More plans for Japan

We spent some quality time this morning fleshing out plans for our September return trip to Japan. Our itinerary has been narrowed down to:

• Fly London to Tokyo
• Immediately get on flight to Osaka
• 5 nights in Osaka, including day trips to Kyoto
• Shinkansen train to Hiroshima
• 3 nights in Hiroshima
• Fly to Tokyo
• 5 nights in Tokyo
• Fly Tokyo to London

I’m obviously leaving out some detail here, including various adjectives to describe these destinations (“amazing”, “fabulous”, “amazeballs” etc.) but you get the gist. We’re going there and back with BA again – the experience was so fantastic last time, it was a no-brainer.

As ever, it was tough narrowing it down to just these destinations – but we can always come back another time. We have so much more to see and do in Tokyo, but we also wanted to get out and see more of the country.

Osaka and Hiroshima seem like great and contrasting cities. This time round we’re keen to see more of nature (not that Mount Fuji was a disappointment in 2013!) and Hiroshima promises quite a bit of this. Hotels and internal flights have all been booked and I’m busy making a list of things to see and do.

But if our visit to Tokyo taught me anything about Japan, it’s this: wandering around and taking life as it comes is its own kind of adventure.

Meanwhile, I’m working through my copy of “Total Japanese” by Michel Thomas. It’s tough – and I like learning languages – but its also very interesting. And my few words last time were all that stood between me and getting coffee.

So I’m keen to develop my vocabulary before flying over again.