I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!

Yes, our plans are in full swing.
Come early June 2009, we will be turning Japanese!
My brother, who lives and works in Japan right now, has been wanting all of us to come visit him while he's still there (he's probably moving back to Colombia at some point) and since going to Japan is something Todd has ALWAYS wanted to do, this is just a perfect opportunity to go! Man, Todd sure married in to the right family hahaha!

Originally, we were going to fly in to Tokyo and take the train on to Toyama-shi where my brother lives. Apparently, that wasn't a good idea. For one, it's friggin' expensive as hell to fly in and out of Tokyo. Secondly, it's more in northern Japan so we wouldn't be able to hang with my brother as he's in the southern part. And third, my brother says that Tokyo is uninteresting at best. He flew in to Tokyo and did most of his training there before moving to Toyama-shi and frankly, if Daniel says that something is uninteresting, it probably is. So he recommended that we fly in to Osaka. It's closer to where he lives and is "the gateway to the south" of Japan so there's plenty to see and do in and around Osaka. We'll get to head into Kyoto and possibly Kobe (for some amazing beef at only $150 per steak) and Hiroshima.

We probably won't get into Toyama-shi, which is might be okay. Daniel describes it as the Des Moines of Japan. And as he stated, "If you were going to visit the US, you'd want to go to NYC or Chicago or LA...not Des Moines." Mostly that must made me laugh a whole bunch.

Todd has downloaded and installed Rosetta Stone - Japanese so that he's relatively prepared to go over there...he has plenty of time to learn the language and we might even look into some kind of "learning annex" class for him to take. He's all about trying to immerse himself in the culture as much as possible while we're there.

I'm a bit nervous about going, but in a good way. Everything will be fine a wonderful, but I worry about losing luggage or getting sick (or worse) while I'm overseas. I'm basically just a worry-wart and shouldn't be. I'm so excited to eat ridiculous sushi and Kobe beef and hopefully (because my stomach can only handle so much exotic food) some McDonald's. I do have this thing where I try to eat McD's (and/or Starbucks) while I'm in different countries, just to see what they offer. It was HILARIOUS to do that in Paris and Barcelona, so I'm sure Osaka is going to provide endless entertainment for me.

And hopefully, if it's not totally dork-tastic, we'll do some amazingly awful karaoke and it will be fantastic!