Planning for a trip of a lifetime to Japan!

     Tony & I alternate where we go on vacation each year and it was his turn this year. He said Japan and I was so excited to come back to my favorite country! It's been a long five years since we had last gone and it would be our third time there. I always get asked if we have friends or family where ever we visit and I say no. I just want to see new places and expand my horizon. Travelling around the US doesn't give you the same experience since you know what to expect and doesn't force you out of your comfort zone. As much preparation as I do before for an international trip, I still manage to learn a lot about the country, their values and appreciate the people there.

     Our planning took on a new twist when Tony suggested we take my 2 nieces - Brittany (age 14) and Jacqueline (age 11). They are at the age where they are independent enough that we don't have to supervise them at every moment, they are good girls and we knew they would love Japan. They were so excited when we told them. I told them they had to start saving as much money as they could since they would go crazy in wanting to buy everything there, which ended up being the case.

     We had a narrow period of time to go between their school ending and our work schedules but it ended up working out. We got their parents permission and actually had to get it in writing since we were taking minors out of the country without either of their parents. It didn't end up being an issue as people assumed we were a family. 

     I started researching places to visit at the beginning of the year and knew we wanted to see some new places as well as our favorites.At a minimum, you need two weeks to get a sense of the country and even then it can feel rushed since there is so much to see and never enough time to see everything. We decided to fly out of Orange County, CA to San Francisco (avoiding LAX completely) and then to Osaka, Japan. On the return we would fly out of Tokyo and then to San Fran and ending back in OC. 

     We had the girls over the weekend before so we could go over what to expect when they got there, how to behave, what not to do, currency, what we would be doing and going over some basic phrases. I told them that their behavior would not just reflect on them or us but on all Americans/Foreigners. No pressure. Jacqueline took copious notes and they asked a lot of questions especially about how much yen they would get. Unfortunately, due to Abenomics the yen had risen against the dollar making things more expensive for us but to help them keep things simple we told them to look at prices like this: 1 US Dollar = 100 Japanese Yen.

     Our adventure together would soon begin!