France is a romantic paradise. Rendezvous en France makes you forget about your identity, nationality, occupation, ambition and even sex! Do I need to exaggerate things to present you the beauty of the country? Yes. YES. Due to its geometric shape of its territory, it is often referred to as L’Hexagone or The “Hexagon”. This quixotic Hexagon welcomes a staggering number of about 82 million foreign tourists every year and it is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, followed by Spain and the United States.

I used to brood over the reasons why there are endless of romantic dates take place in France. You wonder about it too, don’t you? The answer is fairly simple; France boasts its dreamy city Paris, golden sandy beaches, fabulous nature and picturesque mountains as well as the remarkable cuisine and great wines. Is that all? No. NO. The foremost factor being the way French live. They have lived the natural “joie de vivre” and “savoir-faire” for centuries in the timeless land of theirs. The first term refers to “joy of life/living” while the second refers to “know how to do” or “to respond appropriately to any situation”.

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Travel to Italy gives any traveler a trip of a lifetime as this is a country where romance, history, arts, high fashion, connoisseur cuisine, bounties of nature and others blend together. The chemistry yielded is something commonly known by the unfathomably talented poets and novelists around the world as “the gasp-in-wonder”. Yes, you could virtually do nothing but gasp and freeze right at the moment any of your feet touches the ground of its territory.

There are two distinct facts about Italy commoners could easily tell; it boasts about being the world-renowned fashion hub, second only to Paris in high fashion industry. It is also the home for Colosseum, which is one of the world’s most recognized landmarks and perhaps the most enduring icon of Italy. Because of these two magic tricks, travelers usually tag this country as high fashion shopping heaven and portal to the ancient Roman Empire. Indeed, there are more to offer than what the travel guidebooks could tell you, not even this one that you are reading now.

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Kobe is one of the most pleasing cities in Japan for local and international visitors alike. It offers a distinctive laid-back cosmopolitan lifestyle that is the dream of hard-workers as well as those who embrace hedonism in their lives. Hey, lackluster young generation living in the comfort zone of wealth, get your ass ready to soak in the fantastic life here. I’m just kidding. As I said, this city is for everyone, for those with an undying enthusiasm for travel and life.

However, there was a nightmare struck Kobe in January 1995 when it was completely devastated by Kobe earthquake (The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake). More than 6000 people’s lives were taken away and tens of thousands of buildings were utterly obliterated by the natural disaster. Nevertheless, the ganbaru spirit you see in the people of Hiroshima and Okinawa Island has lit up the city again after a decade; the city is entirely rebuilt and tourists could hardly see the signs of the holocaust.

Geographically, Kobe is Japan’s sixth-largest city with a population of approximately 1.5 million. It serves as the capital city of Hyogo Prefecture as well as a prominent port city in Japan. The metropolitan areas of the cities of Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka forms Keihanshin (京阪神) metropolitan region.

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Miyajima is well-known as a sacred island wherein people and gods dwell together harmoniously. Since ancient times, the people living there worshipped the island itself as a god. Like any old folk tale, this belief was passed down from generation to generation until today. The inhabitants have been the guardian angels of Itsukushima Shrine, the island’s one-of-a-kind culture and holy nature as well as other shrines and temples. It is their efforts that make Miyajima island a world cultural heritage site which has thousands of Japanese and international visitors travel a thousand miles just to get their feet there.

Miyajima (literally ‘Shrine Island’) is in fact the popular nickname whereas Itsukushima is the island’s real name. If you have somehow invented a time machine and traversed through time to the past, you would see no women in this holy island and old people were sent elsewhere to die in order to maintain its ritual sanctity. Though you no longer stand a chance to see this super-great-great-grandma culture, you would pretty much be able to appreciate the typically Japanese Edo-era façade as drastic measures are taken to preserve the historically rich assets.

Geographically, this island falls in the Inland Sea of Japan, near Hiroshima. It is mountainous and sparsely populated. However, it is the home for the popular ‘floating’ torii (Shinto shrine gate), one of the most snapshot tourist destinations in Japan. Miyajima, sand bar Amanohashidate (Kyoto) and Matsushima Bay (Miyagi) are classified as the three most scenic views, or in Japanese ‘sankei’, of Japan. All in all, the many bounties of nature in Miyajima make it a superstar tourist attraction that you must travel to.

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Okinawa Island (沖縄本島 Okinawa-honto) is by far the largest and most densely inhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture. Flipping through Japanese history book few pages before the ending period of WWII where Hiroshima and Nagasaki were attacked by atomic bomb, you will see the allied bombing that obliterated the oldest heritage of Okinawan.

This island was once prosperous under the rule of the powerful Ryukyu Empire. There had been apparent cultural differences with mainland Japan which could be perceived from its architecture, until nearly all traces were utterly demolished during WWII. Fortunately, bombing attack was not deadly enough to obliterate other remnants of Okinawan culture. After the end of the war, the embers had rather turned into furious blaze in the heart of its people and Okinawa Island was developed into the busiest and most urbanized island in the prefecture. Today, travelers have the chance to experience the one-of-a-kind culinary, artistic and musical tradition.

Geographically, Okinawa main island could be divided into southern part (Nanbu), middle part (Chubu) and northern part (Hokubu) with Naha, well-known as the prefectural capital and largest city that functions as the regional transportation hub, Nago, the former Expo site renowned for its aquarium, and Okinawa City, the second most populous city after Naha, being the three main cities.

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