In this episode, I’m comparing Japan and Korea after living in Tokyo for one year and travelling through Korea for three weeks. Everyone online says Korea is the cheaper, cooler, better Japan, but hon...

I traveled through South Korea for 3 weeks and in this episode of BackPackTrack, I am sharing my honest Korea travel tips, route, mistakes and things I wish I knew before going.My Korea route was Sokc...

Solo travel looks exciting from the outside, but the reality is a lot messier. After three big solo journeys, I started noticing the same emotional pattern every time. In this episode, I talk about th...

I am back on the road again after leaving Japan, and honestly, it feels more complicated than I expected. In this episode, I talk about solo travel, leaving behind friends and routines, arriving in Ko...

After living in Japan for over a year, I made the decision to leave. Not because Japan was bad. Actually, I still love Japan. The food, the culture, Tokyo life, the tiny daily routines, all of it beca...

🇯🇵 Starting a new life in Japan sounds terrifying… until you actually do it.Before moving here, I had every horror scenario in my head:What if I do not get my visa?What if I cannot find housing?What...

Japan is one of the most loved countries in the world, but what is it actually like after living here for a year? In this episode, I share my honest opinion about Japan, the good, the bad, and the thi...

Making friends while traveling solo can feel scary at first, but it honestly gets way easier once you know where to look. In this episode, I talk about some of the best apps to meet people while trave...

Making friends while traveling sounds exciting, and it is!!Solo travel can bring some of the best connections, the funniest memories, and those random moments with people you met one day ago but someh...

At 28, I realized life is basically a video game 🎮You get a random spawn point, stats you did not choose, unexpected side quests, and a lot of grinding. But travel showed me something huge 🌍 if you ...

When people ask me hey Mel when is the best season to come to Japan I can't really answer this right away. The only thing I can say is....don't come during summer unless you love sweating. The...

Moving abroad sounds exciting, romantic, and like the start of a whole new life. But the reality is also loneliness, confusion, identity crisis, and realizing that solo travel and actually building a ...

This is the first time I’ve ever recorded a podcast episode with someone else, and honestly, it was such a fun experience. In this co-hosted episode with Hekaya Haven, we talk about how I first got in...

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In this episode I share 5 things I do now that old me would never have done, and why solo travel is not scary because you might get lost, but because you change. Going places alone, talking to strange...

When people think about solo travel, they assume the scary part is getting lost, missing flights, eating alone, or not finding friends. I thought that too. But the truth hit me after I came home. The ...

Kyoto in winter hits different, cozy, calm, and seriously underrated. During our January break from language school, I took the shinkansen from Tokyo and spent a few days in Kyoto with a friend. Templ...

Travel is not free. Unless you were born into the “my parents own property” club, you will work. In this episode I break down the three real ways I have funded long term travel: volunteer work for a b...