I am taking the train to Shanghai on July 1st, then spending 4 nights there (I hope to like it more than Hong Kong, and the Expo is going on there), and then I fly to Tokyo on July 6th! I was going to wait longer to book everything, but STA UK and US (thank you Skype) thought that the Delta fare I found was a fluke ($200+ cheaper) and to book it ASAP. So, yeah! Now I get to learn about Shanghai, book my hostel for that layover, and then figure out what the heck I am going to do once I get to Japan. I registered for WWOOFing there, so I’ll probably do a couple days in Tokyo just to walk around with my jaw dropped and then head to the beach in Shimoda on the Izu peninsula, hangout at a onsen before I run out of money and then WWOOF and look for jobs teaching English or Psych at a college. And, somehow, that’s all the planning I needed for Hong Kong, so that’s probably fine for Japan for now, too. That’s weird to me, that it takes so little actual planning. I can’t wait to arrive in the land where my foreign language instinct is finally correct! I keep going “Arigato”, “Umm, merci”, “Uhh… syeh syeh”. This will be very vindicating.
The only tricky parts are 1) japan is one of those countries where they want to see proof that you have continuing travel tickets before the end of your visa (3 months), and 2) you can only get a work permit if you are outside of japan. So I may need to buy a ferry ticket or something before I arrive, and by the first week of October I may need to make a stopover in another cool place when I get a job. I really want the job to handle getting me an apartment because good grief is the process convoluted and is usually about 6 months rent upfront (which the school will cover most of when I am hired). So i will use the WWOOFing to find a nice place to live and work. ON A BEACH. NEED BEACH SO BAD. It has been almost 6 years since I lived in Mission Beach and I can feel it in my bones! Alright. Now for media entertainment before sleep. Mwa!