Pakse -> Vientiane -> Luang Prabang -> Kunming -> Changsha -> Shanghai -> Osaka -> Kyoto

This latest smattering of cities is united by little more than each one's wealth of Buddhist temples and a shared passion for noodles of various kinds. A few days in Japan serve to highlight the unrealized potential for beauty and solicitude that lies latent in such places. Many of the people and the buildings are, as in any developed country, old, clean and quiet. Its mass transit and marine culinary offerings are, as advertised, to die for.