Mata Aimashoo!

I'm heading out soon on a two-week vacation to Japan. I'm really looking forward to this... I first had the idea about a year ago, and have been actively planning the trip for over six months. This will be the first "real" vacation I've taken in the almost four years since I graduated from college, and only my second trip overseas.

I've been in full-on nerd mode for a while now, trying to grasp some of the language, obsessively reading guide books, and daydreaming about days filled with sashimi, tenpura, udon, and at least one shot at kaiseki. I'm mostly packed, have an itinerary planned out, am ready to get going!

For better or worse (mostly better) , I will be out of touch the next two weeks... Japan is on an entirely separate cell technology, and I doubt I'll be hitting internet cafes much. Feel free to toss communiques my way, but it'll probably take me a while to get back on top of things after I return.

A lot of people have sent me wishes for a good trip - thanks! I've also received pre-emptive requests for trip reports; I'm sure I'll do something, but I'm not sure what yet. I'll definitely be taking pictures, so at a minimum I'll be throwing up an album of some sort. I'm less sure about what sort of writing I'll do... I won't be blogging during the trip itself, and don't know if I'll be producing any sort of coherent output when it's done. Of course, I'll be more than happy to chat with anybody one-on-one after the trip is over, I'm just not sure if there will be a Trip Post when it's over.

So, that's it from me, at least for now. Take care of each other!