There are 195 countries in the world, many that can be envisioned before ever stepping foot on foreign soil. And then there's Hokkaido, a destination within a destination that will take every preconceived notion you have about Japan and crumple it into a little ball. In its place will be snow, more snow and the champagne powder that has turned sleepy farm towns into the next big thing since Whistler.

I’d been warned about the stink. It hit me the instant I stepped off the plane in Rotorua: a mix of bad egg and warm sewer gas that has earned this city on New Zealand’s North Island the nickname "Sulphur City" -- or, less kindly, "Rotten-Rua." I sucked in a deep breath and smiled. That subterranean scent meant I would soon be soaking in curative hot springs, smothering my body in primeval goo and exploring a land of burping mud pots, prismatic pools, boiling rivers and shooting geysers.

When Chinese tourists choose a family travel destination, Hong Kong Disneyland would seem like a logical choice. But it's the nearby gambling hub of Macau that has all the momentum.

If Fiji was nothing more than sand and sea, palm fronds and flowers, it wouldn’t matter which South Pacific beach resort you visited. Every vacation would be just another ho-hum adventure. But after 15 years and as many visits to this 333-island nation, I’ve got a pretty good idea why each destination promises a unique experience. What’s the secret? It’s the Fijians themselves, proud to be Fijian and proud to show you their country.

Concho wants to gallop. I can tell. He's a horse, after all, a headstrong one, and rippling green hills spread in every direction. Every so often, a break in the clouds reveals the barren summit of Mauna Kea to the south. But galloping is still a little ways outside my skill set, so with a twinge of guilt I pull the reins to keep my mount at a slow trot. He makes his disappointment clear with a snort and a toss of his head. The pace does make it easier to soak in the landscape of the 300-acre Dahana Ranch in the upcountry of Hawaii's Big Island.

If you’re visiting Maui, a few sites are musts. You must visit Haleakala. You must enjoy the dancing — and the food — at the Old Lahaina Luau. You must walk through the branches of the Banyan Tree in Lahaina. And don’t drive past the Maui Ocean Center, especially if you love turtles. My husband and I had two weeks on the island paradise, so we could afford to indulge in some of the sites less traveled. Once we’d seen the “must” places, we dove deeper into the island’s history and wildlife.

Japan's Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures proposed reducing congestion on Mount Fuji by 12 to 25 percent per day during the peak period by lowering the number of climbers using two of the mountain's four trails.

One by one Friday, in new living room after new living room, the television sets flicked on in this village of 12 homes, just in time to watch the opening ceremony for an Olympics that had changed everything here. "Live," it said in the upper right corner of Nam Jae-hwan’s television screen, and he sat down with his wife on a linoleum floor.

Travel to Japan showed double-digit growth in 2017 from 2016, so you’ll want to take advantage of this development and escape the crowds by hitting the stunning countryside.

Studios where visitors can have themselves dressed and photographed as samurai warriors or high-ranking Japanese courtesans are becoming increasingly popular in Tokyo.

Kahanu Garden was to be one of our two stops along the Hana Highway. The site would be the best of all worlds for us — native plants and flowers for me, and history for my husband.

For a place that’s known to be quite conservative, Singapore offers cocktails that have a tendency to make your heart race.

Starbucks once made waves with the indulgent sizes of some of its drinks, such as the Trenta, which contains a staggering 31 ounces of joe. Now, as part of the company’s aggressive expansion in China, the Seattle-based coffee retailer opened its largest store in the world: a nearly 30,000-square foot compound that does much more than simply serve coffee.

Volcanic mountains, waterfalls and scenic beaches are among the many reasons Jeju Island is known as the Hawaii of South Korea.

The isolated historic leper colony of Kalaupapa is the No. 1 tourist destination on the untouristy Hawaiian island of Molokai.

What remains of this Big Island village south of Hilo has re-energized with a weekly night market that draws lines of cars to fill a parking lot edging a sprawling black field of lava rock.

The Tsukuba Space Center is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s version of NASA mission control.

Visitors used to require permission from the king to enter the Secret Garden, a lush park behind the Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul. Now you can book a guided tour online.

As I stepped off the little boat after 48 hours of travel, I felt a little like Tom Sawyer. Mostly because my family would be staying in a treehouse. But also because the island looked like something out of a storybook.

Lahaina is better known for its modern-day touristy souvenir shops and cafes, but a stroll along its waterfront yields a glimpse into Hawaii’s past, from its whaling days to King Kamehameha’s extracurricular activities.

