Oh dear, I feel poor. Jamie and I just booked our flight to Japan! Ever since my semester abroad outside of Kyoto, vie been hung erring to go back and t ake. Some more photos and have some more adventures. This time, I'll have Jamie in toe, this will be his very first Asian country, so I'm keen to show him how amazing Japan and Japanese culture is. I'm also both eager and fearful of learning how much my japanese has deteriorated since I stopped taking it st the end of university. That would have been Spring of '08, so its been nearly three years since I last used my Japanese skills for anything other than a short broken conversation with a poor Japanese person I shocked with a greeting in their mother tongue.
The tickets were bloody expensive. I spent most of the evening after w finally decided to book kicking and punching soft objects because I hate spending money. The thing of it is, though, things make one happy, experiences and memories with loved ones will. You can't put a price on those. I really need to buy a desktop to replace my seriously aging laptop (purchased after the fall of my freshman year of uni) to make hope development work and photo editing less of a hair-puller, but i think if i budget my money well, and am careful to save every month, i should be able to afford building a computer that meets my needs by the time I'm 30. No worries.
So far, we have booked hotels for 3 nights at the Tokyo Conrad, an additional night at the at the Tokyo Bay Hilton, and four nights at the Hilton Osaka. I know a number of Americans who have returned to Japan either through the JET program or through other English teaching programs, and I'm hopeful that i can meet up with some or all of them during my brief travels there. I'm also a little embarrassed to admit that I am super stoked that I'll get a chance to visit atolyo Disneyland this time around. Last time I was in Tokyo it rained the entire time and my travel buddy CJ and I decided it wouldn't be worth it.
I'll definitely be posting updates as I plan out the trip, and I crave suggestions from anyone who has advice on where to visit both in and around Tokyo and Osaka as well as the rest of Japan during the intervening days.
Can't wait to gaijin smash again,
—LL