Adventuring East [Originally posted 03 March 2010]

So, what I was alluding to before was that:

I am GOING TO JAPAN soon!

In fact, I'm going in just over a month. I can't wait to be over there, to be immersed in such an alien environment...  It's going to be ridiculous. I learned a little Japanese last year when I went on a beginner's language course, and I'm trying to cover the basics again with this massively Eighties video course I've found.
At the moment, it's looking like I'm going to be spending about 5 days in Tokyo. After which I'll move south west and check out various cities and places along the rail routes until reaching Hiroshima where a friend of mine has been teaching English for a while.

For Tokyo, I've already got accomodation sorted for staying in Asakusa for the first few days. I think I should try and move location to the West of the city for the last couple of days there as I want to check out Shinjuku, Roppongi and then Harajuku on the Sunday.

From the next Monday...  I've not decided yet.

There are a few things I want to do, such as:

• Visit Kobe for some ridiculous beef 
• See Kyoto
• Do the whole cherry-blossom-festival thing
• Poke around Akihabara
• Visit the Studio Ghibli Museum! (Just applied for a ticket)
• See the Tsukiji Fish Market while jetlagged all to hell
• See a castle or two
• Make Okonomiyaki!
• Visit Osaka
• Visit the Peace Park in Hiroshima
• Get dragged to some Karaoke
• Take lots and lots of pictures (hey, turnabout is fair play, right?)

I'm going to be blogging while I'm over there to stay sane and to keep photographs and experiences in order. Really looking forward to it, though the prospect of travelling around by myself is quite daunting.
More to follow once I've worked out where I'm going!

 ~aFx