Travel – Monday Morning with Mona

Marooned on Yokota

I had a few different writing options for today, but none of them felt quite right. One felt too vulnerable; I may write about it another day. The other one felt too negative; I really try to avoid putting negativity out into the universe. Instead, I will write about an event that happened this timeContinue reading “Marooned on Yokota”

Kyoto in the Fall

This is Day 2 of my 30-day blog writing streak, and it is already feeling hard. I hope that things get a little easier as I progress through the experience. This particular blog post should not feel hard because I have had the idea to write about my trip to Kyoto since I got back.Continue reading “Kyoto in the Fall”

Travel & Running

I am going into my last week in Texas, and my time here has been glorious. I have seen friends, business partners, and I have had a great deal of time with family. I have worked on setting up my business, and I have gone to a few professional development events. I have checked outContinue reading “Travel & Running”

A Win or A Bust?

The Travel: Last Monday at 7:00am, Japan time, 5:00pm Sunday evening Texas time, my husband drove me to the airport so that I could fly home to see family and do some work. I flew 2 1/2 hours from Okinawa to Tokyo, had a 4 hour lay-over in Tokyo (thanks to the delayed flight toContinue reading “A Win or A Bust?”

Kumano Kodo

Before moving to Japan, the one place in the world that I wanted to go to was India. I wanted to see the Taj Mahal. I was obsessed! I followed the Taj Mahal hashtag on Instagram. I spent hours looking at pictures. I envisioned myself in one of those pictures, and then one day IContinue reading “Kumano Kodo”

Okinawa Travel Part 1

I’m from Texas, and in case you didn’t know: TEAXS IS BIG. If you haven’t driven across it, it’s hard to comprehend how BIG it actually is. I used to tell people that it is SO big that you can get from Beaumont, TX to the Atlantic Ocean faster than you can get from ElContinue reading “Okinawa Travel Part 1”

A Trip to Yoron

Friends of mine had been to Yoron, and I had seen pictures, but I had no idea that my 2-hour ferry ride would drop me off onto one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Because Yoron was created from a coral reef and is surrounded by a coral reef, the colors of theContinue reading “A Trip to Yoron”

Daydreaming about the Maldives

The Last Trip before Coronavirus Stopped my Travels. For someone who claims that they don’t care that no one reads the blog, I was unpleasantly surprised at how many people chose NOT to read my blog about Sri Lanka last week. Maybe it was the title. Maybe the timing wasn’t right. Maybe I should’ve sharedContinue reading “Daydreaming about the Maldives”

Sri Lanka: Mangroves, Elephants, Sea Turtles…oh my!

I’m not sure if this begins in November 2019 or if it begins in the fall of 2017. Let’s go all the way back to the 2017, but I promise to keep it short. We arrived to Washington D.C. in the fall of 2017 so that my husband could attend an international military school. IContinue reading “Sri Lanka: Mangroves, Elephants, Sea Turtles…oh my!”

Sri Lanka, Reflections, and Restrictions

I saw them coming. I just called it a couple of weeks before it actually happened to us. I told my mom and sister a couple of weeks ago that I feared that we would be going back into lock-down out here on Okinawa. Since last March, I have tracked the numbers and the responsesContinue reading “Sri Lanka, Reflections, and Restrictions”