Stars and Stripes: We’re here for you

(Stars and Stripes)

At Stars and Stripes, we believe the purpose of our community papers, magazines, special supplements, websites and social media platforms is to help you, the military community, make the most of your time while being stationed in the Pacific. We take our job seriously and know that our first-hand experiences are how we can bring you the best tips, directions and recommendations for exploring off base.

This summer, our team including Korea writer Hyemin Lee and Okinawa writer Shoji Kudaka, gathered at our Tokyo headquarters to spend time brainstorming and discussing ways to make sure you’re getting the information you need. For one week, our page designers, web editors and writers talked storytelling and presentation with you in mind.

In our previous edition, we published an 8-page spread about a 19-hour road trip Hyemin, Shoji, mainland Japan writers Takahiro Takiguchi and Luis Samayoa along with editor Denisse Rauda took together to Fujinomiya, Shizuoka and Yamanashi during that summer session. The incredible number of photos they took and stories they wrote about their adventure was too much to fit in one paper. So, this week we’re publishing Part II. The person in the photo out front is Hyemin on this her first trip to Japan. Read on to see what she thought of the Land of the Rising Sun as well as stories from the rest of the crew during their fun day trip. We hope after reading this you’ll get some travel inspo and plan your own fun trip!