Hana is most famous not on its own merits, but for the coastal road to it, which is a winding, unbelievably gorgeous tropical adventure of two very narrow lanes.

Many foreign visitors see getting around Kyoto as a problem rather than an opportunity. Instead of walking, biking and riding Kyoto’s working museum of train lines, they turn to taxis (expensive and slow) and buses (extensive but even slower).

Visitors will be able to look inside some of Osaka’s premiere buildings at the fourth-annual Living Architecture Museum Festival Osaka, set to take place Oct. 28-29.

Daikokuji temple in Sasayama is dubbed the “Shoso-in of the Tanba area” after the repository in Nara that dates back to the eighth century. Tanba is the area in Hyogo Prefecture where Sasayama is located. The temple is said to have been opened by a hermit sometime between 645 and 650, during the Asuka period, to pray for the nation’s peace and security.

Let’s from the get-go concede one problem with Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center: It’s hard to get a kid to leave this prepubescent paradise.

It was a road trip through one of China’s most tightly controlled regions. We were closely monitored. Each time we stopped at an attraction, two to five SUVs full of brooding middle-aged men would park behind us.

Here are nine ways to help make a weekend or so here great — centering on eating and drinking that's not the Cheesecake Factory.

Hanoi's crammed sidewalks will have you tripping over tiny blue chairs waiting for someone to plop down with a bowl of food from one of the myriad street vendors.

If you want to get off the beaten track on Oahu, then get on the beaten track. Railroad track, that is.

An animal protection group wants tourists to know: that elephant you are thinking about riding during your vacation in Thailand is probably a miserable victim of abuse.

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The Pacific Aviation Museum brochure suggests a tour of this expansive throng of aircraft will take an hour, maybe 90 minutes. That’s a highly optimistic — unless, of course, you fly through it.

Ever wondered where salt comes from? You can find out at Nuchi Masu, a factory on Miyagi Island, off Okinawa’s central coast.

See this before it closes July 25

Marvel Comics is giving Tokyo fans an up-close look at iconic heroes like Spider-Man and Captain America during its “Marvel Age of Heroes” exhibition running through July 25.

Long more popular with Japanese than foreign visitors, the well-preserved city of Kanazawa became much more accessible last year with the opening of a new Shinkansen line. The high-speed trains hurtle from Tokyo in less than 2 ½ hours.

On our first visit to Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, we were lured by the thought of shimmering blue lagoons, gentle breezes, home-town smiles and fewer tourists per year than Florida’s Disney World gets in two days.

For the past 10 weeks, 35 women of all ages — military, dependents and civilians — united on Okinawa to become the 2017 U.S. Navy Women’s Dragon Boat Team.

Waikiki Beach is a flurry of swimming, surfing, sand castle building, tanning and general cavorting. What’s less obvious is the ballet beneath the bay waters — the sea life zigzagging around the reefs within a mile or two of the beach’s edge.

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Servicemembers stationed in Japan can’t get the colorful new Unicorn Frappuccino; however, they will be able to try a sweet, limited-edition Starbucks beverage that might remind them of home.

In December, chefs from Noma and London’s Ledbury built the world’s highest-altitude pop-up restaurant at Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal.

Green and lush, the landscape unfurls as you round that final bend and Hanalei Bay comes into view. Craggy volcanic ridges descend to the glistening sea, like a dragon coming to rest, and we are spellbound.

“Could this be more perfect?” My family and I couldn’t stop turning to each other and saying that the first evening of our October vacation as we sat around an umbrella table on our rented beach cottage’s wooden deck, 20 feet from the sand.

A Japanese sumo tournament isn’t all about the fighting. The bouts, in which two very large, nearly naked men try to push each other out of a rope circle or onto the ground, are only a small part of a tradition that dates back almost 2,000 years and is marinated in Japanese culture and ceremony.

The Japan Tourism Agency intends to establish a subsidy system that encourages municipalities to update public washrooms with Western-style toilets in tourist areas, to address the recent influx of foreign tourists, sources said.

Recently the Hokutosei sleeper express was revived as a hostel in central Tokyo. Called Train Hostel Hokutosei, the hostel reuses train car equipment and has become a hot topic among railway enthusiasts who consider it a rebirth of their beloved sleeper express.

Yes, Waikiki is highly commercial and a South Seas cliche. But there's a lot to love and plenty to do for all ages. Need convincing? Here are suggestions for things to do for millennials and baby boomers.

The beach town of Lahaina in western Maui was once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, a place where kings were born. It later became a key port at the height of the 19th century whaling boom.

