Stories by Samantha Mariko

Category: Travel

Travel guides, hotel reviews, and destination highlights from Samantha Mariko across Japan, Asia, Europe, and the US.

October 3, 2021

A Staycation at Aloft Tokyo Ginza

I believe many people are itching to travel like the pre-pandemic days, myself included. While I could travel abroad right now if I wanted…

September 29, 2019

Last month, I took a much-needed two-week vacation to LA/OC. While there, I revisited some places I frequented in my younger days to write…

March 4, 2019

Have you ever traveled solo to a place you’ve never been to before? If you’ve read my two posts about my trip to Indonesia…

January 20, 2019

A trip to Indonesia is not complete without an excursion to Bali (in my most humble opinion). When planning my full itinerary, my friend…

January 11, 2019

Happy New Year, everyone! Did you all have a relaxing & refreshing winter holiday? I decided to take my first solo trip to one…

July 25, 2018

If you read part 1 about my spa experience at Forest Inn Showakan, I mentioned that I would do a review of the suite…

July 19, 2018

Another year older this past weekend, and what better way to celebrate my birthday than at a 5-star hotel with a spa experience! Forest…

May 24, 2018

When you’ve lived away from home sweet home for over 5 years like I have, you start getting behind on the new, trendy hang…

January 22, 2018

Tokyo has always been my city of dreams, and I never cease to dream of doing new things and chasing new opportunities. I welcomed…

December 30, 2017

Although I went on this said day trip to Mitsumine Shrine at the beginning of the month, I thought finishing up 2017 with a…