So, its March already. Lets blame the fact that February was ridiculously short on the fact that the book post is not up and not on the fact that I am terrifically lazy, OK?
Anyway.
The day before yesterday my hearing came back! I would just like to point out that: I was right.
Yesterday, my sister turned 24. Speaking on the phone to my mother, she remarked that next year my sister would be the age my mother was when she (my sister) was born. :o Its kind of strange to think I have a sister in her mid twenties. Its kind of strange to think that actually, I’ll be 21 soon. Its cliche, but I really do not feel that…not old, not even grown up, I guess lets just keep it simple and say that age.
This weekend in its entirety, when I have not been asleep, I have been busy ignoring my actual work and instead planning a trip to Japan in June. Technically, I’ve been thinking about this trip since I accepted my offer of studying abroad. I knew I would be going to Japan and that I would not accept just a short weekend away. No, it would be my Big Holiday after uni has ended and before I returned to the UK. of course, dreaming is different from actual planning. That has been very stressful. But plane tickets and hotels have been booked now so its definitely happening. I leave Malaysia on the 31st of May, spend 13 days in Japan, and arrive back in the UK on the 14th of June. I can say that i am very looking forward to Japan and not looking forward to going back to the UK in the slightest. But lets focus on the positive- JAPAN!! I cannot believe I am actually being able to spend such a long time there. Honestly at one point I was wondering if I could afford to go at all, but I focused and thought it through and budgeted and ended up being able to realize my dreams of a Big Long Holiday. 13 days! I shall be spending 2 nights in Tokyo, where I will visit Kamakura and Yokohama too, followed by 5 nights (5!) based in Aomori, where I shall be visiting Hirosaki, Lake Towada, and Mutsu too, then I’ll go up to Sapporo, stopping at the Onuma Quasi national park on the way, and once in Sapporo I will also be checking out Otaru and either Furano, Lake Utonai or Lake Toya. THEN , yes there is even more, I’ll be coming back down to Tokyo, making a brief stop in Hakodate along the way, and once in Tokyo I’ll have just one more morning there so I can like, not miss my flight, but also go to odaiba to the museum of emerging science WHICH HAS ROBOTS. actual, human robots. ahem. Also, my last hotel in Tokyo has its own Aquarium, which I have got to see.
Of course, trying to fit so many places into as short a time as possible has meant the planning of this holiday has been a total pain. Yesterday I was up until 3.30am trying to put together an itinerary. This was not the first time I have spent hours trawling through the Internet looking for information but it was the first time I did not just give up out of despair. The sheer number of things to do in Tokyo alone is staggering. I was panicking for a while, worried about so many things, struggling to figure out what I wanted to do and how to fit it all together in a logical way, and most importantly, trying to decide what I could afford to do. Japan is not exactly cheap. And I have been living in Malaysia for the past year. Planning this holiday, I have been made to realise the extent that living in this part of the world has ruined me. I have gotten so used to paying near nothing for food, transport and accommodation that I have completely forgotten how the rest of the world works. Especially places like Japan. During the dreaming stage of this holiday I had been feeling pretty cocky. I had a good chunk of money- so I could do anything, right? Wrong. A big amount of money in Malaysia does not equal a big amount of money in Japan. I began to doubt my sizable chunk was enough. And that was when I began to doubt I could go at all. I did not want that though and so I made various plans based on different budgets and tried to convince myself to choose the cheapest one.
Yet, I ended up ditching those and going with the original, expensive plan.
At the end of the day, as much as I do want to and will try to visit Japan again even after this trip, I feel like I should act like this is my last trip and I should just go for it and do what I want to do. That is, I’ve always wanted to go to Northern Japan. Sure, it would be cheaper just to spend a few days in Tokyo but I really wanted to just get on a train and head up and keep going. Even for my first trip to Japan I wanted to go to Hokkaido and I was bitterly disappointed when I could not fit it in. Oh, my last trip to Japan was wonderful- I am so glad I saw Nagoya and Kyoto, but that did nothing to change the fact that I wanted to see northern Japan, and see all the gorgeous, dramatic scenery it had to offer. of course, Northern Japan is quite far out from Tokyo, and its not the biggest tourist hub. Its been a struggle to find information in English, and it will be difficult up there without knowing Japanese. It will be expensive. I’ll probably end up embarrassing myself. Maybe I’ll get lost. But living abroad has given me a sort of crazy courage when it comes to making a fool of oneself in foreign countries. I think the fact that this is not my first time travelling abroad myself, like the first time I went to Japan, will also help me have courage to really experience things and not shy away for such a silly reason as its difficult. difficult does not mean impossible.* And yes, its expensive but as it turns out, now that I’ve actually sat down and looked at costs instead of panicking about it all, my sizable chunk is actually just about enough.
honestly, this weekend of stressful planning has been totally worth it. Its all coming together so well. I still have so much to do but look at all those places I am going! This is pretty much exactly the holiday I had been dreaming of for years, now booked and ready for me to undertake it. How awesome is that? How lucky am I? And yes, I do say that in a smug sort of way. I kind of want university out of the way with so I can be there already! (sorry, Malaysia. its not that I’m keen to leave you or anything but…Japan!!)
(*Well, technically there are certain things that are impossible. Like, most of the nature reserves in Hokkaido. but that’s more because they are so remote that I’d need a car to get to them, and a lot of time. I had been disappointed that at first, but the more I researched the more I realised I would still be seeing so many lovely things even having to stick close to Sapporo. And Aomori. etc. It’s all OK. )