If you want deep powder without lift lines for $40 a day, the best sushi and ramen in the world and a naked soak in a 105-degree spring with a view of the volcano that is heating your water, then follow the drifting snowflake to the Land of the Rising Sun.

If there’s a contest for stunning scenery per mile driven, then a round-trip from downtown Honolulu around the North Shore of Oahu is the grand circle.

Located about 45 minutes outside Tasmania’s capital of Hobart, Bonorong is the anti-zoo. There is no train ride, no tinny narration by overly enthusiastic guides. Instead, there are typical Australian fauna and species unique to Tasmania.

Long more popular with Japanese than foreign visitors, the well-preserved city of Kanazawa became much more accessible last year with the opening of a new Shinkansen line. The high-speed trains hurtle from Tokyo in less than 2 ½ hours.

There are a number of cruises on Oahu that will take you face to fin with dolphins in the wild, but among the best is the half-day cruise on the Dolphin Star, a double-deck boat custom built for dolphin watching and snorkeling.

The Indonesian archipelago is a paradise for birders and scuba divers, and we chose Sabah, a province in the Malaysian half of Borneo known for its national parks both on land and in the water.

Sleepy Koyagi Junior High School in southern Nagasaki, Japan, and nearby Mount Sashiki have long held little-known secrets from World War II.

Most people alive today recall the dreadful day of Sept. 11, 2001, when the twin towers fell in New York. Far fewer of us can personally remember Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese, killing 2,043 Americans and pulling the U.S. into World War II.

From the gangway leading onto the USS Missouri, the battleship appears as a hulking, armored dinosaur. Its nine massive cannons rise like the spiny blades of a stegosaurus, and its bow stretches far ahead with the neck of a brontosaurus.

"Construction costs had ballooned," Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters, saying she was "astonished" at the 588.4 billion yen ($5.7 billion) price tag of relocating the iconic Tsukiji fish market to a new site.

As a chilly dusk fell on this tiny bay famous for wildlife and Jurassic-era fossilized trees, a white-coated figure waddled gingerly across tide-slicked rocks — me, trying to get out of sight to prevent scaring off yellow-eyed penguins I hoped would come ashore.

A last-minute decision to climb Japan’s highest peak had me scrambling around Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo — from the Outdoor Recreation Center to the base’s Exchange store — preparing for the trip.

Most of our understanding of sharks comes from works of fiction, such as the “Jaws” or “Sharknado” movies. In other words, they’re villains. And then there’s the occasional story of a surfer in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A glitch in Pokemon Go accidentally categorized one South Korean town as being in North America. Suddenly, Pokemon trainers flocked to Sochko to catch the digital critters.

“China through the Lens of John Thomson 1869-1872” offers about 50 photographs from the dawn of the art form’s invention, taken by a pioneer of photojournalism. It’s a look back at China before industrialization, before communism, before tourism.

The weather in Hilo, the driest in a decade, according to news reports, was sunny all day, every day. A good sign. But more important was ensuring that our long-planned family trip would be a sizzler, engaging and entertaining little minds.

China’s largest private property developer, the Wanda Group, opened an entertainment complex on Saturday that it’s positioning as a distinctly homegrown rival to Disney and its $5.5 billion Shanghai theme park opening next month.

We’d floated about 50 yards into the Puerto Princesa Underground River when a bat slapped me on the forehead. It startled me, but I can’t say it was unexpected.

The "Godzilla" series started in 1954. In the middle of the first film, a warning is broadcast as the nation braces for attack by the giant monster: "Godzilla has been detected undersea 15 miles northeast of Kannonzaki cape, moving toward the northwest."

Cherry blossom mania descends on Japan in the spring, fueling a week or two of pink-tinged scenery, crowded picnics and blurry, close-up flower photos on social media websites.

Other than the danger of overextending yourself, hiking New Zealand’s abundance of trails is rarely disappointing. The Kiwis work hard to make hiking attractive.

A shave ice truck on the west side of the island of Hawaii is the talk of the islands. It serves what in local parlance is known as "broke da mouth" icy treats.

Starting this summer, the Japanese government will test a system in which foreign tourists will be able to verify their identities and buy things at stores using only their fingerprints.

With the opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen line on March 26, the Japanese islands of Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu have finally been linked by bullet train — 43 years after plans for a national high-speed rail network were first laid out in 1973.

As our pilot maneuvers us through the air, my 15 fellow passengers and I are treated to an impressive but bewildering display of temples on the ground below.

