I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I was on my last trip to Asia. A lot has happened over the past year but one thing has not changed, my goals to hit as many countries in Asia as I can.
This time I am bringing my sister, Kimberly, and my brother, Jonathan, to Japan.

Usually, I’ll try to hit 2-3 different countries in one trip but Japan is such a diverse country, I didn’t feel like I’d do it justice by visiting Tokyo and jumping to a different country just to say that I went to Japan.

Here’s our quick trip itinerary:
7/28/2015 Depart Mpls
7/29/2015 Arrive Tokyo @ 10pm
8/3/2015 Kyoto
8/6/2015 Osaka
8/7/2015 Okinawa
8/11/2015 Hiroshima
8/13/2015 Tokyo
8/15/2015 Leave for Mpls at midnight

For those who are joining me for the first time, this is my 5th travel blog. If you’re interested, you can check out my other ones here:

Beijing Study Abroad (Spring 2008)
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos (Winter 2012)
Hong Kong, China, South Korea (Winter 2013)
Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan (Spring 2014)

I managed to get round trip plane tickets for $1150 which is really reasonable. Total for hostels is about $430 (avg $27/night). It’ll be hard to gauge food since eating is going to be half of the activities while we’re there.

My favorite part of my trips is all the planning I get to do. Last time I was a little bummed that we had to fly from place to place so much. This time we’ll be traveling at 200 mph on the bullet train to most places except for Okinawa. We have the 14 day unlimited use Japan Rail Pass which was about $340. We’re also spending most nights in capsule hostels with a few nights at an Air BnB.

Okinawa’s public transportation isn’t as available as the other places we’ll be visiting so I had to go to AAA last week and get an international drivers license. I thought I had to take a written exam or something to show that I can get around driving in Japan but all I needed to do was hand them $15, 2 passport pictures, and sign a form. I’m now able to drive in 180 additional countries, neat!

A lot is planned on this trip, I’m almost worried we won’t have any time to just do nothing. I got SCUBA certified last year for our Philippines trip and am diving in Okinawa, We also have surf lessons scheduled there as well. If anyone has been to any of the cities we’re going to and has recommendations on what to visit, please let me know!

We have 13 days before we head out. Until then, Jonathan is teaching himself Japanese and I’m scrambling to get everything crammed in my head for my GMAT exam on the 25th.

My last blog had almost 2000 hits over the 3 weeks we were away. I would really love it if you guys would check up on this site periodically. I’m renting a pocket wifi hotspot to use throughout Japan and I promise I’ll do my best to take pictures and update regularly.