I feel like the fact that the trip starts in around 2 hours hasn't sunk in yet. It's a trip I've long wanted to do to some capacity or another. At times I'd considered trying to look for a job in Japan, maybe see if I could go teach English, but that never ended up happening. It's something I'd been vaguely thinking of doing, talking to some people about for years. It had become a "maybe one day" kind of thing. I had no time due to studies or no money, or I had time but I needed to find a job, or I had a job but didn't have enough vacation days, or I had enough vacation days and a job but... well here I am. I booked it early January and it was always so remote that it seemed like it would still never happen but here I am. I'm glad I was actually able to make it happen on my own initiative without somebody planning it out and me tagging along.
I'm also excited for the fact that while I originally had tentatively asked around to see if anyone else was interested that nobody was free/could make it/etc as I'd never done a trip on my own. Granted for around half the trip I do have plans to stay with / see friends but the other half I not only have no friends to see line up but no concrete plans either. I want to see where the flow takes me, as it were. This 'plan-less half' of the trip is also the one where I have a 'go anywhere (almost) in Japan rail pass' which adds to the ability to go wherever I hear is worth going.
Oh, and tea shops, lots and lots of tea shops. I will be having lots of tea and you will be seeing many pictures of tea leaves.
The other huge advantage of travelling alone for a large portion of the Japan part of the trip is that (theoretically) I should be able to practice my Japanese more without someone to fall back on English/Spanish with. I've already decided that if I really feel like practicing it I'll just pretend I only speak Spanish but the main challenge will be, much like with make this trip happen when I am generally content to let others plan, to force myself to talk to people I don't know often. I'm hoping to stay on a roll and making it happen but we'll see, even in languages I speak fluently I don't get too talkative until I know people better but maybe not being as proficient as a tourist will help me...somehow.
The eagle-eyed among you may notice I put up a little "Latitude" widget on the sidebar. Theoretically it should track me whenever my phone gets a lock and an internet signal so you can stalk me to your liking. If you want to stalk me on latitude-proper where you can zoom in and pan around just add me, my gmail is futsuriai.
Now as I sit here in JFK waiting to get called after writing all this out, I have to say it's beginning to sink in and it's a very nice feeling. Yes, very nice indeed.