Only 40 days to go. And seeing as how I haven't written since May, I'll have to fill you in on a few things as well.
I've been having dreams lately of being in Japan. I'll either be snowboarding down some of the runs I've previously talked about, or walking down streets and areas that we've visited (photographic memory) or just imagined places that I haven't been to before and possibly don't exist, but the setting is the same. This is good in some ways, as if I wasn't getting excited about travelling, then there would be no point to it. But I can't wait for when I'm on that plane asking to put my seat belt on because we'll be touching down in Narita shortly.
Anyway, to some developments.
The plan for us this time is different to previously. Usually our plan is 1 week at Shiga Kogen, 1 week in Tokyo. It's been a good plan for us, but we are ever the intrepid explorers, so this time we've changed it slightly. Yes we are going to SK and Tokyo, but the length of times will be different and we'll be throwing in a few more things to the mix.
The rough itinerary is:
Arrive and stay the night in Tokyo
Leave first thing in the morning for Shiga Kogen and stay for 4 nights.
Travel to Yuzawa and stay 4 nights.
Travel to Osaka and stay 4 nights.
Travel to Tokyo and stay 5 nights.
So we're still snowboarding for 7 days or so, but we get to check out different areas. Because I've done a lot of the planning again, I wanted to check out various areas around Yuzawa, namely Kagura & Naeba, Gala Yuzawa and also Maiko resorts. Dean was all up for it, and with Yuzawa being a proper little town, rather than just a resort town, I'm hoping Mum and Whitney will enjoy themselves like Furano.
Another difference will be our travel partners. Unfortunately Conrad couldn't make it this time, but we have 2 friends from the Sunshine Coast coming instead. Neither have been to Japan or snowboarding, so while it will be slightly annoying teaching someone again, we'll be teaching them on familiar slopes at SK whilst still enjoying lots of silliness that comes with us on tour. Because they bought the tickets the day or so after us (we said do it) It's made booking quite easy. Some of the accommodation has been booked since June, while a lot of the others were booked in either September or November.
For the snowboarding legs, we'll also have a couple of friends coming with us, Tim and Kerry who have snowboarded before, so we'll probably have a few people spurring us on to do stunts or something. They only decided recently that they wanted to come, so booking accommodation was slightly harder, especially with a budget to stay under. Unfortunately, they won't be staying at any of the same hotels, but they won't be far away, so except for sleeping, they'll probably hang with us the whole time.
Now usually being 40 days to go, I will be stressing about what has to be needs to be done still, but because we've had a long run up and I've started saving/paying for stuff earlier, it's made a bit of a difference. We've got all our accommodation booked, travel insurance sorted, hire car organised, boards waxed and new gear bought. Even the board bag is packed and ready to go. My carry on luggage has been packed as well (I'm putting all my snow gear in it this time and packing other stuff in the main suitcase), so the only thing left to sort really is the train tickets. Fortunately we still have 40 to go, and everyone is cognisant of the cost, so there won't be any nasty surprises.
Roll on Feb 7, I can't wait.
