Adventure awaits me in Japan! Of course I am always trying to find a way to go someplace new and to make it as affordable as possible….. hence on a dime!
I recently got a call from my nephew who has been teaching English in Japan for the last 4 years or so. That call came with an invitation; he said that he knew that if anyone would come visit him it would be me! Funny enough Japan was a destination on my bucket list…
After thinking about how I could do it and checking the account; I really realized that I had to make this trip and do it on a dime! So, I thought it through and made some phone calls to get my travel plans in place and packed my bags was ready to go.
Of course, when I originally thought of going the first thing that popped into my mind was the Tsunami that happened in 2011 and wondered if it could happen again hummm! The next thought was SARS outbreak there and if that was still something to be concerned with. My research showed that it wasn’t something that I had to be concerned with at that time. I was also told by my contact at the CDC of the normal precautions that needed to be taken when traveling anywhere out of the country. Making sure I had the normal meds for upset stomach and watching the water I drink, not eating raw foods etc.
Let me back up a little bit, to my packing. I called my nephew and asked about the weather and what to bring. He said that it was still cool and that I might want to bring a coat and a couple of warm sweaters. With that in mind, I started thinking of how I could maximize my wardrobe and not take a lot of unnecessary stuff. I wanted to take one coat and a great scarf that could be interchanged and well as a couple of other pieces that didn’t wrinkle easily. In packing I thought through my desired activities and tried to pack accordingly. In packing I took 3 pairs of pants with one of them being a pair of jeans and one being a black pair that could double as a dress slack. Where I had problems was my tops, of course wanting to take more than I really should. I took about 8 tops and 2 jackets, one being a vest that I could layer under. As a woman we have the tendency to want to take a lot of undergarments hahaha… I took more than I should, but now I know to take 5 pair of undies and 3 bras. That way I could wash them by hand when needed and still have dry clean ones to use that day. I took only travel size toiletries due to the fact that I only like to take carry-on luggage; yes I can go internally for a week with a carry on and a backpack….
So the long and the short of it; I got ready to travel and off I went! First of all I lucked out and got a discounted direct flight to Osaka, Japan yippee; oh let me not forget that it was first class! Now that’s the ticket, I was upstairs on the 747 Delta Elite Upper Deck- now this is traveling!!! To prepare for a 14 hour plus flight you have to get your mind right; so make sure your device iPod, phone, mp3 player whatever has a great list of songs or playlist and movies. While you can watch inflight movies it’s a great time to catch up on reading and viewing.
