Upcoming Summer in Asia take 2!

Though the majority of my summer will be spent in Houston, I'm excited for the two weeks I'll be in Asia. Unfortunately, my trip won't include Chengdu, but will include parts of Asia that I *still* have not been to yet--HK, Taiwan, and Korea! The final leg of my trip will be to Japan, which I have been to once before with my family for a few days; however, I wouldn't count it as a 'genuine' visit in the sense that we were tourists that stuck out like a sore thumb (more by action than by appearance, as there were a few comical occasions when we were mistaken as Japanese). What makes this trip different is that for each place I'm visiting, it'll be with at least one person who's from the area. I think this makes all the difference in terms of how authentic of an experience you'll have, and what better time than right after senior year? All told, there will be about seven of us traveling together, and I suppose this'll be a test of how independent we really are in terms of handling logistics. Luckily--booking tickets have been done, thanks to frequent flier mileage and a few online travel search engines including Flight Network. For the best deal on flights between Asian countries, I looked for flights provided by airlines from the respective countries. However, tempting as it was to pick the cheapest LCC (Low Cost Carrier) airline, some had reviews so bad I decided to stick with the more expensive but certainly more secure option. We're now currently relying on Airbnb to find housing, and soon we'll figure out what attractions we'll be going to! I'm looking forward the people, the places, the sights, the cuisine, the culture...and hopefully will get to share some here later on!