trip planning is the price paid for taking some of the guesswork out of traveling.
i enjoy serendipity and freedom when i travel, but i wouldn’t like being surprised by a sign saying closed on the door of a painstakingly reached museum.
so, i make a list of possible targets and i write down the essential details. the opening hours, how to reach info and sometimes even the schedule of the train or airplane that’ll help me get there.
as some of you may probably know already, in may-june i’ll be in japan. again. i can’t wait!
if the past trips were more or less three weeks long and i spent two weeks traveling around the country and the rest of the time in my beloved tokyo, this time the plan is a bit different.
tokyo will be the base. we’ll travel around the country for one week, trying to go to that unbelievable rabbit-only island – okunoshima, visit our friends in osaka and also go to aomori for two super cool contemporary art museums.
also on the list, two more islands: naoshima and teshima. each had high profile architects design buildings destined for art purposes. and the guggenheim effect works and brings in the tourists.
back to tokyo, i will try to find all the interesting corners of the huge metropolis. the tiny streets, the outlandish architecture, the polite and unintrusive people, and the endless choice of things to do. i’m very excited as i love the city and i was heart broken to not be able to see it properly last time i was there (in 2011, a week post-fukushima, we decided to fly home from nagoya and not go back to tokyo, as planned).
but i am a travelholic, if there is such a thing. i can never cram enough things on my list. i’m ambitious and try to make up for all those months i spend at home, sitting in front of my computer. so, stealthily and surely, my ambitions grew.
why not hop on a plane to seoul? it’s quite close and i don’t see myself going back there for a dedicated trip. so, a few days in seoul. it looks like a nice combination of traditional and the future. perfect!
and then, i stumbled on something else. i could fly to okinawa! the most southern japanese island, closer to taiwan and with what seems to be tropical climate. they have corals, blue sea and the temperature is never below 20 degrees. how can i possibly say no?
so perhaps now you understand why i say that trip planning is a bitch… i have to research, then edit and then something new and exciting comes along. and i start again: research, edit… i am not complaining, i know that it’s the only way to make the best of my trips. do the hard lifting at home, so that i can travel carelessly afterwards.
in conclusion, i have a plan but i don’t know exactly how my trip will pan out. but isn’t that part of the fun?
photo credits: google search
3 comments
Romeo says:
Mar 20, 2013
Hi
I made a reference list for my future travel to japan with some important information to keep it handy and add more stuff as I find them. I want to share it with you, maybe you find something interesting, or maybe you have some suggestions. Nothing is fixed, only the travel dates :). http://goo.gl/Fc7aM
little aesthete says:
Mar 20, 2013
hey!
my suggestion is to make a list with everything you want to see and then start editing it. it’s your first time in japan so get a 2-week japan rail pass and make the best of it! it’s super good and it can help you see the entire japan. plan ahead for the next day’s trip and try discussing your options with the operators.
random tips:
* make the best of the tourist centers in the train stations, of the lockers and of the combinis (beside buying anything you may need, they also sell museum tickets for the entire japan!, among many other useful services)
* try at least one ryokan and one onsen
* save 2 days for kyoto
* save at least one week for tokyo. two weeks is better, though 🙂 beside the huge metropolis itself, you can take day trips to places like kamakura or yokohama, etc.
* research festivals and try to attend at least one
* you will miss sakura completely (it’s underway as we speak), so don’t plan on it
* last but not least: plan ahead as much as possible – it will save you a lot of trouble later!
find me later when you have more questions.
i’m excited for you! 🙂
TRIP PLANNING AND WHY I DO IT - little aesthete's blog says:
May 8, 2013
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