Because I’m unable to fall asleep (I drank a large Diet Coke a few hours ago), here, in no particular order, are the top five places I’d like to travel to in the future:

1. The Gobi Desert. Specifically the part of the desert that resides in Mongolia. I’m thinking a 10-14 day visit would be required to get everything in that I’d want to do, including a camel trek through a portion of it. Of course, a couple of days in Ulan Bator, the capital city of Mongolia, would be in order.

2. Xinjiang, China. I’ve been to mainland China twice, now, and with the exception of the Three Gorges Damn area, this is the part of China I yearn to visit the most. The area is dominated by the Uyghur nationality, and the Uyghur language (a Turkic language) is predominately spoken there. The capital city, Urumchi, has the distinct honor of being the farthest city from any ocean in the world.

3. Tokyo, Japan. Ever since I first saw the Karate Kid way back in the day, going to Japan has been a dream of mine. Though, my reasons for wanting to go have matured since then, it is just as exciting to think about it now as it was in my early teens.

There are two things that I’d like to do while in Tokyo: Climb Mt. Fuji to witness the rising sun, and participate in a few Aikido lessons at the Aikikai World Aikido Foundation.

4. The Falkland Islands/South Georgia/Antarctica. This is probably the most ambitious and potentially most expensive item on my list. But, you’ve really gone places if you’ve made it to Antarctica.

5. The Baltic States, which includes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. And, of course, a quick jump up to Finland would also be on the itinerary.

So, yeah, five locations I’d like to visit. I’ll be lucky if I can complete one of them. I’ll be completely blessed if I can get two. Anymore than that and I’ll be completely satisfied with life.