Travel Anticipation!

On popular demand a preview on my planned trip ahead to Japan. I am actually flying tomorrow.

It had been a while now that I went away for a couple of weeks and I am eager to leave. The anticipation for this trip is great and the best feeling ever.

Not only do I feel the need for a holiday, but I also need something new again; new memories and new adventures.

This time I planned to visit Japan. A few people have asked me already why I chose Japan and not somewhere warm for this time of the year. This is easily answered, because firstly I actually can now afford going to Japan and secondly because it was my lucky draw from the travel pot .

I am still longing to only travel in my life and can’t quiet grasps the idea of settling down, even though I have made the decision to finally give it a go and start beginning of next year to save for my own home instead of traveling. Not the easiest decision I have ever made, but I believe it is the right way to go (I still have my weekend breaks!).

Here some information on how I started to plan the trip, still not finalized 1 day before departure date:


Research on Japan

http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en003.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361.html

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forum.jspa?forumID=19&keywordid=85

Based on the gathered information I created my initial itinerary. This had changed a lot during my planning, only just to realise that the original itinerary is pretty much the same as todays. This only happened because I wanted to see everything, but had to priorities.

People on the TT are usually very very helpful!


Itinerary

This is now my final version; however this is still open for changes as I go along. I just make sure I get again away from Tokyo for my flight home:

Narita Airport to Tokyo
Tokyo
DAY TRIP Kamakura
Tokyo to Nagano
Nagano (Matsumoto)
Nagano to Takayama
Takayama to Kyoto
Kyoto
Kyoto
Kyoto to Osaka
Osaka
Osaka to Nagoya
Nagoya to Magome hike to Tsumago
Tsumago (Kiso Valley Region)
Mt. Fuji
Tokyo Narita Airport


Accommodation

http://www.couchsurfing.org

I had started looking for people to host and meet me already before I even had a proper plan. Certainly not the best way to find hosts on couchsurfing, as you change your plan too often and may annoy people. I was lucky this time and found some really nice people that patiently waited for my final confirmation of days and dates. I still haven’t booked accommodation for all the places I am going to, but might do that on the way.

I also booked a few nights in between

www.hostelworld.com

www.booking.com

http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/db/tsumago/index.htm


Transportation

www.hyperdia.com  was used for all trip planning and I have also bought the 14 days JR Pass on the following websites. It seemed like a legit site, so I will let you know how that worked out:  www.japan-rail-pass.com

Otherwise I have used Hyperdia only to know how to get from one place to another.

Money

I still haven’t exchanged money; I tried to do that during my lunch break and after work, but I was either too late or the exchange rate was too expensive. Now I will do it just tomorrow on the way to the Airport.

 

Phone

I have checked that my phone is working, however people will not be able to contact me on my English Number. After I had done some research, I found that you can't simply buy a sim card, like in other countries. It may come as a surprise to some that roaming with your existing mobile contract from your own country will actually work out to be even cheaper than using a Japanese SIM card!

I am not interested in dataplans, since most hostels/hosts have wifi, McDonalds/Starbucks etc. so I was only looking for calls and message options. In most forums you will find information on sim cards for iPhones and data plans:

Information to PAYG Sim cards

http://www.softbank-rental.jp/e/rental-plan-ib04.php

http://supermerlion.com/japan-sim-rental-and-prepaid-sim-cards/

 

I have now found the following for myself:

https://www.mobalnarita.com/

 

According to the offer, I am getting the handset and card for free and only pay when I make calls and send message, however I will only be using it to RECEIVE calls and messages from people I am going to meet and use my English Phone for outgoing calls and message, since that turns out to be the cheapest way. I will know more once I pick it up at the airport.

Insurance

This doesn't require an explanation really. I went this time with the Direct Travel Single Trip insurance, the covers pretty much everything including theft. The piece of mind is surely worth the 30 Pounds.

Preparation

Since it is going to be cold in Japan I have prepared with some shopping and hope that I have all I need to stay warm.  I have also stocked up on the some travel hygiene products and other essentials such as a multi adapter, small torch etc.

