One more.

"The person who lives life fully, glowing with life's energy, is the person who lives a successful life." ~Daisaku Ikeda

Just something to ponder

One of the things I love is the ability to walk with my kids to school in the morning. Rarely do I speak, alas I just sit back and observe the innocence and enjoy a singular simple act. For this is a time when I can enjoy life, if just for a few minutes, with the innocence and curiosity of a child.

I urge you all if just for once a day, slow down and look at the world through a child's point of view. I know you will like what you see. 

Yes, this should always be on the checklist before I check in to a hotel.

Destination 2k10

Funny thing about this map is that I am going to all 4 places.

Oh where have you gone.

Ok, here is the deal. We have a ton of books in our house, and I do mean a ton. The hard part is that they are not all the well organized, you open a drawer or closet and there are more books in there that I care to even think about. That being said why in the heck can I not find my Lonely Planet Japan book and my bi-lingual atlas.I mean there is some assemblance of order.

I love when I can just use the paper copy and annotate and the like.

Oh well, off to the book store to buy new copies, right after I look again tomorrow!

The first purchase for my trip.

One thing I try to do with every trip is to journal my experiences. It is one thing that I have failed miserably at the last few times I have attempted to do it. One of the main reasons why was that I tried to do it all via the web. While this worked every now and then in the end it was not a consistent experience. So this time around I am going to go analog with paper, my favorite pens (feel free to send a few my way) and hopefully a lot of scotch tape. 

My main goal for this trip is to take as little as possible with me. I am refusing to be bogged down with too much technology that can get in the way of main purpose of the trip. Lord knows I am not going to be lugging around a MacBook while jumping for train to train. My mantra is that if it doesn't fit into my coat pocket then it stays home. The moleskin knockoff is pushing the envelope but it made the cut when I checked. Plus it ended up being free after a coupon and a rewards certificate.

Ok, it is done. I’m off. Well off in January that is.

 

So here is a bit of back story. I had frequent flyer miles that I need to redeem or they were going to expire. Well given the opportunity of a free* round trip ticket to Japan or a couple of nights in a hotel which would most of you choose? Well if you are choosing a night in the hotel over a trip half way across the world I, well, lets just say I am not able to help you in any way possible ;-)

Originally I was planning to go with my entire family over the New Years holiday. Well one thing led to another and as a result of my procrastination that time period had ended up being either blacked out or now costs four times in frequent flyer miles what it cost two weeks ago.

Now, not wanting the miles to go to waste, I decided to head out solo. So this will be that adventure of 17 days of fun and frolic in the middle of the Japanese winter on a shoestring budget to say the least.

I will be setting up some guidelines pretty soon to see how well I can keep on track.