Many of these places will be unbearably hot in the summer- they are already hot in the winter.

Thank you to all for the Taiwan suggestions-- very helpful.

Japan and Singapore.

Taiwan and Japan are great destinations, but they will be very hot and humid in the summer. I would look at Indonesia — it will still be hot, but it is dry season there in the summer, so it will be less oppressive than Taiwan and Japan. Not sure about weather patterns of Korea and Vietnam. All are amazing places to visit, so I would pick based on weather, which can greatly influence your enjoyment of a place.

In Taiwan, they also have a bullet train which runs along the west coast. Affordable and fast. It was made in Japan and is the same as the Japanese bullet trains. Much nicer than TGV.

Sun Moon Lake in the mountains is popular. There are lots of good parks to hike in.

Agree that most in TW are less formal and more friendly than in JP or Korea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m also confused about the Japan comment. We were there again last summer and had a great time.

You haven't come across establishments where they have "JAPANESE ONLY!!" signs. It's the passive aggressive way of saying they do not like foreigners and don't want you in there. You probably haven't been to areas outside of major hubs much either. They will stare you down like your presences is unwanted at a restaurant.

We love Japan. Don't get me wrong. We have been there 5 times. The vast majority of the time the people and the country are great. But don't kid yourself for a second and think that they don't have a strong undercurrent of racism and xenophobia behind the scenes. You probably just haven't noticed it. Ask yourself why Japan still refuses to allow in immigrants even though their population is crashing and cannot support the economy. That's because they'd rather die and go extinct before diluting their culture. There was also a huge stink a while ago when Miss Japan, who was half black half Japanese, won the title. So many people said she wasn't Japanese nor would ever be Japanese. Just realized that as a foreigner you'll always be a gaijin and will be treated as such. Other passive aggressive stuff we encounter is sitting in the train and the Japanese clearly standing rather sitting next to you even though it might be the only spot. They think you're dirty, will be loud, uncouth, are scary or will be dangerous.

There is just so,.sooooo much formality and uptight culture in East Asia, from China to Japan to Korea. That's why we often prefer SEA countries where everyone is way more relaxed and where it is often live and let live.

IDK about older Koreans, but the young Koreans love trying to speak English with foreigners. We took public transport all over Seoul. No issues.

There was one rude lady in a market stall. That was off putting. But, we had no issues every where else. Another market stall lady was super nice to me. Koreans tend to be more abrupt, that's true. It's a different culture.

I'm sure there are places in America where they aren't so welcoming to foreigners. Heck, they aren't even welcoming to some Americans with a different skin color. My family is biracial, and there are places in the US I wouldn't go to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m also confused about the Japan comment. We were there again last summer and had a great time.

You haven't come across establishments where they have "JAPANESE ONLY!!" signs. It's the passive aggressive way of saying they do not like foreigners and don't want you in there. You probably haven't been to areas outside of major hubs much either. They will stare you down like your presences is unwanted at a restaurant.

We love Japan. Don't get me wrong. We have been there 5 times. The vast majority of the time the people and the country are great. But don't kid yourself for a second and think that they don't have a strong undercurrent of racism and xenophobia behind the scenes. You probably just haven't noticed it. Ask yourself why Japan still refuses to allow in immigrants even though their population is crashing and cannot support the economy. That's because they'd rather die and go extinct before diluting their culture. There was also a huge stink a while ago when Miss Japan, who was half black half Japanese, won the title. So many people said she wasn't Japanese nor would ever be Japanese. Just realized that as a foreigner you'll always be a gaijin and will be treated as such. Other passive aggressive stuff we encounter is sitting in the train and the Japanese clearly standing rather sitting next to you even though it might be the only spot. They think you're dirty, will be loud, uncouth, are scary or will be dangerous.

There is just so,.sooooo much formality and uptight culture in East Asia, from China to Japan to Korea. That's why we often prefer SEA countries where everyone is way more relaxed and where it is often live and let live.

You sound crazy. No I did not see racist signs while we were there. I’ve also been there 4 times over 30 years. We mostly like to spend our time in big cities when we travel, because we like the busy-ness. Last trip was Tokyo Kyoto and Hiroshima. Also, I don’t think it is insane for a country like Japan to not want immigration. It unquestionably would change their culture. From an American lens, that’s racist. But it’s objectively true.

