Recently in UK Category
Well that's it. My holiday's over and I can honestly say it was a superb experience, but one I'm keen to finish off at some point in the future; after all I did only do the south half of the country. It's quite weird how quickly it comes to an end, one moment I'm getting up and dressed in Tokyo, the next I'm on a flight watching Beowulf.
I've met loads of people, both Japanese and western, which was great. Lovely to meet them all and get to know them, so thank you to you all.
Now I'm back in the UK it's back to work and planning my next trip - New Years ^_^
Thank you to everyone whose been commenting and emailing throughout my trip too, it was great to hear from you all.
I've met loads of people, both Japanese and western, which was great. Lovely to meet them all and get to know them, so thank you to you all.
Now I'm back in the UK it's back to work and planning my next trip - New Years ^_^
Thank you to everyone whose been commenting and emailing throughout my trip too, it was great to hear from you all.
God, when it comes down to it, my life packs up pretty small. The baggage allowance for my flight to Japan is 23 kilos, which given the limit is 32 to the US made me think I was going to be pushed for space. As it turns out, I'm going to have plenty of room for souvenirs coming back.
People have been asking for a number of weeks now if I was getting excited or nervous and truth be told, each time it just felt like another day at work or evening at home - nothing special. But Friday night, travelling back from my last day at work I was looking out the window of the bus and smiled - a proper ear-to-ear job - as the dawning realisation hit me that this was it, there was nothing but a few days until I would be on my holiday, in Japan, the trip of a lifetime.
I'm excited! That kind of butterfly excitement that tickles deep down. I wish I had longer to brush up on my Japanese - I did an evening class a while ago - as that's what I'm most nervous about, but then I've always got the 12 hour flight so I'm sure I'll find some time to get more practice in. Tokyo won't be too bad though, that'll be more of a problem when I go out into rural areas and signs stop being bilingual :)
People have been asking for a number of weeks now if I was getting excited or nervous and truth be told, each time it just felt like another day at work or evening at home - nothing special. But Friday night, travelling back from my last day at work I was looking out the window of the bus and smiled - a proper ear-to-ear job - as the dawning realisation hit me that this was it, there was nothing but a few days until I would be on my holiday, in Japan, the trip of a lifetime.
I'm excited! That kind of butterfly excitement that tickles deep down. I wish I had longer to brush up on my Japanese - I did an evening class a while ago - as that's what I'm most nervous about, but then I've always got the 12 hour flight so I'm sure I'll find some time to get more practice in. Tokyo won't be too bad though, that'll be more of a problem when I go out into rural areas and signs stop being bilingual :)
This is just a quick note to everyone I haven't mentioned this to, since I've really lost track of who I've talked to since.
Everyone that's known of this trip since the planning and booking really started to come together will know of my plans to go to Japan via Russia. For the rest, basically I was going to be catching a plane from East Midlands Airport to Riga in Latvia, stopping overnight and then the following evening resting my eyes on an overnight sleeper to Moscow. From there it would be just over 6 days on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok at the far eastern end of Russia, where after 4 days stay I would grab a ferry over to Fushiki in Japan. Well that's not the plan anymore.
Since the final prices for the Trans-Siberian were released only 60 days before departure it was a fairly late change of plans but really one necessitated by the sharp rise in price from the quotes for it (from just over 200 quid to 500 - and annoyingly I've just noticed my laptop keyboard doesn't have a British Pound symbol!). So now I'm flying over. Straight to Tokyo Narita Airport and using the significant savings to fund an extra fortnight.
Right, that should be everyone up to speed.
Everyone that's known of this trip since the planning and booking really started to come together will know of my plans to go to Japan via Russia. For the rest, basically I was going to be catching a plane from East Midlands Airport to Riga in Latvia, stopping overnight and then the following evening resting my eyes on an overnight sleeper to Moscow. From there it would be just over 6 days on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok at the far eastern end of Russia, where after 4 days stay I would grab a ferry over to Fushiki in Japan. Well that's not the plan anymore.
Since the final prices for the Trans-Siberian were released only 60 days before departure it was a fairly late change of plans but really one necessitated by the sharp rise in price from the quotes for it (from just over 200 quid to 500 - and annoyingly I've just noticed my laptop keyboard doesn't have a British Pound symbol!). So now I'm flying over. Straight to Tokyo Narita Airport and using the significant savings to fund an extra fortnight.
Right, that should be everyone up to speed.
