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日本にやって来たぜ！

At last I have arrived! Well actually I arrived yesterday, but it is only now that I am sitting in a マンが喫茶　and writing this article for thee.

I arrived in Japan yesterday at about 9am.
My flight was really chill, but the transfer process was a little… stressy. The miniscule almost learjet-like plane was neat, but 30 minutes delayed, so I had a 20 minute transfer window. Luckilly everything worked out and even my luggage was ok.

However, now to the important bits!
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The last few days have been filled with nothing but chaos and more chaos. Due to a national holiday in Japan, I had trouble booking a nice inn, which in its own right destroyed the subtle feeling of calm that I had felt just a few hours before. It did however give me a chance to practice plenty of Japanese, and to hear people tell me that they have no rooms over 30 times.
In the end, I found a nice place not far from Shinjuku. Initially I wanted to stay in the Ueno/Asakusa area, since that is a very nice downtown area, but nothing there was available, so I decided to settle for this.
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I am going to Japan in just 5 days!

I am a bit scared, since I’ve never really travelled alone before.
Well I did come to Sweden when I was 13 all alone, and lived alone for 2 years or so.
But that was different, things were more arranged back then.

This time, it’s like I am going into the Unknown. Besides, Japan isn’t USA, I still know very little Japanese and while I know a ton of people who actually live in Japan and speak very little Japanese, I am still a bit nervous.

Gotta prepare, do stuff. Buut, things get put off. Well, I am sure I’ll be packing my backpack at the last minute as always, or not, maybe I’ll change my habits.
Heck, its only midnight and I am on my way to bed. Surely, something must be amiss.

We shall see.
Gonna buy new shoes tomorrow. Asked my cousin to help me, cause I couldn’t decide for myself.

In other news, I have once again rekindled my interest in working on my game. Or maybe its simply because I am just about wrapping up my Macoteket project, and feel alive again. For the first time in some time. Next time I decide to take on a big project on my own, to rebuild something that already exists (and was built by me a few years ago), to someone else’s specifications, to interface with another system; someone should slap me with a large trout.

I gotta sell some things to get money. I hear Japan is expensive. (although everyone who’s visited from Japan keeps telling me Sweden is expensive… tch, can somebody decide already?)

Well anywhoo, I plan on taking lots of pictures. Hopefully I can even put them up on the Internets while I am there, but I am not taking my comp with me, so we’ll see.

For now… //yo!

Now that you’ve grown tired of reading my monologue of Hate, I present this happy tidbit:
After all these years of pain and suffering, I am finally going to the land of the rising sun, Japan.

I actually knew about this a while ago, but didn’t wanna say anything until I was sure.

My trip will take me to Japan for 2 weeks starting on the 18th of this very month. So I now have the painful 2 weeks of waiting.

The purpose of the trip is to enjoy myself in Japan. I plan on staying in Tokyo a few days first, then just getting on the train and traveling around.
There are a few destinations which are obvious, like Kyoto and Osaka. I’ve also gotten recommendations for Nara, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Hokkaido.
I still have a bit of planning to do. So far all I’ve done is bought a backpack, and been working on some hardcore Kanji training.

There are two alternatives to this trip. One is to hang around and not bother too much with tourism and such, just try to experience people. The other is the same as the previous one, but even more relaxed.
Both involve a little tourism, but I am not really that much into Art museums and such, so we’ll see how it goes. I’d just like to think that I can make this a trip where the only thing I have to worry about is where to spend the night or to eat my ramen, rather then trying to visit every temple in Kyoto and see as many Kabuki plays as I can.

If anyone actually reads this blog, and has any tips, please do post them.