Indonesia or Vietnam.

Anonymous wrote:I’m also confused about the Japan comment. We were there again last summer and had a great time.

You haven't come across establishments where they have "JAPANESE ONLY!!" signs. It's the passive aggressive way of saying they do not like foreigners and don't want you in there. You probably haven't been to areas outside of major hubs much either. They will stare you down like your presences is unwanted at a restaurant.

We love Japan. Don't get me wrong. We have been there 5 times. The vast majority of the time the people and the country are great. But don't kid yourself for a second and think that they don't have a strong undercurrent of racism and xenophobia behind the scenes. You probably just haven't noticed it. Ask yourself why Japan still refuses to allow in immigrants even though their population is crashing and cannot support the economy. That's because they'd rather die and go extinct before diluting their culture. There was also a huge stink a while ago when Miss Japan, who was half black half Japanese, won the title. So many people said she wasn't Japanese nor would ever be Japanese. Just realized that as a foreigner you'll always be a gaijin and will be treated as such. Other passive aggressive stuff we encounter is sitting in the train and the Japanese clearly standing rather sitting next to you even though it might be the only spot. They think you're dirty, will be loud, uncouth, are scary or will be dangerous.

There is just so,.sooooo much formality and uptight culture in East Asia, from China to Japan to Korea. That's why we often prefer SEA countries where everyone is way more relaxed and where it is often live and let live.

Vietnam. My 17 year old son went last summer and loved it.

I’m also confused about the Japan comment. We were there again last summer and had a great time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taiwan (hugely underrated, let the crowds go to Japan). Beaches in Indonesia or Malaysia.

Any specific recommendations for Taiwan?

Obviously a few days in Taipei - do the night markets, see Taipei 101 (it's an engineering marvel) and go to the top to see the view and the mass dampener, get up early and do the xiangshan elephant mountain trial hike to get another great view, get up early another morning and see the scooter waterfall, Chiang Kai Shek memorial, walk through the beautiful and very instagrammable old streets (look at a map), visit a few temples, get lost and find some teas to try and beef noodles.

Spend one day going to Jiufen by train. You can also stop at Houtong Cat Village if you think they'd like that.

Another day you could do Beitou hot springs for something unique or do Alishan National Park where you can see incredible nature or take a train ride around to see a lot. Definitely get some tea there.

That should be more than enough for 5-7 days. You can the head to the beach somewhere in Malaysia, Indonesia, or even the Philippines. If you don't want to make multiple flights, there are plenty of beach towns too in Taiwan. But the countries have better ones.

Taiwan is insanely safe and very clean. Not a speck of graffiti anywhere and very little trash on the street. You basically don't have to worry about violent crime. We never worry about being scammed or pick pocketed in Taiwan unlike Europe. Language barrier is harder, but there's enough English to skate by. Use a translator app or point. It's fine. We also like Taiwan because the people are super welcoming and are friendly. Korea and Japan have welcoming and very polite people, but you can and do encounter virulent xenophobia there some times. Some times Korean and Japanese people can be very cold, and everything can be very formal to the point of suffocation. Many times Koreans, especially the older ones, will shove you out of the way with a scowl on their face in public areas like the trains. Taiwanese are super laid back and way less formal. Taiwan is sometimes described as a cross between China and Japan, which is kinda apt (since that's their history). So if you want flavors of Japan, you'll still get it in Taiwan.

Anonymous wrote:Taiwan (hugely underrated, let the crowds go to Japan). Beaches in Indonesia or Malaysia.

Any specific recommendations for Taiwan?

There are direct flight from DC to Seoul. Day 1 through day 5 at hotel in Seoul, then fly to Saipan for 3-4 nights. Then 4 nights at hotel #2 in Seoul or elsewhere in South Korea.

Or the return from Saipan can be to Tokyo. So DC-Seoul-Saipan-Tokyo-DC

Anonymous wrote:Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island would be a great trip. History and tourist sites, pop culture, great food, lovely views, shopping.

We did this very tour this past summer -- all 3 places. IMO, Jeju wasn't as good as I was hoping. My teens loved Seoul, lots of shopping, high tech stuff. I loved Busan more because it wasn't as touristy, and the beaches were soooo nice.

The night markets are great. We went to them in all three cities. The city comes a live. And it was super safe. Public transportation is amazing. We didn't think about shootings even once.