Japan!

This is just a short note to say that Thing 39, to revisit Japan, will be coming around much sooner than I had originally been thinking. My plan was to go back to Japan next year, after I had had a chance to recover from the mindblowing awesomeness that's going to be my summer in the USA; then last week my friend Dave (also known as noisms, go and read his great role-playing game blog here) sent me an email to let me know that he and his wife are having a traditional ceremony in September.

I ummed and ahhed for a few days; and then after completing my tax bill on Monday (in the UK there is a TV advert which claims "Tax doesn't have to be taxing" - following my tweets on Monday a friend quipped "Tax doesn't have to suck the life out of you and make you want to kill yourself, but it probably will") I looked at what was left from the money I had put aside and thought, "You know what? You only live once."

So yeah! Japan in September! I loved my visit there in the summer of 2006 (some pictures of which you can see on Flickr) in and around Tokyo and Yokohama, but this promises to be something a little bit different than last time. New sights and sounds, and at the same time I want to go back to Kamakura, to the Kinokuniya bookstore, to Harajuku and Akihibara and scorching days wandering around Chigasaki without a single care in the world. Hopefully I'll be able to make time in the trip to do some of those things. And the Studio Ghibli museum, please, fingers crossed...