Japan Is Doomed

That’s right! It’s a long return to Japan! With some generous help from my parents and relatives and a great deal of eating nothing but cup Ramen from myself, I’ve managed to scrape together enough money to fly over to Japa and not die from malnutrition! I discussed a few ideas for things I want to do this year, and I’m still hungry for more information and suggestions so please do drop a comment if you have any ideas. I’m going to be staying with the school I taught at in 2006-2007, and will be able to attend a few of their events, such as sports day and the graduation ceremony. I’m going to make my camera an even closer friend than last time, and blog even harder and more frequently. I promise.

So the countdown begins. I make it just 99 days until I fly off from London, so exactly 100 (or thereabouts) before I touch down in Tokyo!

I don’t really have much more interesting information so I’m going to leave this as a nice short post. Expect usual service to resume when I can be bothered soon.

Good news everyone! Due to some generous gifts from my family, combined with my ability to live without spending any money, it looks like I’m going to be able to afford to go to Japan for a few months in the summer! Hurrah!

Whilst I don’t know much about the trip yet, I wanted to talk about what I plan to do, and I urge anybody who reads this blog to post any suggestions they have for trip activities. If all goes to plan I will be staying in Oji in Tokyo again, hopefully staying with Junten school for very little. Whilst this does limit my travel slightly I am planning to travel. Here’s a quick list of my plans.

1. Visit Kyoto & Osaka
I am 100% going to do this. My mother will be on my trip with me, and I would be a terrible son if I didn’t show her the amazing sights of Kyoto. Visiting Osaka is something I wanted to do in my gap year but for one reason or another I couldn’t make it. What made it worse was that Nate managed to make it there and told me it was fantastic. So I blame him.

2. Visit Nikko
Considered the “other Kyoto”, Nikko isn’t too far from Tokyo and plays host to some of the most beautiful shrines in the country. Long term readers will know I am utterly obsessed with shrines, so I will definitly be making a trip here.

3. Visit Kyūshū?
This again was a plan I thought about in my gap year but sadly I couldn’t make my funding stretch far enough to cover it. Hopefully being able to just pack up all my belongings in one bag will allow me to get there. I may even hitchhike, as I hear Japan is the only country really safe enough nowadays to do so. Plus I hear you can meet some great people doing so. If I do hitchhike, I’ll post about it on here before going. If you don’t hear from me in a few days, call the blog police and they’ll come find me.

4. Get horribly drunk
Obviously.

5. Ascend the Tokyo Tower
Something I never did, even though my volunteer partner Matt did it twice (I think). I’ve been in an apartment that looks onto it which was about half it’s height, and even from there the view was huge. I would love to get a couple of photographs from the top of the tower, then spend a good hour or so trying to find my old flat on it.

6. Return to Tsukiji Fish Market
My mother absoloutly loves seafood, so even if I din’t want to this is pretty much guaranteed.

7. Make a wish at Meiji Shrine
Last year I wished for good luck at university, something that I’ve had so far, so I think another journey would be in order.

8. Ride the Odaiba Wheel Again
In daylight this time.Even though it was nearly pitch black when I rode it last time the view was spectacular, particularly the rainbow bridge.

So there you are. Add to this the obvious ones like eat lots of sushi and look like an idiot in Karaoke, and you have my basic plan. This is where you guys come in - please comment with suggestions. I want to know what to do, and who better to tell me than strangers over the internet?

Roll on summer 2008!