lighthouses about 20 years ago. Enjoy your trip to Japan!

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  25. My most exotic trip was 2 weeks in Peru. I went by myself in 1989. I had a friend that went there a lot and was going to do a photographic book and it made me want to go. When Hubby Dearest took me to the airport, I cried because this was my first big adventure to go faraway and by myself. I did join a group in Miami, but I knew no one and I made a lot of friends. We flew into Iquitos and stayed one week in the Amazon Rain Forest at two different places. One was in rooms with no doors or windows and up on stilts and outdoor toilets. The second place was just an open large gazebo where we slept on mattresses on the floor with mosquito netting with everyone else. Then we flew to Lima and stayed in a hotel. We took buses to many locations including Cusco. We visited many ruins, but the best was Machu Pichu. Fantastic! I also was lucky enough to go with my sister and niece to stay at a co-worker’s (niece) house and family in London and then to Paris for one day on my birthday. The other place was Costa Rica with my husband where we were robbed at gunpoint on Easter Sunday in a park with people around of our camera by a criminal on a bicycle. He and I also did a cruise of the Inside Passage to Alaska.
    Before that, all I had done was Mexico as we lived 30 miles from the border in Texas. But we made many trips there and drove over 3000 miles (that was with my parents and aunt) through there on one trip. It is a beautiful country that is being ruined by the cartels. There are so many more place that I want to visit but we are getting too old to do all of that now. My husband visited Osaka, Japan and Bangkok when he was sent to Vietnam in the late 1960s. Not a good visit time though. Have a great time and enjoy! You are indeed lucky, and lists are always needed.

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