I really did a sh$tload of work in two months. The first month (November) I did some research and basically booked the flight, hotel, arranged travel insurance etc. Now in December I started to make “day plans” as I call them. It’s not like anywhere else where you can actually speak and understand the language, so if merely for that fact there’s a lot of research required just trying to know how to get someplace and what to combine with what. I’m guessing those pages amount to 70 or 80 something and they’re done. Double sided it should be doable to carry. Somewhere in March/Early April I’ll need to input time tables where necessary to complete them.
The coming months I’m going to use to learn more about foods! What to pack, what to not forget or go buy, etc. Not to mention at some point I’ll have to get my foreign currency :D I’ve been watching the Yen/Eur ever since I booked. Basically it was pretty stable at around 133-134 for quite a while, and then when the Dubai disaster came out it dropped back down to 129-ish. After that came a message about Japan pumping billions into the economy which didn’t seem to affect it immediately. It slowly rose again and is now at 132,5. I’m hoping it goes up til 136 (or more). Nothing depends on it, but I just love looking at it and cheering it on. Hey, look, if it stays that way I save 50 euro’s on this trip. lol. I will react to it if there’s a market crash. Go watch Yahoo Finance for a 2 year history to see what I mean… You don’t want that to happen. Forecasts are good though;)
Lesson learned: if you’re going to go solo, don’t ever underestimate the amount of work that comes with organizing your trip! I even underestimated it, for a second time too.