pre-trip shopping list

there are a few things i know i need to pick up before my husband and i leave for our marvelous trip to japan ~
...i just feel like i'm forgetting something...

i need a new bathing suit. the one i have is embarssingly too small!
i also really want a gorilla tripod... thingy. very handy.


we just bought a new sony handycam. quite excited about that~

and the most important thing is to get...
JR pass exchange order from the JTB International (Canada) Ltd. Toronto Office
(in order to obtain the JR pass, you need to get an exchange order in your own country. then when you arrive in japan (@ airport customs), turn it in and show your passport with a "temporary visitor" stamp... and fill out a form... and voila~
see http://japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html)

we've also bought a few 2010 vancouver olympic mascot plush keychains as omiyage.


(if you want some ~ http://www.vancouver2010.com/store/accessories/keychains/cataccessories-catkeyringslanyards-p1.html)

(fyi ~ when staying in japan, it is customary to bring a small gift from your country for your hosts. the only person i can think of that we may encounter that we may give omiyage to would be the owner of the ryokan...)

hmmm... what else? i need to exchange my money into yen ~ from what i hear, most japanese people use cash and some places will only take cash.

anything you can think of that i will need to bring on my trip?

pre-planned tour vs. my own itinerary

the night my husband and i decided to go to japan, i started looking at various travel agencies and tours online... many of them had some great things planned but none of them had everything and they all had things to do that i wasn't so interested in. they also seemed very rushed. i decided that if this was to be the trip of my dreams, i'd have to plan it myself. i had no idea what an undertaking that would be!

of course, i've been planning this trip in my mind for years but to map it all out and try to make everything fit in a logical and realistic way has turned out to be quite difficult. i'm not quite done yet and we're leaving in a little more than 2 weeks!

if anyone out there wants to share their own experience with me of travelling abroad with either a tour group or your own plans and/or has any tips for me, i'd love to hear them!

new blog ~ SO EXCITED!

i've decided to start a new blog~ i've been dreaming about going to japan for years and i'm finally going! i know my crap about it will end up on the internet somehow anyway so i may as well start organizing it all now.

as i mentioned, i've been wanting to go for such a long time now... really, my interest in japan grew gradually so i can't say exactly when it began. i remember doing a geography project in grade 9 about japan and stealing my brother's "japanese on the go" language learning cassettes (yup, i'm THAT old) when i was around 15 but i've always had an affinity towards asian esthetics and culture. by the time i ended high school, my "interest" had turned into obsession!

so, i've been dreaming (literally) about it for, let's say, 15 years ~ and i would've gone sooner but something was always in the way... lack of money, education, work.... relationship (i shouldn't say "in the way" for that one but... well, i'm sure you know what i mean!)

for the last year or so, i've been out of school and unemployed AND my husband and i have been talking about starting a family... i knew that if i didn't go now, i wouldn't get to for... maybe 18 years! i've been waiting so long that the thought of another lifetime seemed like a death sentence. as much as i want to go... i'm really uncomfortable with the idea of going alone since it'll just be a vacation and not an extended working holiday. my japanese skills are... horrid ~ and i'm not a very outgoing person so... yeah, not alone was a huge priority.

one of my good friends lives in korea and has been to japan a few times now. i thought she would be the perfect person to go with. there would be some things that i wouldn't get to do because she's not interested in the same things i am and i wouldn't want to drag her around and for her to not have fun but getting to do a FEW things on my wish-list would be better than nothing. ...but she got knocked up! (bad timing for me but fantastic news for her and her hubbs! ~love you pea!)
then i considered asking my sister... well, she has a one-and-a-half-year-old, a tight budget... and SHE put another bun in the oven too! (their due dates are actually a week apart)

needless to say, i was feeling really down one night thinking about it. i thought all my opportunities had slipped away. i really, really wanted my husband to go with me ~ that way i'd get to do whatever i wanted without feeling bad (he's really easy going and supportive of my j-love and we have more similar intrests when it comes to sightseeing) and get to share the greatest adventure of my life thus far with the person i love the most! but... he's the owner of a pharmacy and has very limited vacation time. (whatever hours he goes over for the year, he has to pay back out of his earnings.)
oh yeah... he also hates travelling!

we HAD decided before getting married that we weren't going to go on a honeymoon and he promised one day he'd take me to japan ~ but that was in, like, 5 years or something once we had saved up enough money to lavishly spend it on whatever we want... now did not seem like the time for THAT.
however, i thought i would just bring it up that evening ~ how i NEEDED to go so that i could move on with my life without having the left undone feeling... i told him i thought it would be worth it even if we had to pay back money spent to hours given to his other pharmacists and oh the memories we'd make together and blah blah blah ~ hee hee

i was so shocked! he actually cut me off and said, "okay. let's go." just like that! *woot*

now only 18 days left until we leave!!