Hey guys, how's it going?

As I have started working full-time in a hospital now and earning some decent money, I am thinking of taking a 3 week vacation and discovering some spots in Canada (taking the train from Toronto to Vancouver -- can I hop on and off the train and stay in the cities? Is there anything like a railpass available? Would like to see and hike around if possible) or/and the US (mostly thinking about East/West coast). It would be my first trip abroad to North America and I wanted to ask if there are any suggestions or matters I should keep in mind regarding planning, packing etc you could give me (visa-wise, which cities are worth a visit, how to travel etc).

Thanks a ton in advance already!!

Congrats on your new job, Tori!☆彡

What kinds of things do you want to see and do while you're there? I don't know about Canada, but the US East & West Coast are very different. The West coast has more Japan-related places, like Japantown. The East Coast has lots of historic buildings, as well as New York City, which has everything.

[Zgarbas]

D: I remember when you were still in high-school and only thinking about med school!

You can work full-time in a hospital before you graduate? =/

Hey Tori-kun, congratulations on your new job! If you make it to California I can give you suggestions of lots of stuff to do and see. Los Angeles has the most amount of Japanese people in the US besides Hawaii, so you may want to stop by for probably the most authentic Japanese food you'll find in the US. There are lots of great national and state parks like yosemite, sequoya, kings canyon, joshua tree, and big sur.

On the downside, I don't know how convenient california will be without a car. San Francisco is convenient, buteverywhere else will be hard but not impossible. LA is getting better with public transport, but it still has a long way to go and is so spread out that it'll never be as convenient as manhattan or san francisco, let alone tokyo. You can still get to hollywood and downtown by train, but you'l need a bus to get to the ocean(unless the new expo line phase II is finished).

Let me know if you plan on seeing California and I'll write lots more.

I can agree with the public transportation system of LA as I take it on a daily basis. What would take 20 minutes by car takes me about 2-3 bus rides in the time of 2 hours! This is mostly due to waiting not the actual driving itself actually.

If you end up in LA, using services like Uber or Lyft taxi services help. I've used it on occasion where I didn't feel like wasting 2 hours of my life on the road when I could be at home studying/ eating dinner.

Yeah, time flew by so quickly since I left high-school and could graduate med school half-way! Due to administrative reasons I have to take a one year break and could find a full-time occupation in a hospital. (I am mainly transporting patients in wheelchairs and beds around the place which is a very easy task, but quite exhausting.)

I am not that interested in Japanese culture/language anymore (dropped it down my priority list quite far to be honest) as I used to be, so I think I mainly want to get an authentic impression on how the mindset and life of the people in North America is. Right now I am focusing a lot on what makes people happy and unhappy, reading a lot of books related to love and relationships as these are somewhat coining topics for me right now.. I guess I will be travelling alone by myself with my backpack I think it is easier for me to start up a conversation with random people in English rather than in German and I want to get to know random people at random spots and broaden my interpersonal understanding. So, this might be a primary reason I am thinking about visiting North America. I've been to the UK already and want to go the distance now.

I have to admit that I have a driver's license but because I could reach every destination by train, bus or bicycle I never have had the need to possess or even drive a car after my driver's license exam, so I think de facto I cannot drive a car anymore. (Yeah, it's been a while and it is a pity I have to relearn it sorts of) I forgot that would complicate things in some parts of the US.

How's the weather in March in Southern California? I prefer sunny weather over rainy btw.

Thanks for your hints on transportation and such!

Tori-kun Wrote:How's the weather in March in Southern California? I prefer sunny weather over rainy btw.

Lol! That's a funny question. It's pretty much sunny here year round - actually depressingly so. It rains so infrequently (sometimes 5 days/year) here that it makes me incredibly happy when it does rain if you can believe that. Of course that makes it a great place for planning events because it never gets rained out. There is a small wrinkle in that this year is supposed to be affected by the strong el niño condition which usually brings rain in the winter. Fortunately it should be mostly clear by march, but not too hot like the summer. See this historical weather info for the last el niño in 2010. Basically you're looking at high 60's and sunny - perfect weather.

About the transportation, since you will probably be staying / visiting the popular areas, you probably won't be having to transfer a lot of times so hopefully you won't have to be waiting like rawrpk said. For instance there are express busses running between downtown LA and santa monica mornings and evenings and trains running from downtown to hollywood and culver city. You just need to plan in advance and be aware of the routes and schedules. And like rawrpk said check out uber and lyft if you are going to the out of the way places.

And yes, if you haven't been practicing your driving, I wouldn't suggest relearning in LA traffic! The only thing that could be worse is driving in manhattan or bangkok.