It’s not often that a natural disaster can actually bring about a stroke of good luck, but that’s what happened to us in August 2010. My husband, Ed, and I were scheduled to travel to Ireland in late July of that year, but our 2½-week tour was canceled due to a lack of participants — a result of the spring 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland. We had booked our own air to Ireland at a very reasonable rate and our tickets were nonrefundable. What to do?!

My husband, Mike, and I will forever treasure the memories of our Jan. 10-Feb. 2, 2011, travels to Bhutan and Nepal, our most challenging trip to date. Just getting to the Kingdom of Bhutan took three days and five flights. After such an ordeal, you can only imagine how I felt when I learned my luggage was lost, and, as if that weren’t bad enough, it was eight days before I saw it again. (It was the first time in my life that I have hugged a suitcase!) Thank goodness we had done some cross-packing, so I had some things in Mike’s luggage and he had some in mine. That saved the day.

During my first visit to Japan, in 2009, I hit a few of the typical first-time-in-Japan sightseeing highlights: busy cities, fabulous shopping, “tea and temples” and ancient castles. When I was offered an opportunity to return in July ’11, I hoped to focus on some of my personal interests: birding, gardens, history, art and, of course, savoring the local food. The compact Tottori Prefecture seemed like the perfect place to pack all of that into a relatively brief eight-day trip.