So all in all I think I have quite a lot prepared already. I know that it is not as much as others would, but to be honest, most of the time it all comes together anyway in regards to the activities. I still remember the days when I used to plan every single day of trip, I am glad those are over.

 

Packing

Traveling light, so I tried my best and should be able to survive with my 25 liter backpack:

I will report again during my trip in Japan.

HAPPY TRAVELS :D

Home sweet Home

I am back home! How much I missed my family and friends and we are finally reunited again. Happy days.

I know it has been a while since I updated my blog. Ok I’ll be honest, since I returned to Europe. Why? Because I had suddenly all my friends and family around me again and the original thought and reason for this blog was to keep exactly those people updated on my travels. But it seems some people are interested in further details, so I keep posting, especially since some new trips are planned in the upcoming time.

I will start this time with my last promise, a collection of links I used to prepare for my trips. I know it can be a bit overwhelming looking at things that needs to be done for a long term trip, but you will be glad you did it once you stand at the airport ready for your trip. Researching information is very important before starting the trip, so I just tell you what I did first:

1 First preparation

I decided on places I want to go, timeframe, budget and approximately route. It is not very easy to find the perfect place to visit in this huge world of options. Go with your feelings, what is it that you always wanted to see? What is it that you always wanted to experience? If you now say EVERYTHING like I did, I guess you have to cut down and make a start somewhere. You might live in Europe, the States, Asia or Antarctica, so the easiest would be to figure out for you what is the easiest/cheapest way to get to another destination and where do you want to go from there.

Since me and my friend knew that we wanted to make a round trip in Asia first it was fairly easy to decide to start from Bangkok and continue with AirAsia www.airasia.com. Be aware that it is always worth to compare prices, you could check www.skyscanner.com for that. It is usually cheaper to book on the airlines websites directly.

In total we needed 6 months to plan our 6 weeks trip and had some hick ups in between, but as you can see we survived and had the time of our life’s.

I started reading the following link:

http://www.travelindependent.info/

Here you will find a vast amount of information on what to do and where to go! I found it to be the perfect starting point for my own journey.

And of course I read a lot of other blogs, one in particular inspired me:
http://eye-in-the-blue-sky.blogspot.co.uk/

2. Continuing alone to Australia

I had to prepare for my single trip to Australia and plan the route accordingly myself. I admit I was scared because I had no idea what to expect upon arrival, so again, I did a lot of research and was good prepared to attack things such as working holiday visa, Tax file number, bank account, phone number, accommodation and such.

I used the following links:

http://australia.gov.au/ 

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa 

http://www.australiaforum.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com 

www.hostelworld.com (if you book regularly via this site, make sure you get the Gold Card, totally value for money)

www.gumtree.com (for accommodation and jobs)
www.couchsurfing.com (check it out, it is awesome)

Of course a popular search engine website helped me a lot with information I needed.

3. Continue back to Asia

Similar to the first part I wrote down the route I wanted to travel first and then did the research accordingly. I only started to book once I had all the information I needed, however certain parts of the journey I left unbooked since it sometimes cheaper to book locally and not via an agency or online. I mainly used Lonely Planet Forum for that. I tried not to buy a tour guide and relied on fellow travellers feedback; however in case I don’t have internet access I did buy one just in case I needed emergency numbers and accommodation.

I learned very quickly not to stay too central, because first it is cheaper a bit further out and second a lot more quiet. Depending on what kind of traveller you are, you might enjoy the Party life more than me, of course everyone is different and is looking for different things and most importantly, you will only learn from your own experience.

This should give you a good idea on how I approached the trip planning phase, for details on what I did exactly in each place you will need to the section I wrote previously while being on the trip.

Would I do such trip again? OF COURSE, I admit I miss the traveling part already and look very much forward to future trips and will keep you posted.

My next entry will be about getting back into a normal life and settling with a job after over 15 months of just enjoying the best time of my life.

Welcome back home!