Sapporo, the largest city in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and fifth-largest in the country, is famous for two things: breweries and snow. Beer is always celebrated here, but snow takes center stage just once a year.

The century-old ruins of a U.S. military base will likely strike a familiar chord for veterans who tour Corregidor island in the Philippines.

We headed to the beautiful atoll of Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia, a one-hour flight northeast of Tahiti, without a single phone or tablet.

Fourteen of Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita's WWII works are on display this month alongside art from his Paris days at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Cape Kamuimisaki is located on the northwestern edge of the Shakotan Peninsula in Hokkaido, Japan. I walked along a narrow path that looked like a mountain ridge, going as high as about 260 feet above sea level. I proceeded for about 20 minutes amid the ocean wind and then came to the tip of the cape, which overlooks the crystal-blue Sea of Japan. This beautiful color is known as “Shakotan blue.”

The capital of our 50th state is becoming increasingly known for a vibrant culinary scene that can hold its own with any mainland metropolis.

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We’d entered this untamed forest by a path created not by the park service but worn into the ground by the footsteps of those who went in before us — some of whom never came out.

The land of Genghis Khan is a rare destination for American tourists. For lovers of nature and ancient cultures, Mongolia remains a relatively undiscovered gem. It feels like one of the last frontiers in Asia.

Space-Available can be the greatest thing since The Mile-High Club — a chance to travel for free on military flights. Then there are trips like this one, where everything goes wrong and hopes of getting out quickly are dashed with unintentional cruelty.

Kauai is the fourth largest of the seven inhabited Hawaiian islands, more than 500 square miles with dozens and dozens of beaches. Some of the coast’s brick-red cliffs (na pali means “many cliffs”) rise 4,000 feet above the Pacific.

After a cologne that smelled something like a Whopper flamed out, Tokyo-based Burger Kings went back to their original bag of tricks and brought something more colorful to the table. This time around, the burger kings brought out a red-colored burger.

I’m sitting at Godfather’s Bar, a mobster-themed place staffed entirely by young Filipino women in Saipan, when the big question comes up among a smattering of former U.S. mainlanders: Why are you here?

There’s nothing quite so vibrantly, blindingly blue as the lagoon on Tikehau, an hour’s flight from Tahiti, in French Polynesia.

On Baloy Beach in the Philippines, you can feel a gentle sea breeze on your face and warm sand between your toes as you listen to the gentle lapping of waves and the laughter of children at play.

Taking a customized tour of Shanghai was my way of dealing with a predicament: I had just one free day and wanted to see the city’s highlights. But I also wanted to step off the beaten path, maybe meet some residents, sample good local cuisine and get a sense of what it is like to live there.

China's Great Wall is an elevated highway, although sometimes a disintegrating one. Where it crumbles, there is the most freedom for hikers to maneuver freely.

Places in Japan and South Korea to celebrate the bloom.

The cherry blossom, or sakura, has been a cultural hallmark in Japanese art and literature for centuries, and the fun associated with the two weeks of hanami -- flower viewing -- season has become a U.S. custom, too.

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Yokohama houses two unique museums dedicated to the noodle that changed it all: the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum and The Cup Noodle Museum.

Ahead of the band’s 40th anniversary world tour, hot KISS buns hit store shelves at Circle K and Sunkus convenience stores throughout Japan on Feb. 27.

No more than a 10-minute walk from the west side of Shinjuku Station is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, home to not only the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters, but also two of the city’s most popular observation decks.

An exhibit of artifacts and photographs at the East-West Center Gallery in Honolulu offers a glimpse of two minority groups, the Rai and Tamang, who live in the remote mountains of Nepal.

Despite its opulence, Kinkaku-ji is perhaps the greatest symbol of Japanese culture, modest magnificence and beauty.

There’s a place that brings the beautiful ocean off Okinawa indoors: the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium at Ocean Expo Park in Motobu.

Big fish, spectacular scenery and clear waters have made New Zealand, particularly the South Island, a bucket-list destination for diehard trout anglers.

Although Tasmania is better associated with a spinning cartoon character, it’s also prime whiskey-making territory, well worthy of a sipping trip.

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During WWII, hundreds of Japanese-Americans — most of them second-generation immigrants — served in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service, acting as translators, interrogators and spies.

The islands of Vanuatu offer unspoiled tropical landscapes, friendly locals and a heritage that draws upon ancient Melanesian culture, colonial France and famed British explorer James Cook.

Japan’s whisky expertise gives U.S. servicemembers in the country an opportunity to try the whiskies at a fraction of what they cost as imports.