An End to the Honeymoon Indecision

We have finally decided on our honeymoon locations.

A background:
I've traveled a lot. I have an unfair advantage because I lived in the Philippines until I was 9 or 10, but maybe that's why I love it so much. I think that travel is the single most important thing (besides saving for retirement) a young person can do while unmarried and have no dependents, and my biggest regret is not studying abroad during college. I don't think there's anything more educating and encouraging of tolerance and acceptance. As such, after I graduated college and actually started making my own money, I spent it all on travel and not on material stuff. Last year I clocked 4 international trips and man, was that hard on the wallet (but great on the memories!).

Dude has not left the continent. He has traveled extensively around it (I think he's only missing one or two states and he's been to the tip of Central America and we've been all over the Caribbean together). With his newfound love of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, he is now itching to travel.

So when we first started talking honeymoon, we tossed around every idea possible. The biggest idea was Dude's, and that was to go around the world in three or four stops. We thought about SO MANY locations. Greece, Seychelles, Dubai was the original trifecta, then Australia, New Zealand, China, Turkey, Egypt.... the list goes on. Originally we thought that was a great idea. And then we started pricing out flights and hotels, and realized that the most we could take off of work was two and a half weeks. Three or four stops was just too ambitious, and we would spend so much of our time in airports and not seeing where we are.

Compromise time:
Dude picked his top choice and I picked my top choice and we would do both.

So we landed on Japan (Dude's) and Tahiti (mine).

It's actually perfect for us. Tahiti will be the relaxing part of the honeymoon, we will lounge around and stay in a bungalow above the water. And then Japan will be the cultural urban part of the honeymoon. A good friend of mine lives there and we plan on going to Tokyo and Osaka. We'll spend more time in Japan because I have a four or five day tolerance for lounging (sad but true).

Unfortunately since Dude is in school we have to wait a few months after the wedding until we get to go. But at least he won't be stressing about exams and homework while we are away. We'll likely take a couple of days off after the wedding to re-center ourselves and relax, maybe go to a bed and breakfast somewhere.

NO IT IS NOT A FUCKING "MINI-MOON" AND DO NOT EVER USE THAT WORD AROUND ME OR I'LL CLOCK YOU. THERE IS NO SUCH THING. IT IS A MADE UP WORD TO TRY TO FORCE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING ABOUT WEDDING PLANNING TO BE CUTESY-WOOTSY, PONIES AND UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS AND SUNSHINE AND I WILL NOT PROPAGATE IT NOW OR EVER.