Commence Planning

I've never undertaken such a huge endeavor in my life thus far. I had no idea there would be so many details to be worked out. I wasn't expecting it to be easy either, but I'm constantly thinking of new things that need to be sorted out. Transportation, Accommodation, Insurance, Food, Entertainment, Money, Safety, Allergies... The list seems to continue indefinitely.. At the same time, I'm a strong believer in leaving alot of breathing room, and letting the chips fall where they may.

Over the past few days - faced with the challenge of landing in Tokyo, still 1,400KM from my destination in Fukuoka - I've been looking at adding some more detail to my itinerary. I'm leaning towards staying at this wonderful hostel in a nice part of Tokyo called Sakura Hostel that Akemi and Noboru found and recommended to me.. I'm thinking I'll stay in Tokyo for 1 week once I arrive before I make my way to Fukuoka. This will give me some time to adjust to the time difference and give me a little taste of Tokyo before I re-visit it later in my travels.

The second thing I'm trying to iron out the details about - and perhaps the biggest as it accounts for nearly half of my trip's budget and over a third of my time - is the details of my course at Genki JACS.. I'm hoping to have a mix between homestay with a Japanese family and dorm life, hopefully with some Japanese students from Kyuushuu university.. Homestay is more expensive, so I'm hoping to be a little easier on the budget by mixing and matching. I've sent an e-mail to GenkiJACS outlining my proposal. They've always been good at replying within 48 hours.

I'd like to make a side note that working in YEN has really made things seem like an even larger undertaking than they already are. It just seems mind-boggling to think to myself 'I have to put aside ￥140,000 for transportation over the course of x number of months'. I have to constantly remind myself that this equates to less than 140,000 pennies.

My challenge to all westerners: Try budgeting in pennies for a month, you'll see what I'm going through.